Anna Graef

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Anna Graef (born on March 28, 1925 in Vienna ; died on January 11, 1944 there ) was an Austrian tailor and resistance fighter against National Socialism . She was sentenced to death by the Nazi judiciary and beheaded at the age of 18.

life and work

Gräf grew up in Favoriten and joined the Communist Youth Association (KJVÖ) at the age of 15 . She regularly took part in his training courses and was involved in organizational work from the summer of 1941. She kept in contact with various KJV groups, collected membership fees and passed on forbidden publications. She was also involved in the collection of field post addresses and the dispatch of the publication The Soldier's Council, which urged members of the Wehrmacht to desert . Three weeks before her journeyman examination, on November 14, 1942, she was arrested and on October 12, 1943, she had to answer to the so-called People's Court for “preparation for high treason ”, together with Leopoldine Sicka , Franz Sikuta and Karl Mann .

The reasoning for the verdict states: “All the defendants [...] tried to excuse their act with youthful imprudence, the female defendants Sicka and Gräf moreover with their love for [Karl] Brzica [a KJV functionary]. [...] The count only described her alleged love for Brzica as the motive for her action in the main hearing, although the nature of her relationship with him in no way justifies this assumption. ”According to the National Socialist Ordinance for the Protection of Young Criminals how adults are treated and punished: “The defendants Count and Mann were not yet 18 years old at the time of the crime. After examining the personality of these defendants by the Senate in the main hearing, it was found that these defendants were intelligent, both physically and mentally developed well beyond their real age and undoubtedly were already at the time of the crime. ”All four defendants were sentenced to death : "Anyone who in the war, while the soldier is fighting and bleeding at the front and the homeland gives up all the sacrifices and strength to support this struggle of the soldiers, who seeks to destroy the unity of the front and homeland, must fall."

Graf was 18-year-old on 11 January 1944 in the Regional Court of Vienna by the guillotine executed.

Commemoration

Her name can be found on the plaque in the former execution room of the Vienna Regional Court .

source

proof

  1. ^ Postwar Justice , accessed February 10, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Count, Anna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian seamstress and resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1944
Place of death Vienna