Johann Graf (resistance fighter)

Johann Graf (born June 6, 1906 in Vienna ; died June 21, 1944 there ) was an Austrian community servant and resistance fighter against National Socialism . He was sentenced to death by the Nazi judiciary together with his wife Rosalia Graf and executed with the guillotine in the Vienna Regional Court .

Life

Johann Graf worked as a magistrate for the city ​​of Vienna and in 1930 married Rosalia Graf, an unskilled worker and housemaid, who came from Burgenland. Before 1934 the couple belonged to the SDAP . According to the indictment, Rosalia Graf is said to have participated in political discussions in the apartment of their befriended couple Anton and Emilie Tolnay , which are said to have "intensified" especially after the outbreak of the war with the Soviet Union. These talks are also said to have clearly assumed a “communist tinge”. Rosalia Graf also took her husband to these meetings. In June 1941 Johann and Rosalia Graf declared their accession to the KPÖ . As a sign of solidarity, they also made their apartment available as accommodation for members of the Central Committee of the KPÖ and for functionaries' meetings. On the night of May 1, 1942, the couple took part in a leaflet campaign. Scatter labels with the following content were distributed:

“With great shouting, Hitler announces a new offensive. That means new blood sacrifices for our youth. But that also means new victims, new misery for us workers. Workers! Always remember this bloodshed. Fight with us against Hitler! He alone is the murderer of our youth. Sabotage Hitler's war machine wherever you can! Work as slowly as possible! Every bit more prolongs the war! "

Rosalia and Johann Graf were arrested on July 15, 1942 on suspicion of preparing for high treason , recorded by the Vienna Gestapo , photographed and interrogated. On 22 December 1943, the indictment of followed Oberreich attorney at the People's Court , the accusation was: count had the fugitive party functionary Adolf Neustadtl houses and "writings wehrkraftzersetzenden content" widespread. On April 14, 1944, he was with his wife and with Therese Dworak and Emilie Tolnay the People's Court of Vienna because of "conspiracy to commit high treason and aiding the enemy " to death sentenced Anton Tolnay to ten years in prison . On June 21, 1944, Johann and Rosalia Graf were led to the scaffold and executed with the guillotine within a few minutes . Together with them, fourteen other resistance fighters were murdered by the Nazi judiciary in the Vienna Regional Court on that day , including co-defendant Therese Dworak and two brothers, construction workers Johann and Josef Knize . The second co-defendant, Emilie Tolnay, was beheaded a few days later, on July 5, 1944 .

Commemoration

The names Johann and Rosalia Graf can be found on the plaque in the execution room of the Vienna Regional Court , which today is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Nazi regime as a consecration site. Both were buried in the shaft grave complex of group 40 of the Vienna Central Cemetery , but in two different graves: Johann Graf is in row 22, grave 216, Rosalia Graf in row 21, grave 219. Today the grave complex is dedicated to the executed resistance fighters as an honorary grove.

Sources and literature

• Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance : no longer anonymous , short biography of Johann Graf with three photographs from the identification files of the Gestapo Vienna, accessed on July 25, 2015
• Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance (ed.): Resistance and persecution in Vienna 1934-1945. A documentation. Vol. 2, Vienna 1984
• DÖW-Akt 4178, 6901,19793 / 25
• Fine, Erich: The stones speak. Memorials of the Austrian struggle for freedom. Memorials for the victims of fascism. A documentation. Vienna 1975
• Wolfgang Neugebauer : Resistance and Persecution in Vienna, 1934-1945. A documentation. Volume 1, Österreichischer Bundesverlag 1984, 125 [1] .
• Austrian women in the resistance : Short biography Rosalia Graf , written by Karin Nusko, accessed on July 25, 2015
• Willi Weinert: “You can put me out, but not the fire”: a guide through the grove of honor of Group 40 at the Vienna Central Cemetery for the executed resistance fighters . Alfred Klahr Society and Wiener Stern-Verlag, 3rd edition 2011 [2]

Individual evidence

1. ^ Postwar Justice , accessed July 25, 2015.