Lives Remembered. Life Stories of Victims of National Socialism
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Lives Remembered Life Stories of Victims of National Socialism Z Lives Remembered Life Stories of Victims of National Socialism 214 140 172 Fritz Neugebauer Preface 6 Dr. Renate S. Meissner, MSc Autobiographical Testimonials as Individual Landmarks of Collective Memory 7 Mag. Dr. Manfred Müller Life Stories as Textual Memorials The Collection of Memories from the Archives of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism 13 Jewish stories Lizzi Jalkio Every day is farewell 20 Edith J. Now which hand is Jewish and which is Aryan? 38 Alice Hirschfeld … may you be destined for a happy and prosperous future 46 Peter S. When will we be able to live again? 52 Susan Course It is a good country to which you are headed 86 Victor Gans … how wonderful it is to be free 90 Eva A. So, now this flirting is well and truly over … 108 Hans Reichenfeld … I think I’ll play my cello instead 118 Chava Guez Back then, in the beautiful city Vienna 124 Table of Contents Lives Remembered 5 Kurt Flussmann Stations of my life 130 Jenny de Nijs … even the greatest love doesn’t help 140 Stories of Viennese Czechs Veraˇ Bezecná 1938 was a year of great suffering for our whole family … 166 Deserters‘ stories Richard Wadani I was a deserter 168 Kurt Püringer … sentenced to death 171 Fritz Maria Rebhann … on the run after undermining military morale 172 Gottfried A. … we didn’t want to have anything to do with this war 174 Stories of the “Righteous” Maria Springer We lived under great pressure 192 Stories of Jehovah’s Witnesses Hermine Liska When they took me away it was terrible 195 Stories of “Children of Spiegelgrund” Anna Maierhofer The Spiegelgrund Song 198 Rudolf Karger I was a child of Spiegelgrund 200 Stories of Descendants of Victims of Euthanasia Maria M. No one can replace a mother 207 Stories of Carinthian Slovenes and Partisans Bartholomäus O. I was so terrified, I couldn’t speak 208 Theresia Hafner It was as if I had lost a brother 211 Ferdinand Hafner … and so I kept quiet when I was questioned 214 Hemma V. Suddenly there was only German 217 Johann Kežar Our area was called “bandit-land” 220 Stories of “Asocials” Ingeborg R. For we were asocials 225 Ludwig W. Adamec The dignity of work 228 Franziska Jagerhofer I only knew work 236 Stories of Roma und Sinti Anton Müller My number was Z6835 238 Adolf Papai If it had lasted another year, there would have been none of us left 244 Walpurga Horvath … I stayed, I stayed alive 250 Koloman Baranyai Today they are taking the Roma away … 257 Thanks 262 Legal disclosure 262 Preface Fifteen years ago, the establishment of the National Fund signified a change in the way the Republic of Austria dealt with the victims of National Socialism. The National Fund was the acknowledgement and expression of a new, responsible Austrian identity. At the same time, it was an acknowledgement of the fact that many Austrians actively participated in the crimes of the Holocaust and others deli- berately looked the other way. As a result, since the 1990s, Austria has been particularly aware of its special responsibility. The establishment of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism was a fundamental step towards the victims of the Holocaust; symbolic assistance from Austria. During the course of the last 15 years, Austria has continued on this path with the establishment of the General Settlement Fund and the Reconciliation Fund, with the Art Restitution Law and finally with the agreement to restore the Jewish cemeteries. In viewing the life stories of survivors highlighted in this volume and the achievements of the National Fund to date, it becomes evident how necessary and important its establishment was – from the aim of making direct payments to the victims as at least a symbolic gesture, to the sponsorship of projects for scientific research and commemorative work. I would like to thank the many dedicated people who play a part in this vital work of the National Fund and I look forward to the further activities of the National Fund with great optimism. Fritz Neugebauer Second President of the National Council Autobiographical Testimonials Lives Remembered 7 Autobiographical Testimonials as Individual Landmarks of Collective Memory Dr. Renate S. Meissner, MSc 8 Lives Remembered Autobiographical Testimonials One of the major concerns of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism is safeguarding the memory of Austrians who, for one of the many reasons the Nazis managed to devise, fell victim to that murderous regime. The National Fund was established in 1995 to document Austria’s acceptance of its responsibility for the victims of National Socialism. During the course of its fifteen years of activity, over 30,000 people have entrusted their life stories to us, usually as part of the process