Josef Schneeweiß

Josef Schneeweiß , also Josef Schneeweiss , called Pepi Schneeweiß (born April 28, 1913 in Vienna ; † October 3, 1995 there ) was an Austrian doctor and social democrat . He was a resistance fighter against Austrofascism and an interbrigadist . During the Second World War , Schneeweiß was a prisoner in the Dachau concentration camp .

Life

Schneeweiß, who attended elementary school, middle school and grammar school in Vienna, already worked for the Association of Socialist Middle School Students (VSM) during his school days . After completing his school career, he began to study medicine in Vienna in 1932 and was involved in the socialist student movement and as an activist of the Communist Party. After the armed uprising against the Austro-Fascist corporate state under Engelbert Dollfuss was put down in mid-February 1934 , he went underground. In the same year he was under psychiatric treatment for a psychosis.

From autumn 1936 Schneeweiß participated as a volunteer fighter in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War against the establishment of a fascist dictatorship. Since he sustained a serious hand injury during the fighting, he was used as a medic in the interbrigades during the civil war. After the defeat of the Republicans, he fled to France in February 1939 and was interned in southern France in 1939. After the occupation of France by the German Reich , Schneeweiß was arrested on December 1, 1940 in Paris . He was first imprisoned in Saarbrücken and later in Vienna. He was identified by the Gestapo Vienna on June 11, 1941.

Proceedings were heard against Schneeweiß and other interbrigadists before the Higher Regional Court of Vienna because of their participation on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. On November 11, 1941, Schneeweiß was sentenced to two years and four months in prison and the loss of civil rights to two years. After the verdict, he was taken to Stein prison on December 5, 1941 and released on December 24, 1941. Then he was transferred to the Gestapo. As a result of an order from the commander of the security police and the SD , the concentration camp briefing for Snow White was ordered on December 30, 1941. Snow white was due to an "official mercy proceedings", which u. a. was advocated by the Attorney General of the Vienna Higher Regional Court, pardoned in the first months of 1942 and his remaining sentence waived. In the resolution of grace, which was communicated to him by the Dachau camp commandant , it said u. a .: "I ask that the convicted person be informed that the pardon decision is based on assurances of the repatriation commissioners of the German armistice commission regarding the treatment of the Red Spain fighters". Snow White was held in custody despite this pardon. On February 9, 1942, he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, where he was imprisoned until the Dachau concentration camp was liberated on April 29, 1945.

After the end of the war, Schneeweiß completed his medical studies at the University of Vienna , re-founded the Association of Socialist Students and obtained his doctorate in 1947 after his state medical examination. med. He then worked as an assistant doctor at the University of Vienna and joined the Socialist Medical Association. With the "Socialist Doctors" he held the office of secretary. In 1955, the SPÖ forbade Schneeweiß to take on functions in the Socialist Party for five years after party arbitration proceedings because, as a left-wing deviator , he had expressed himself critical of the formation of the armed forces . In addition, his employment as a hospital doctor at the Vienna Hanusch Hospital ended . Kurt Steyrer received a reprimand from the party arbitration tribunal based on similar statements.

From 1970 Schneeweiß was again a manager at the Socialist Medical Association. He later worked as a poet and author, his autobiography “No leaders. No gods. Memories of a Doctor and a Spanish Fighter ”was published in 1986. Until his retirement in 1978 he worked as a resident doctor in Vienna. He was buried at the Gersthofer cemetery .

Fonts (selection)

• Who, if not we. Mundus, Vienna 1973
• No leaders, no gods: memories of a doctor and a warrior in Spain. Julius, Vienna 1986
• For Spain's freedom. Austrians on the side of the Spanish Republic 1936–1939. A documentation. Edited by the Documentation Archive de Austrian Resistance, Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1986, pp. 51–56, 118–120, 222–226 and 270 f. (Autobiography).

literature

• Friedrich Stadler : (Ed.): Displaced reason. Emigration and exile of Austrian science. 2 volumes, Jugend und Volk, Vienna / Munich 1987/88. New edition: LIT-Verlag 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7373-0 .
• María Belén García Martínez: The Spanish Civil War. Intercultural exchange based on the interbrigadist Josef Schneeweiß. 2002.
• Andreas Mettenleiter : Testimonials, memories, diaries and letters from German-speaking doctors. Supplements and supplements III (I – Z). In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 22, 2003, pp. 269-305, here: p. 290.

Web links

• Literature by and about Josef Schneeweiß in the catalog of the German National Library
• Josef Schneeweiß. In: dasrotewien.at - Web dictionary of the Viennese social democracy. SPÖ Vienna (Ed.)
• Josef Schneeweiß: Night Thoughts. In: dasrotewien.at - Web dictionary of the Viennese social democracy. SPÖ Vienna (Ed.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Josef Schneeweiss: Beat Hitler in Spain! . In: Friedrich Stadler: (Ed.): Displaced reason. Emigration and exile of Austrian science. 2 volume. New edition Münster 2004, p. 807 ff.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Schneeweiß in the identification card index of the Gestapo Vienna , person search on doew.at
3. ^ Wolfgang Form, Albrecht Kirschner: Political Nazi criminal justice in Austria and Germany. Using the example of the participants in the Spanish Civil War. (Excerpt from the interim report of the research project High Treason, State Treason, Wehrkraftzersetzung. Political Nazi criminal justice in Austria and Germany .) In: DÖW Mitteilungen 157, pp. 1–5, here box 2 on p. 3. ( Online, PDF )
4. ^ Wolfgang Form, Albrecht Kirschner: Political Nazi criminal justice in Austria and Germany. Using the example of the participants in the Spanish Civil War. (Excerpt from the interim report of the research project High Treason, State Treason, Wehrkraftzersetzung. Political Nazi criminal justice in Austria and Germany .) In: DÖW Mitteilungen 157, pp. 1–5, here p. 4. ( Online, PDF )
5. ↑ Ermar Junker: A look back II - The Social Democratic Medical Association after 1945 ( Memento of the original from March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Analyze Online, Issue 4, 2007 
6. ↑ Contemporary history: The red Nazi washing machine.