Josef Fohringer (resistance fighter)

Josef Fohringer (born on April 24, 1899 in Vienna ; died on October 31, 1941 there ) was an Austrian locksmith's assistant and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime . He was driven to death by the Vienna Gestapo .

Life

Fohringer belonged to the Communist Party of Austria and participated in the resistance against Austrofascism and against National Socialism . Between 1934 and 1938, he spent a few months in prison during the corporate state regime . The Nazi regime held him from September 1, 1939 to July 23, 1940 "for preventive police reasons" in the Buchenwald concentration camp . He was then registered on July 26, 1940. Josef Fohringer committed suicide on October 31, 1941 when he was about to be arrested again by the Vienna Gestapo.

Its tragic end is described in the daily report of the Gestapo Vienna from October 31 to November 1, 1941 as follows:

“During the house search in the Fohringer's apartment, he asked the officers who intervened to be able to visit the toilet in the corridor to relieve himself. When entering the toilet, Fohringer gave the officer accompanying him a push in the chest so that he stumbled back and Fohringer could slam the toilet door and lock it from the inside. In spite of the fact that the officer broke through the toilet door immediately, Fohringer had already managed to slip through the toilet window and plunge three floors into the courtyard of his house. In the fall, Fohringer suffered a fractured skull and internal injuries that immediately caused his death. "

swell

• Brigitte Bailer , Elisabeth Boeckl-Klamper , Wolfgang Neugebauer , Thomas Mang : The Gestapo as the central instrument of Nazi terror in Austria , accessed on May 14, 2015
• Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance : no longer anonymous , short biography of Josef Fohringer (with three photos from the identification file of the Gestapo Vienna), accessed on May 14, 2015