Franz Danimann

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Franz Danimann (born July 30, 1919 in Lugos , Romania; † June 1, 2013 in Vienna ) was an Austrian lawyer , author and former resistance fighter against National Socialism who belonged to the conspiratorial camp resistance in Auschwitz .

Life

Danimann, the son of a laborer, moved with his mother to Schwechat in Austria in 1919 . His uncle and foster father was active there at the SDAP as district secretary. From 1934 Danimann got involved with the Red Falcons . After completing his school career, he completed an apprenticeship as a gardener at the Vienna Central Cemetery from 1935 to 1938 . From 1936 Danimann worked illegally as a free trade unionist and with the Revolutionary Socialists and campaigned for democracy and against Austrofascism . Danimann then became a leading functionary of the illegal Communist Youth Association (KJV) Simmering . Shortly before the " Anschluss of Austria " to the German Reich in March 1938, he was one of the Anschluss opponents and took part in protests of the pro-Austria movement .

In January 1939 Danimann and other members of the KVJ were arrested by the Gestapo for distributing illegal leaflets , the content of which contained the prevention of war, the overthrow of the Nazi regime and the call for all Nazi opponents to form an anti-fascist front. After eleven members of the KVJ were tried by the People's Court, Danimann and Max Schernbrandtner were also convicted on April 23, 1940.

Danimann received a four-year prison sentence, which he served mainly in solitary confinement in the Vienna Regional Court and the Stein prison. In 1942 Danimann was transferred to the Auschwitz main camp , where he received prisoner number 32,635. There he was assigned to various work units and as an inmate nurse. In Auschwitz he took part in the illegal camp resistance of the Austrian resistance group and after merging with other national groups of the camp resistance he belonged to the Auschwitz combat group . On August 29, 1942, he managed to avoid gassing .

In the course of the "evacuation" of the Auschwitz concentration camp in January 1945, he and Kurt Hacker and three other prisoners managed to hide near the camp until the Red Army arrived . Then the five prisoners returned to the liberated camp, helped with the medical care of the sick prisoners and were among the first to secure evidence of the crimes in Auschwitz. The five prisoners arrived in Vienna on May 2, 1945 and published a report on Auschwitz on May 5, 1945 in Neues Österreich , which ends as follows:

"What was committed by Germans in Auschwitz and in the other concentration camps, no retaliation for everything that means German can ever wash off again."

- Franz Danimann, Kurt Hacker and others: The Hell of Auschwitz. Millions of murdered accuse. In: Neues Österreich - Organ of Democratic Unification. on May 5, 1945 in Vienna.

After that, Danimann and Hacker belonged to the department for the investigation of war criminals at the Vienna Federal Police Directorate, which was mainly composed of communists and so-called unencumbered persons and was headed by the former Auschwitz inmate Heinrich Dürmayer . This department succeeded in arresting the former head of the Political Department in Auschwitz Maximilian Grabner and the former commandant of the Theresienstadt ghetto Siegfried Seidl .

Danimann stayed busy in the Austrian administration and completed way at the University of Vienna to study law , which he with promotion to Dr. jur. completed. From 1958 Danimann worked for the Austrian labor market administration and from 1973 to 1979 headed the state employment office in Lower Austria.

Danimann was a member of the Auschwitz camp community , which was involved in setting up the Austrian state exhibition at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp memorial and dedicated itself to educating people about the Nazi past in schools and organizing appropriate conferences. He was also a member of the Action Against Anti-Semitism , where he was a member of the board. He was also a board member of the Association of Social Democratic Freedom Fighters, a victim of fascism and active anti-fascists .

Danimann became known to a wider public as the author of the 1983 book Whispering Jokes and Mocking Poems under the Swastika .

He was buried at the Simmering cemetery .

Honors

  • Awarded the City of Vienna Prize for Popular Education in 1988.
  • Danimann and three other former resistance fighters were awarded the Golden Merit of the State of Vienna on September 21, 2005 .
  • Danimann has been honorary chairman of the Auschwitz camp community since 2009 .
  • Since 2010 Danimann has been an honorary member of the Federation of Social Democratic Freedom Fighters, a victim of fascism and active anti-fascists .

