Alfred Rabofsky

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Alfred Rabofsky (born on June 29, 1919 in Vienna ; died on September 19, 1944 there ) was an Austrian typesetter , medical sergeant of the Wehrmacht and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime . He was sentenced to death by the Nazi judiciary and executed in the Vienna Regional Court .

life and work

Rabofsky learned typesetter. As a youth he belonged to the Rote Falken , from 1934 also to the illegal Communist Youth Association of Austria (KJVÖ). After the annexation of Austria , he continued to be politically active and belonged to the resistance group, the soldiers' council . He was drafted into the Wehrmacht and was appointed medical sergeant due to his achievements. Together with his comrades, he designed, produced and sent leaflets to the field post addresses collected from several pages .

He was arrested on June 16, 1943 and sentenced to death and "loss of honor for life" by the People's Court in Vienna on February 8, 1944 . The comrades Ernestine Diwisch , Friedrich Muzyka , Ernestine Soucek , Sophie Vitek and Anna Wala were also accused . Of the co-defendants, only Sophie Vitek, whose death sentence was changed to 15 years in prison, and Ernestine Soucek, who had been sentenced to eight or nine years in prison, survived.

His brother Eduard was also arrested - together with Christian Broda , who allegedly saved Alfred's survival with his exonerating statement. Brother Eduard survived the Nazi regime with luck.

Rabofsky married in February 1943 and his son was born while he was in prison. He never saw it.

A request for clemency was refused by Hitler personally.

He was executed with the guillotine on September 19, 1944, together with the monarchist-Catholic resistance fighters Franz and Marie Schönfeld , as well as six other political prisoners of the Nazi regime .

Commemoration

Rabofsky's name can be found on the plaque in the former execution room of the Vienna Regional Court . He is buried in the shaft graves of group 40 (row 22 / grave 162) of the Vienna Central Cemetery .

On the 10th and 20th anniversary of the execution of Alfred Rabofsky, commemorations were held in the execution room of the Vienna Regional Court. In 1954, Friedrich Heer paid tribute to Rabofsky's courage and sincerity, and for the first time in the post-Nazi era he drew a clear line between the mass perpetrators, accomplices and followers, whose deaths were cared for at numerous memorials during the Hitlerian war of aggression, and the individual heroes of the resistance such as Rabofsky: “Today one lies boldly about the desperate dying of these masses and turns them into a heroic death, one writes a testament to them, which is supposed to oblige their brothers and sons, their wives and sisters to commit themselves to a renewed machine of war just as unwillingly to make available like them. They who succumbed to coercion and terror, seduction and their own unenlightened will. ”In 1964, Albert Massiczek spoke at the same place .

Appreciation

"His life and work is an expression of the victorious power of our communist movement!"

- Christian Broda : Obituary for Alfred Rabofsky on the 1st anniversary of his death, September 1945

“In the future, in a new life, only the death of the lonely others, of whom Alfred Rabofsky was one, points to: From this young typesetter we can learn what we first of all need today: strength and good hope without illusions. The strength to resist an apparently all-powerful power machine, and the hope that there will always be people for whom their conscience is more decisive than fear and anxiety. "

- Friedrich Heer : Speech on the 10th anniversary of his death, in the execution room of the Vienna Regional Court , September 19, 1954

“The barbaric forces of Nazism that dragged Alfred Rabofsky to the death machine are always ready to begin their work again. Your pacemaker is the conformist opportunism of all colors, the sloppy saying yes-and-amen, wanting to please wherever a resolute no is required. This power to resist, behind which there is concern for people and life, will only come to us and this entire country of Austria if we recognize what is really great in life and make an open confession of it in front of the world. The really big thing, however, is the fearless loyalty to conviction and the self-sacrifice of the simple typesetter and paramedic Alfred Rabofsky. "

- Albert Massiczek : Speech on the 20th anniversary of his death, in the execution room of the Vienna Regional Court, September 1964

Sources and literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Katharina Kniefacz, Alexander Krysl, Manès Weisskircher: University and Discipline: Members of the University of Vienna and National Socialism , Münster 2011, 32f
  2. ↑ Divergent Sources.
  3. ↑ Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance : No longer anonymous ( Memento from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) , entry on Alfred Rabofsky (with three photos from the Gestapo Vienna ID card), accessed on May 15, 2015
  4. ^ Alfred-Klahr-Gesellschaft : From the archive: Letter from Hans Christian Broda to the Central Committee of the KPÖ of August 11, 1945 , accessed on May 15, 2015
  5. ^ Post-War Justice , accessed April 4, 2015
  6. ↑ Friedrich Heer: The testimony of a young person , speech on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his death, Vienna 1954.
personal data
SURNAME Rabofsky, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian typesetter, medical sergeant and resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1944
Place of death Vienna