Edmund Molnar

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Edmund Molnar ( March 7, 1923 in Hallein - May 26, 1944 in Berlin-Tegel ) was an Austrian locksmith who was sentenced to death by the Nazi regime and executed for so-called “ disruptive military strength ” .

Life

Molnar came from a Christian-social family and completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith as well as the labor service . Finally he received the order to enlist in the German armed forces . He served as a private in Panzerjäger-Ersatzabteilung 48 in Cilli in Lower Styria, led a political argument with some of his comrades in August 1943 and let himself be carried away to two inexperienced statements about Adolf Hitler . He was denounced, arrested, transferred to the army detention center in Graz and in the following month in the Wehrmacht prison spent Berlin-Tegel. On November 16, 1943, he was due after half an hour of negotiationDestruction of military strength sentenced to death, although he was innocent and had always behaved properly. The statements that led to the death sentence: "The Fuehrer's mother was Jewish and if he finds a Fuehrer's picture in a hotel room, it will be hung up from him."

The parents of Molnar did not find out about their son's arrest by the authorities, but from a comrade of Edmund, who wrote to them on August 25, 1943: “Dear Mr. Molnar! Your son will not be able to write to you for a long time. So please don't worry. He's under arrest for something stupid. I'll write to you as soon as I know. ”Molnar's parents immediately filed for clemency and hired a lawyer.

Edmund Molnar began to write a diary on death row, which has been preserved. Not only the impending execution but also the frequent air raids on Berlin terrified him. As can be seen from the diary entries, two days before the execution he did not know whether he would be pardoned or executed. Shortly before he was executed at 8:20 am, he was allowed to write a few lines to his family. The execution of the judgment took place surprisingly on May 26, 1944. The parents received the death notification in the mail:

“The death sentence handed down against your son, Corporal Edmund Molnar on November 16, was carried out after confirmation on May 26, 1944 at the shooting range in Berlin-Tegel. Obituaries or obituaries in newspapers, magazines and the like are prohibited. A last farewell letter from her son is attached. "

- Letter from the Central Court of the Army of May 31, 1944

Background of the death sentence

The project pitfalls Hallein says about Molnar's fate, show it to "urgently with which ruthlessness and relentlessness the Nazi dictatorship could destroy the individual." Molnar's father, a carpenter, was an explicit opponent of Nazism , of a well on April 10, 1938 voted by a few Halleiners against the so-called " Anschluss of Austria " to Hitler's Germany. Molnar's parents asked District Leader Rudolf von Kurz and Mayor Alexander Gruber for a pardon for their son, but fell on deaf ears with the Hallein NSDAP officials . The honorary chairwoman of the Salzburg concentration camp association, Agnes Primocic , and the historians investigating the case suspect that this could also be related to the father's voting behavior on April 10, 1938. In Primocic's assessment, Molnar was "only sentenced to death because the whole family was outspoken anti-Nazi and very seriously Christian."

Commemoration

Stumbling block for Edmund Molnar

In his memory, Carolinenplatz in the old town of Hallein was renamed Eduard-Molnar-Platz after 1945 . The square was then divided into Florianiplatz and Molnarplatz.

On April 20, 2013, a stumbling block was laid by Gunter Demnig at Edmund Molnar's former address, today's Molnarplatz 14 . Its inscription reads: EDMUND MOLNAR, JG LIVED HERE. 1923, ARRESTED 14.8.1943, 'ARMY FORCE ZERO', BERLIN-TEGEL, EXECUTED 26.5.1944 .

swell

  • Ernst Penninger: The street names of the city of Hallein , in: Communications of the Society for Salzburg Regional Studies 110/111, 1970/71, p. 317 f.
  • Wolfgang Wintersteller: March 1938 - 'Anschluss' in Hallein and the surrounding area , Hallein 1988.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Stolpersteine ​​Hallein: Victims of the political resistance: Molnar, Eduard. Retrieved April 14, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Farewell letter from Edmund Molnar in: Rudolf G. Ardelt: National Socialism and War: a reader on the history of Salzburg , Pustet 1993, p. 272
  3. ↑ Erich Fein: Memorials of the Austrian struggle for freedom. Memorials for the victims of fascism. A documentation. Edited by vd Arbeitsgemeinschaft d. Concentration camp associations and Resistance fighters of Austria. Europaverlag, Vienna 1975, p. 240.
  4. ↑ Agnes Primocic: Do not keep still when wrong happens , Akzente 2004, p. 67
personal data
SURNAME Molnar, Edmund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian locksmith, private of the Wehrmacht and victim of Nazi military justice
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Hallein
DATE OF DEATH May 26, 1944
Place of death Berlin Tegel