Fonts

  • with Hugo Pepper: Austria in April '45: The first steps of the 2nd republic. Europaverlag, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1985.
  • Whispering jokes and mocking poems under the swastika. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1983; again: Ephelant Verlag, Vienna 2001, ISBN 978-3-900766-13-9 .
  • as publisher: Finis Austriae: Austria. March 1938. Europaverlag, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1978, ISBN 978-3-203-50662-3 .
  • Labor Market Promotion Act. Publishing house of the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions, Vienna 1972; again: with a summary, explanations and an appendix. Edited together with Stefan Potmesil and Günter Steinbach (supplement 1993), ISBN 3-7035-0468-4 , ISBN 978-3-7035-0468-6 .
  • The employment offices under fascism. Publishing house of the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions, Vienna 1966.
  • Was Austria's downfall in 1938 inevitable? Federal Association of Austrian Resistance Fighters and Victims of Fascism (Concentration Camp Association), Vienna 1963.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ progs.wiennet.at , Funeral dates - Bestattung Wien.
  2. ^ Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance (ed.): Narrated story. Volume I: Reports by Resistance Fighters and Persecuted - Labor Movement. 1985, pp. 23, 126.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Short biography of Franz Danimann on www.bildungsverlag-lemberger.at
  4. ↑ a b Documentation Archive of Austrian Resistance (Ed.): Mitteilungen (PDF; 119 kB), Issue 169 of December 2004, p. 11.
  5. ^ Ernst Nedwed: Franz Danimann on the 90th birthday. (PDF; 2.9 MB). In: The Social Democratic Freedom Fighter. Issue 6 to 9, Vienna 2009, p. 19.
  6. ^ The last days of the Third Reich - The red, white and red flag in Auschwitz. In: Franz Danimann; Hugo Peppe (Ed.): Austria in April 45th Europaverlag, Vienna / Munich / Zurich, 1985, pp. 17-20. Printed in: auschwitz information, 67th edition, January 2005, p. 5ff. University of Linz, Institute for Social and Economic History, Johannes Kepler (pdf; 82 kB)
  7. ↑ auschwitz information, 67th edition, January 2005, p. 5. University of Linz, Institute for Social and Economic History, Johannes Kepler (pdf; 82 kB)
  8. ↑ Kurt Hacker: In the service of the public. In: Franz Danimann; Hugo Peppe (Ed.): Austria in April 45th Europaverlag, Vienna / Munich / Zurich, 1985, pp. 173–176. Printed in: auschwitz information, 67th edition, January 2005, University of Linz, Institute for Social and Economic History, Johannes Kepler (pdf; 82 kB)
  9. ↑ Camp Community Auschwitz - history and present (PDF, 64 kB)
  10. ^ Society for Political Enlightenment: "Information", Edition 70 of September 2001, p. 2.
  11. ↑ a b Federal Conference 2010 - Never Forget - Vigilant Against the Right (PDF; 1.5 MB). In: The Social Democratic Freedom Fighter. Issue 10 to 12, Vienna 2010, p. 1f.
  12. ↑ Roman Heflik: War humor - "Does a Hitler get on a plane ..." . In: Der Spiegel . spiegel-online on May 8, 2005.
  13. ↑ City of Vienna awards for popular education - award winners since 1947. at www.wien.gv.at
  14. ↑ Robert Streibel: Decoration of Honor for former resistance fighters. In: Schalom - Journal of the Austrian-Israelite Society. Issue 4 from December 2005, p. 12 (online) ( Memento from January 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 396 kB)
  15. ↑ auschwitz information, issue 78, from December 2009 (PDF; 309 kB)
personal data
SURNAME Danimann, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian resistance fighter, concentration camp prisoner, lawyer and author
DATE OF BIRTH July 30, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Lugos
DATE OF DEATH 1st June 2013
Place of death Vienna