Elisabeth Jäger (journalist)

Elisabeth (Lisl) Jäger (born September 25, 1924 in Vienna as Leopoldine Elisabeth Morawitz ; † June 28, 2019 in Berlin ) was an Austrian journalist , anti-fascist and survivor of the Ravensbrück concentration camp .

Life

Leopoldine Elisabeth Morawitz was born in 1924 as the youngest of four children. The father, August Morawitz, worked as a market helper on the Vienna Naschmarkt . Her mother Leopoldine was a housewife. From 1930 to 1938 she attended elementary and secondary school. Then she received a commercial training in a stationery store.

After Austria's "annexation" to the German Reich on March 12, 1938, Leopoldine and her family and childhood friends took part in the anti-fascist resistance. Growing up in the social-democratic environment of the Viennese municipal housing , she was active in the Communist Youth Association (KJV) and looked after families of prisoners, smuggled illegals on from the train station and collected aid for the Red Army. She and her friends distributed illegal newspapers and leaflets. On July 3, 1941, at the age of 16, she and her mother were arrested by the Gestapo on charges. She was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for preparing for high treason and devastating military strength , which she served mainly in Munich / Stadelheim . The mother's sentence was four years in prison . On September 23, 1943, her brother Bruno was sentenced to death by the People's Court and executed in Vienna on February 25, 1944.

In September 1944, after serving her sentence, Leopoldine Morawitz was not released, but instead deported to the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp . The camp was evacuated on April 28, 1945. Leopoldine Morawitz was driven with other prisoners by the SS on the so-called death march , from which she fled with other comrades. The Red Army liberated the camp in early May . Leopoldine helped with the care and care of backward sick comrades.

At the beginning of July 1945 Leopoldine Morawitz returned to her hometown Vienna. Until November 1945 she was an employee of the Vienna City Council of the KPÖ , until 1950 she worked as a journalist for the Austrian newspaper published by the Soviet occupation forces . With her husband, the Spain fighter Max Bair , she moved to the GDR in 1950 , where they lived as Elisabeth and Martin Jäger. She caught up with her Abitur, completed her studies as a journalist at the Leipzig University with a diploma and in the following years worked for radio, various magazine publishers and the Ministry of Culture. In 1951 their daughter Brigitta was born, in 1954 their daughter Claudia.

Elisabeth Jäger has been involved in the Ravensbrück camp community since the 1950s. When she encounters schoolchildren and young people, she acted as a contemporary witness and warned of the consequences of right-wing extremism and fascism . In the GDR she was awarded the medal for fighters against fascism from 1933 to 1945 . On June 13, 2008, she received the Order of Merit of the State of Brandenburg from the Prime Minister of Brandenburg, Matthias Platzeck, for her merits and her consistent stand against oblivion .

Lisl Jäger lived in Berlin, was a multiple grandmother and great-grandmother and was politically active until the end of her days. She died in Berlin in June 2019 at the age of 94.

Web links

• Camp community Ravensbrück / Freundeskreis e. V.
• Portrait of Lisl Jäger
• Lisl Jäger: Survivors tell stories (bpb)
• More information and CD about Lisl Jäger
• Ravensbrück Memorial and Memorial

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituaries , accessed on July 21, 2019
2. ^ Obituary notice in the Berliner Zeitung from 20./21. July 2019, p. 26.