Josef Tschofenig

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Josef Tschofenig (born September 3, 1913 in Pontafel ; † 1995 ) was an Austrian politician and member of the Carinthian state parliament .

Life

Josef Tschofenig was born in Pontafel in the Canal Valley . He learned the trade of mechanical engineer . He began to be politically active at an early age, at the age of 16 he joined the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ) of the Social Democrats . In 1932, at the age of 19, he moved for ideological reasons from the Villach SAJ Group I under Alois Buttinger , where he was military sports leader , to the Communist Youth Association of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ).

Tschofenig was arrested for the first time in 1933 during the Austro-Fascist era , and further arrests followed, including nine months in the Wöllersdorf detention camp . After Austria was "annexed" to the Nazi state , he went to Belgium via Czechoslovakia . He was followed there by his childhood sweetheart , Gisela Taurer , and they lived together from July 1939 to May 1940 in the Berchem district of Antwerp . After the German invasion of Belgium , Gisela Taurer returned to Upper Danube, while Josef Tschofenig went to France with the retreating Allied armies . Arrested by the Vichy regime , he was transferred to a camp in southern France. From there the Gestapo took him to Klagenfurt and after four months in prison he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp . Gisela gave birth to their son Hermann on December 21, 1940. On June 3, 1944, Josef and Gisela Tschofenig were able to marry in the Dachau registry office II, the child was declared marital by the court. Josef Tschofenig stayed in the concentration camp until the liberation, where he worked in the X-ray unit. After the liberation, Tschofenig found out that his wife had been murdered by the SS a few days before the end of the war.

At the end of June 1945 Josef Tschofenig returned to Carinthia with other former concentration camp inmates. He became secretary of the KPÖ state leadership and replaced his brother Albin Tschofenig as a member of the provisional state government: From July 25, 1945 to December 10, 1945 he was a member of the provisional state government of Piesch III as a state councilor for reconstruction and settlement.

At the first country conference of the KPÖ after the war, Tschofenig was elected to the party presidium on September 23, 1945 and was elected second deputy party chairman. On November 1st, 1945 he was elected regional chairman of the KPÖ Carinthia.

From December 10, 1945 to March 17, 1953, Tschofenig was a member of the Carinthian Landtag ( 16th and 17th legislative periods ).

From November 1, 1946 he was also the editor of the party newspaper Volkswille .

For the Nuremberg medical trial , Tschofenig testified in affidavits against Wilhelm Beiglböck , for whose human experiments in the Dachau concentration camp he had to take lung x-rays of the potential test subjects. In June 1947 he testified as a witness at the trial in Nuremberg. He was accidentally mistaken for a committed war criminal and detained in the court prison for about a day.

Tschofenig was a long-time member of the concentration camp association and sat on the victim welfare commission of the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Josef Tschofenig died in 1995 at the age of 83.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Our candidates… Gen. Josef Tschofenig. In:  Volkswille. Organ of the Communist Party of Austria. Province of Carinthia , November 24, 1945, p. 3 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / maintenance / vow.
  2. ^ The circle conference of our youth. In:  Workers will. Social democratic organ of the Alpine countries / workers will. Organ of the working people of the Alpine countries / workers will. Organ of the working people for Styria and Carinthia / workers will. Organ of the working people for Styria, Carinthia (and Carniola) Neue Zeit. Organ of the Styrian Socialist Party , February 2, 1929, p. 7 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / awi.
  3. ↑ A military sports leader calls for anti-fascist action. In:  Die Rote Fahne , September 30, 1932, p. 5 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / drf.
  4. ↑ a b c The members of the Carinthian provincial government. In:  Kärntner Nachrichten , July 28, 1945, p. 2 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / kna.
  5. ↑ a b Biographies: Gisela Tschofenig-Taurer (1917–1945). In: ooe.kpoe.at . April 27, 2007. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  6. ↑ For those returning from Dachau: A warm welcome from the Carinthian population. In:  Kärntner Nachrichten , June 29, 1945, p. 1 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / kna.
  7. ^ August Walzl: The fate of the Austrian Freedom Front in Carinthia. In: Contemporary History . 13th year, issue March 6, 1986, p. 216, digitized online at ANNO .
  8. ↑ Manfred Mugrauer: The "Moscow Clique" - and other legends. On the structure of the KPÖ leadership after 1945. In: Mitteilungen der Alfred Klahr Gesellschaft. No. 1/2017, p. 15, digitized online at klahrgesellschaft.at (PDF; 956 kB).
  9. ↑ Imprint. In:  Volkswille. Daily newspaper for Carinthia , November 1, 1946, p. 23 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / maintenance / vow.
  10. ^ Nuremberg - Document Search Results. Nuremberg Trials Project, accessed October 19, 2019.
  11. ↑ Involuntary trip to Nuremberg. In:  Wiener Zeitung , June 18, 1947, p. 2 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz.
  12. ^ A statement by the member of the Landtag, Tschofenig. In:  Volkswille. Daily newspaper for Carinthia , June 20, 1947, p. 2 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / maintenance / vow.
  13. ^ Comrade Tschofenig 50 years . In: The new reminder call. Journal for Freedom, Law and Democracy , September 1963, p. 6 (online at ANNO ).
  14. ↑ Our dead . In: The new reminder call. Journal for Freedom, Law and Democracy , December 1995, p. 13 (online at ANNO ).
personal data
SURNAME Tschofenig, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician and member of the Carinthian state parliament
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Pontafel
DATE OF DEATH 1995