Franz Draber

Franz Draber (born March 23, 1913 in Steyr ; † August 28, 1996 there ) was an Austrian resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Franz Draber grew up in Steyr and completed an apprenticeship as a tool fitter in the Steyr works . From 1934, after being unemployed, he worked in the Steyr factory. In the same year Draber, who had previously belonged to the Socialist Workers' Youth , joined the KPÖ . After he was drafted into the flak service in 1939, he was posted to Steyr for armaments work the following year.

Together with Karl Punzer and Josef Bloderer , Draber was active in building up the resistance movement against National Socialism in Steyr. Among other things, the factory sports movement and the Steyr factory itself became the seat of illegal KPÖ cells. Money was also collected to support the relatives of imprisoned resistance fighters and anti-fascist ideas were spread orally and on leaflets.

Part of the Steyr resistance group, including Franz Draber, was evacuated by the Gestapo and arrested in September 1942 . Draber was tortured for several months in order to force statements. In February 1943 he and his fellow combatants were transferred to the Stadelheim prison near Munich . During a court hearing in the Munich Palace of Justice on May 23 and 24, 1944, Draber, Punzer, Bloderer, Johann Palme and Johann Riepl were sentenced to death for preparation for high treason. The execution was not carried out immediately: After 200 days on death row , Draber and Bloderer managed to escape. They had been assigned to carry water in the bomb-damaged Stadelheim prison and were able to use a small door to escape that was otherwise used by the prison guards' wives for shopping aisles. Karl Punzer, who tried to escape with them, was intercepted by prison guards and executed on December 5, 1944.

Bloderer and Draber parted on the run; Franz Draber reached Bad Hall on foot , where he was hidden in the Furtmühle. In the spring of 1945 he came to Hinterstoder under the name Franz Gruber and with a forged mountain rescue ID card , where he hid as a shepherd until the end of the war. After the liberation, he returned to Steyr and worked on setting up the municipal administration in Steyr-Ost. Erich Hackl , who interviewed Draber several times in the course of his collection of materials on the Steyr resistance, learned in 1987 during a conversation with Draber and his wife Erna about the fate of the Roma girl Sidonie Adlersburg, who grew up as a foster child with Draber's colleague Hans Breirather and was transported to Auschwitz in 1943 was. As a result, there were extensive contacts with the Breirather family, from which the documentary story Farewell to Sidonie and the script for the film Sidonie grew. Franz Draber worked for many years (1952, 1966–1996) as a deputy chairman of the KZ Association / VdA Upper Austria.

As a contemporary witness, he appeared in two programs by Walter Wippersberg on ORF radio: In conversation , Ö1, March 10, 1968, 9 p.m. and Der Anschluss in einer Arbeiterstadt , Ö Regional (Upper Austria), March 11, 1968, 8 p.m. 05.

Awards and honors

Franz Draber received the Medal of Honor for the liberation of Austria from fascism, the Golden Medal of Honor for services to the Republic of Austria and the KPÖ Medal of Honor in gold. Franz-Draber-Straße in Steyr- Föhrenschacherl near the Gründbergsiedlung was named after him in 2010.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Krawarik: From the mountain farming region to the tourist landscape. LIT Verlag, Münster 2012, ISBN 978-3-643-50408-1 , p. 75 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Fritz Derflinger: Franz Draber . January 6, 2012, from steyrerpioniere.wordpress.com, accessed February 7, 2017.
3. ↑ Erich Hackl: Made seeing. A balance sheet. In: Ursula Baumhauer (Hrsg.): Materials on Farewell to Sidonie by Erich Hackl. Diogenes, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-257-23027-3 , p. 7 f.
4. ↑ Chair on kzverband-ooe.at
5. ↑ Franz Draber, who fled from death row of the Nazis, "gets" a street. Hannes Fehringer in: Oberösterreichische Nachrichten online (nachrichten.at), March 4, 2011.