Gerhard Lausegger

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Gerhard Lausegger (born September 23, 1915 in Klagenfurt ; † December 20, 1966 in Argentina ) was an Austrian officer in the SS , most recently as SS-Obersturmbannführer .

Life

Born the son of a lawyer , Lausegger studied law at the University of Innsbruck after attending grammar school in Klagenfurt and graduated in 1938 with a doctorate . During his studies he became a member of the Suevia Innsbruck fraternity in 1934 , its spokesman in 1937 and chairman of the Innsbrucker Waffenring for two years . Before 1938, he was banned from studying for two semesters from the university because of his National Socialist activities . He became a member of the NSDAP in 1938 (No. 6240814). Lausegger was the leader of the SS students storm in Innsbruck and adjutant of the 87th SS regiment under Erwin Fleiss under which it as part of the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich significantly to the occupation of the country house on 11 March 1938. arrival of the Wehrmacht was involved.

A few days after completing his doctorate from the university, Lausegger led an SS commando group as part of the November pogrom in 1938 to carry out the task of murdering Richard Berger , the chairman of the Jewish community for Tyrol and Vorarlberg . Robert Duy, Walter Hopfgartner and Gerhard Lausegger hit Berger's skull and threw his lifeless body into the Inn . In 1942 he became reserve leader of the Waffen SS with the rank of Untersturmführer . In 1943 he was employed with the 1st SS Infantry Brigade of the SS Grenadier Reserve Battalion East in Breslau and was released in 1944 because of a serious wound.

On June 16, 1945 Lausegger was taken prisoner by the British in Wolfsberg in Carinthia and was discovered there in May 1946 by Richard Berger's son Frederik. He was transferred to Klagenfurt for pre-trial detention on January 20, 1947, and was almost released because of the overcrowding of the prison there. When Lausegger was to be transferred to Innsbruck on March 6, 1947, he managed to escape via the so-called rat lines . With the help of an ID of the International Red Cross he was able to flee via South Tyrol to Argentina , where he died in an accident in 1966 under the false name "Nicolo Gracea" as a "former Romanian citizen". He was according to § 3 of the War Criminal Law (KVG) and § 134 of the StG. had been charged and wanted for murder until his death; In 1965 the arrest was announced.

Robert Duy was also able to escape from captivity. Walter Hopfgartner was released from a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp on December 30, 1949. The first main hearing took place on September 20, 1950; he was sentenced to three years of heavy imprisonment on the same day. He was acquitted of the murder charges because he acted on orders and not with intent to kill.

Lausegger is commemorated on a memorial of the Suevia fraternity in the Westfriedhof , which has been controversial for years, according to Mayor Christine Oppitz-Plörer , the Suevia memorial is “unfortunately not to be changed”. Instead, a memorial stele for Richard Berger was erected not far from the memorial in November 2015.

literature

  • Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 3: I-L. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0865-0 , pp. 253-254.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Fraternity memorial honors fellow murderers. In: Remember.at. Retrieved December 9, 2015 .
  2. ^ Helmut Reinalter, Franko Petri, Rüdiger Kaufmann: The world view of right-wing extremism. The structures of the desolidarization . Studien Verlag, 1998, p. 361 .
  3. ↑ a b c group of perpetrators. (No longer available online.) In: Places of the November pogrom 1938 in Innsbruck. Archived from the original on December 11, 2011 ; Retrieved December 9, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.novemberpogrom1938.at
  4. ↑ a b c Karl Heiden: Steinacher Gerald, swastika and red cross. A humanitarian organization between the Holocaust and the refugee problem . In: Politika. South Tyrolean Yearbook for Politics . ISBN 978-3-8487-1455-1 , pp. 485-492 .
  5. ↑ Saul Friedländer: The Third Reich and the Jews . 3. Edition. CH Beck, Munich 2007, p. 279 .
  6. ^ Thomas Albrich: Tyrol and the connection. Requirements, developments, framework conditions 1918-1938 . Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck 1988, p. 100 .
  7. ↑ Thomas Albrich, Winfried R. Garscha , Martin F. Polaschek : Holocaust and war crimes in court. The case of Austria . Studienverlag, 2006, p. 41 .
  8. ↑ Thomas Albrich (Ed.): The perpetrators of the Jewish pogrom 1938 in Innsbruck , p. 88 ( online ). Haymon Verlag 2016, ISBN 3709972426 .
  9. ↑ Peter Nindler: The murderer should be called by name. In: Tyrolean daily newspaper . November 5, 2013, accessed March 8, 2020 .
  10. ↑ "Memory is a form of encounter". In: Innsbruck informs. November 4, 2015, accessed December 9, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Lausegger, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian SS officer
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Klagenfurt
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1966
Place of death Argentina