Hans Baumann (businessman)

Johann Baumann (born December 17, 1905 in Vienna ; died September 1941 in the Arkhangelsk area ) was an Austrian merchant who was persecuted by the Nazi regime because of his Jewish origins and who, like his parents and brother Karl, was eventually brought to death .

Life

Stolperstein in Aigen-Schlägl .

Hans Baumann was the eldest son of Isidor Baumann (born on October 13, 1872 in Zawalów , Galicia ) and Elisabeth Baumann, née Müller (born on April 28, 1884 in Aigen). He grew up in Aigen in the Mühlkreis with his three younger brothers. His parents ran a shop for all kinds of goods there, which Hans later and his wife Paula Baumann, nee. Laus (1910), a Catholic, continued. Hans and Paula had two daughters Johanna (1932) and Elfriede (1933). Baumann was an assimilated Jew and an active member of the community of Aigen in the Mühlkreis. He was instrumental in founding the local rescue service and was involved in the fire department. He was one of the first residents of Aigen to acquire a driver's license and had a photography license.

During the November pogroms of 1938 , his shop was smeared by the National Socialists with the inscription “Only a pig buys from a Jew”. When he removed the slogan, he was arrested for a week for damaging state property. He was then deported to the Dachau concentration camp and had to do forced labor in freezing temperatures . He came home with severe frostbite for two weeks in March 1939 and had to arrange everything for his forced move to Vienna . His daughters were just seven and six years old, respectively. In Vienna, he had to register as a Jewish resident from April and, as a former concentration camp inmate, report to the police on a weekly basis. He was no longer allowed to do paid work. On October 20, 1939, as part of the Nisko plan , Hans Baumann was forcibly resettled with 911 other Jews on the first deportation transport from Vienna to Nisko in Poland . The promise was that the Jews could build a new existence there. However, the SS took away the identity papers of all deportees while they were being transported. And when they arrived at their destination, the deportees had to set up a labor camp.

Baumann was able to escape and came across the German-Soviet demarcation line. Chased by the SS , he swam through the San River in freezing temperatures and reached Soviet-occupied Lemberg after a 180-kilometer walk . Although strong and athletic by nature, he was plagued by the consequences of fleeing and severe rheumatism. In May 1940, the Jews of Lemberg were again persecuted and imprisoned, this time by the Stalinist secret police. Hans Baumann was deported to Arkhangelsk in north-western Russia, where he died of exhaustion.

Fate of his family members

Baumann's wife Paula was able to continue the business and raise their daughters. His parents were deported to the Opole ghetto in 1942 and murdered there. The fate of the three brothers differed:

• Ernst Baumann (born 1907) married Luisa Süss in 1932. He emigrated to Palestine as early as 1935 and died there in 1971.
• Rudolf Baumann (born 1909) lived in Vienna in 1933. His fate is unclear.
• Karl Baumann (born 1912) lived in Prague from 1932. From there he was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in July 1942 , and from there to the Treblinka extermination camp in October 1942 . He was a victim of the Holocaust before the end of 1942 .

Commemoration

On April 21, 2013, the German artist Gunter Demnig laid four stumbling blocks in front of the Baumann family's former home in Aigen-Schlägl . One each is dedicated to Hans Baumann, his mother, his father and his brother Karl.

Web links

Commons : Hans Baumann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bezirksrundschau: “We now have a memorial site” , April 23, 2013
2. ↑ Dr. Karoline Eckl-Honzik: About my grandfather Hans Baumann , biography on the occasion of the laying of the Stolperstein in 2013
3. ^ DÖW : Victims database , accessed on August 5, 2015