Johann Friedländer

Memorial plaque for Johann Friedländer on his former home

Johann Georg Franz Friedländer (born November 5, 1882 in Bern , Switzerland ; † January 20, 1945 between Auschwitz and Pless ) was a field marshal lieutenant of the first Austrian army , who was abducted by the Nazis to the Auschwitz concentration camp and on the march shortly before the end of the war in 1945 was murdered by the Auschwitz concentration camp in Pless.

Life

Friedländer's father came from a Jewish family from Silesia , his mother was a Catholic from Vienna . The father, who converted to Christianity early, taught at times as a high school professor in Bern, but the family moved to Vienna soon after their son was born. In 1897 Friedländer entered the infantry cadet school in Vienna-Hütteldorf. Retired from Feldjäger Battalion No. 21, he was appointed lieutenant on November 1, 1902. 1906–1909 he completed general staff training at the war school in Vienna. As a first lieutenant he was transferred to the General Staff of the 20th Infantry Brigade in Königgrätz and in 1912 to the command of the XII. Army corps transferred to Ragusa . In 1913 he was taken over as a captain in the general staff . In the same year he married the painter Margarethe Abel. The fact that she herself was Christian, but her parents were of Jewish descent, was of little importance at the time, but would later have tragic consequences.

After the outbreak of war in 1914 he took with the XVI. Army corps participated in the Serbia campaign. After Italy entered the war, the coastal defense corps was relocated to the Fiume area. In 1916 he was assigned to the 5th Mountain Brigade in Gorizia , with which he took part in the 6th, 7th and 8th Isonzo battles. On December 7th he was seriously wounded near Gorizia. After his recovery he was assigned to the staff of the fleet commander from February 1917 and served for 6 months on board warships in the northern Adriatic . Then he was transferred to the IV Army Corps, where he distinguished himself in the 12th Isonzo Battle (breakthrough of Flitsch-Tolmein). Promoted to major on November 1, 1917, he was appointed to the War Ministry in February 1918 . There he was entrusted with the management of the socio-political group of the war economics department. Above all, it should act as mediator between trade unions and industry.

After the end of the war he was taken over into the newly created State Office for Army Affairs . His former subordinate in the war ministry, first lieutenant in the reserve Julius Deutsch , was now state secretary for the army and brought him in to help set up the “ people's armed forces ”. After the formation of the 1st Armed Forces, he was taken on as a lieutenant colonel on January 1, 1921 and used in the presidential office of the ministry. In 1924 he was promoted to colonel and transferred to Infantry Regiment No. 2. At the end of 1925 he became regimental commander. Relocated to the ministry in 1927, he took over as major general in 1932 as head of the training department. After a brief assignment in the Army Inspectorate from October 1936, he retired as a Lieutenant Field Marshal on March 31, 1937 .

After the " Anschluss of Austria " to the German Reich in March 1938, his situation changed. Because according to the absurd logic of the Nuremberg race laws , Friedländer was considered a “full Jew” because of his marriage to a Christian woman with two Jewish parents , although he was a “ half-Jew ” according to the Reich Citizenship Law . He declined the request to divorce her to improve his situation. Attempts by fellow officers to help him brought only temporary success and rather led to an unrealistic assessment of his situation. He was allowed to stay in his apartment in Hietzing until 1942. But then he was forced to evacuate them and move to the Leopoldstadt ghetto. At the beginning of September 1943, the Friedländer couple were sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto , where both were considered so-called “celebrities”. After his wife's death in May 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz in October . As he was “still able to work”, he was not immediately taken to the gas chamber , but lived in the camp for a few months under inhumane conditions. When this was evacuated on January 18, 1945 because the Soviet troops were approaching, the " death march " to Pless began for him and his fellow prisoners . Anyone who couldn't go on was shot. This fate also met him on the third day of the march. His SS murderer boasted with a laugh: " The field marshal received two bullets !"

Military awards (as of 1933)

• Commemorative Cross 1912–1913
• Military anniversary cross
• Wounded medal
• Bronze Military Merit Medal on the ribbon of the Military Merit Cross with Swords
• Silver Military Merit Medal on the ribbon of the Military Merit Cross with Swords
• Military Merit Cross III. Class with the war decorations and swords
• Order of the Iron Crown III. Class with the war decorations and swords
• Gold medal for services to the Republic of Austria

literature

• Johann Friedländer, officer and Nazi victim . In: Die Presse (Vienna), January 17, 1995.
• Martin Senekowitsch: Lieutenant Field Marshal Johann Friedländer, 1882–1945. A forgotten officer in the army . Vienna: BMLV, Office for Defense Policy, 1995.

Web links

• Entry on Johann Friedländer in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Johann Friedländer at www.ghetto-theresienstadt.info
• Arno Lustiger : The field marshal received two bullets