Johann Zak

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Johann Zak ( June 20, 1903 in Vienna - October 31, 1944 in Vienna) was an Austrian firefighter and resistance fighter against National Socialism . He was shot in a public execution at the Kagran firing range in front of around 600 other firefighters by the Nazi regime .

Life

Zak was chief sergeant in the fire police. He belonged to a communist resistance group in the Vienna fire brigade and collected membership and donation fees for the Red Aid . “In the February days of 1943 the wave of arrests of the Vienna Gestapo against firefighters began. The Gestapo was able to identify 48 cell members of this resistance group ”. On February 22, 1943, Zak was also arrested by the Gestapo .

Show trial

As of autumn 1939, the fire brigade was part of the force of order as a fire protection police. Therefore, jurisdiction lay with the Supreme SS and Police Court in Munich. There, over fifty Viennese firefighters were reported, charged and finally almost all found guilty in an almost two-week trial in Vienna (from March 13-25, 1944) for “preparation for high treason” and “treason”. The resistance fighter Josef Schwaiger committed suicide during the trial. 41 firefighters received life sentences or several years in prison. Johann Zak and his professional colleagues Franz Pascher , Hermann Plackholm , Johann Perthold and Oskar Schlaf were sentenced to death .

After the verdict, the firefighters were sent to Mauthausen concentration camp . From there, Zak was transferred back to Vienna on October 27, 1944, together with the other death row inmates. However, only he and Hermann Plackholm were actually executed. The three other convicts were given notice of their pardon for life imprisonment following the shooting of the two .

Farewell letter to the mother

Johann Zak wrote his last letter to his mother, with whom he had lived in the same household:

“Just to help was my purpose in life. Helping people who are in need is a wonderful feeling. And I helped, both as a firefighter and as a comrade. I am proud of that in my last hours. Because I do not fear death because my conscience is pure and free. "

- Johann Zak : Here quoted from Exenberger / Riedel: Horrible “spectacle” about Viennese fire fighters

Execution at the Kagran shooting range

Memorial stone at the Kagran shooting range

“The National Socialists staged an inhuman spectacle during the execution of Viennese firefighters on October 31, 1944.” Between 1940 and 1945, numerous executions were carried out at the Kagran military firing range. Since then, it has been considered one of the most important places of execution in Vienna . The exact number of those executed cannot be determined exactly, but it is now assumed that there are at least 129 people. Mainly members of the German armed forces were executed here , the reasons being " decomposition of the armed forces ", desertion and so on.

The execution of five firefighters from Vienna who had been convicted of “preparation for high treason ” and “ favoring the enemy ”, ordered for October 31, 1944, was intended as a special deterrent . Apart from the firefighters, who were on standby in their offices, all other Viennese firefighters had to compete in uniform on the firing range. Special tram trains were organized to transport them. Failure to show up or appearing late was a criminal offense. The first two firefighters, Hermann Plackholm and Johann Zak, who were tied to stakes, were shot in front of the comrades . The other three condemned to death - Franz Pascher , Johann Perthold and Oskar Schlaf - were informed of their pardon and imprisonment for life . They were taken back to the Mauthausen concentration camp , where they had been waiting to be executed.

“The three of us were pardoned for life by the death penalty u. had to kill the other two genes. be present as a deterrent example [example]. In the early morning we were tied up again and, under brutal treatment, we were taken to the execution site at the Kagran shooting range by push carts. Before we even got there, we said goodbye to the two comrades condemned to death. Left the push cart and without leading us each went to his stake, where we were tied from chest to foot with ropes. In front of us stood 600 men of the WBF, who were ordered as a deterrent example. After reading out the judgment again, the two Gen. [Plackholm and Zak] drew circles in the region of the heart with chalk, put the bandages in front of the eyes, which they refused, a short order and we had two good, wonderful genes. lost, but which will always live on in our spirit. ""

- Johann Perthold : Report of the execution of Plackholms and Zaks, undated

It was not until a few years after their murder, namely in autumn 1949, that the corpses of Hermann Plackholm and Johann Zak were found in the shaft graves of group 40 of the Vienna Central Cemetery , in row 20, grave 190.

Commemoration

Memorial stone at the central fire station Am Hof, Vienna Inner City

Since 1947, the memorial to the firefighters murdered by fascism at the Vienna fire brigade headquarters Am Hof ​​has been commemorating the resistance fighter against Austrofascism Georg Weissel and five victims of the Nazi judiciary , the communists Ludwig Ebhart , Josef Schwaiger , Rudolf Haider , Hermann Plackholm and Johann Zak . The memorial was designed by Mario Petrucci and shows a decapitated firefighter with his head in his right arm.

In 1988 a street in Vienna- Aspern was named after the executed man, the Johann-Zak-Weg .

Literature and internet sources

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Herbert Exenberger / Heinz Riedel: Kagran military shooting range , series of publications by the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance on the History of Nazi Violent Crimes - 6, Vienna 2003, Section: Horrible “Spectacle” about Viennese firefighters, pp. 48–53.
  2. ↑ Der neue Mahnruf, No. 11, mid-November 1949, volume 2, p. 4.
  3. ^ Johann-Zak-Weg in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
personal data
SURNAME Zak, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian firefighter and resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH October 31, 1944
Place of death Vienna