of filing applications for a symbolic compensation payment that we have been commissioned to disburse. Many of these life stories were told in face to face interviews, even more in writing by applicants who have contacted us from 78 different countries. In addition to their significance as a unique source of contemporary history, autobiographical memories not only help to create a critical awareness of past wrongs on the part of young and future generations but are also often an important step towards the “world outside” for the affected persons themselves. Although official acknowledgement of individual suffering was notoriously long in coming, the opportunity to present their personal story to the public, even 70 years after the event, meant for many people a validation of their experience and gave them a sense of certain closure. One applicant expressed this as follows: “I am glad that you chose to publish my story. In fact, I can’t really believe that, after so many years, my story is being recognized for the first time as the story of a victim of National Socialism.” The 15th anniversary of its foundation gives the National Fund an opportunity not only to present an account of what it has achieved in its fields of activity, but also to give the victims a voice and to make their testimony available to a wider public. This volume contains 33 autobiographical testimonials from almost all groups of victims recognized by the National Fund: Jews; Roma and Sinti; Carinthian Slovenes; deserters; people persecuted on political grounds; so called asocials; Jehovah’s Witnesses; Viennese Czechs and people who experienced the horrors of Spiegelgrund as children; and from one of the “righteous”. In addition to revealing information on the various reasons for which people were persecuted during the National Socialist era, which even historically interested readers are unlikely to be aware of in detail, these stories give an insight into lives marked by Autobiographical Testimonials Lives Remembered 9 persecution on a daily basis. They also bear witness to people who were themselves not persecuted by the Nazis and who were willing to help those that needed help most, thus enabling some to survive. How did the various texts come into being and how did they end up in the archives of the National Fund? All texts were written by applicants for the purpose of providing details of their persecution. In addition to asking for a few biographical data required for processing, the application forms also offered applicants the opportunity to outline their stories of persecution in greater detail. In addition to this, many applicants chose to enclose letters, notes, diary entries as well as fairly comprehensive life stories written especially for their application. In order to offer a balanced portrayal of the different groups of victims, the texts are supplemented here with additional documents, which resulted partly from a request to the authors to expand on the existing text; some were sent to the National Fund by applicants on their own initiative with the request for publication. Consequently, the autobiographical testimonials presented here differ with regard to their literary form, their dates, their original intention and their length. For the autobiographical testimonials by Jewish authors, we have selected a special format of autobiographical writing for this volume: the diary. For children and teenagers, the diary was where one recorded day-to-day events; adults on the other hand often used it as a way of coping with the persecution they were suffering and, in some cases, also to document events for their children and the following generations. Almost all of the autobiographical notes of Carinthian Slovenes are the results of interviews and the same applies to Jehovah’s Witnesses. In the case of the Roma and Sinti, the submissions made in the application form regarding their persecution are generally rather matter of fact. In order to be able to document the persecution of this group more fully in this volume, we have drawn on interview transcripts from the project “Mri Historija” conducted under the auspices of the association “Roma Service”. Despite the fact that these stories of persecution are all different and that their authors belong to different groups of victims, what they all have in common is the insight they allow us into suffering, discrimination and horrendous brutality. In addition to this, they all owe their existence to the determination of these 10 Lives Remembered Autobiographical Testimonials people to share with others what they went through in their lives. They conjure up the incomprehension, the helplessness, the fear that all of us would feel in a comparable situation and the traumas that they sustained and, by doing so, they serve as a warning to present and future generations never again to allow such a regime to come to power again.