Joseph T. Simon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joseph Thorvald Simon , born as Josef Theodor Simon, nickname Hasi, (* May 24, 1912 in Vienna ; † January 23, 1976 there ), was an Austrian lawyer and resistance fighter .

Life

Childhood and youth

Simon's parents were Jews . His father, a math teacher , was both an atheist and a socialist . Simon attended a Higher boarding school and the middle school before becoming a in 1930 to study law recorded. As a schoolboy at the age of 14, he was already involved in socialist organizations, such as the Socialist Workers' Youth and the Association of Socialist Middle School Students . The eighteen people he led (named after the district) stayed away from factional struggles in the middle school and student movement and tried to “realize the 'synthesis of social revolutionary cadre organization and German youth movement'”. After graduating from high school , he began to study law at the University of Vienna . There he worked temporarily at the business psychology research center with Paul Felix Lazarsfeld and Marie Jahoda .

Resistance activity and emigration

After Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss had switched off parliament in March 1933 and set about establishing the Austro-Fascist corporate state , it was Simon’s group that was the first in the SDAP to start political work in the illegality in June 1933 , against the will of the SPAD -Guide. In 1934, Simon smuggled Social Democrats and Schutzbunds threatened with arrest into Czechoslovakia via forest paths , including the writer Josef Luitpold Stern . He was arrested for the first time a year later and stayed in prison for four weeks. After that, he was able to complete his doctorate and start his judicial practice . At the same time he rose to the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Socialists of Austria . In this capacity, Simon traveled to Spain in August 1936 and reported on his experiences in the Spanish Civil War at a congress of social democratic youth organizations in Switzerland . From December 1936 to June 1937, Simon was again imprisoned for his illegal political activities. He then traveled to Denmark via France and Great Britain . Simon owed this to the former Danish Minister of Education, Thorvald Povlsen . Simon was accepted into his family in 1920 when Austrian children threatened with malnutrition were sent to Denmark. Povlsen had personally intervened with Kurt Schuschnigg for Simon's release and permission to leave the country. In Denmark, Simon worked as a lecturer at folk high schools . After the invasion of the Wehrmacht , Simon came to the USA via the Soviet Union and Japan , where he arrived in January 1941.

In the US Army

In the USA he gave lectures on the situation in occupied Denmark to members of the Danish communities until he was drafted into the US Army . In 1943 he became a US citizen . On this occasion he Americanized his first name Josef to Joseph and changed his middle name Theodor to Thorvald in honor of his Danish foster father. Simon had himself transferred to the CIC military intelligence service , where he achieved the rank of lieutenant . In the autumn of 1943 he arrived in Great Britain and was entrusted with analyzes in preparation for the landing in Normandy . In the late autumn of 1944 he switched to the OSS secret service , which was entrusted with operations behind the German lines. The surrender of the Wehrmacht units there on the same day prevented their own jump over Denmark . After the end of the war, Simon was stationed in Denmark before moving to Vienna in autumn 1945 to work in the legal department of the US High Commissioner for Occupied Austria , where he worked as a judge , among other things . He helped formulate the Second State Treaty , which gave the government and parliament back essential legislative powers.

Civil career in Austria

After the restoration of Austrian sovereignty , Simon returned his US citizenship and received Austrian again. He became HR director of the state oil and gas company ÖMV . He only held this position for a short time before falling victim to an intrigue by the ÖVP and KPÖ , in which, among other things, he was accused of working for the US secret service. Simon then completed his judicial year, which he started in 1936, and completed six years of practice as a trainee lawyer before settling down as a lawyer in 1962 . Together with Ernst Winkler , Simon wrote Das Staatsbürgerbuch (originally: We are the State ), which was published in numerous editions from 1966. It should explain the historical, political and legal foundations of the Austrian republic and thus ensure a better understanding of the democratic institutions.

Private life

Simon had been married to the social scientist Maria Dorothea Simon since 1944 , with whom he had four children. She brought out his memoirs in 1979, which he had worked on until shortly before his death.

Works

  • Eyewitness. Memories of an Austrian Socialist. A very personal contemporary story. 2nd Edition. Lit Verlag, Vienna / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-7000-0803-3 .
  • with Ernst Winkler: The Citizenship Register. Forum Verlag, 1966ff.
  • with Ernst Winkler: We are the state. An Austrian civic education for everyone. Publishing house of the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions, Vienna 1960.

literature

  • Joseph Buttinger : Using Austria as an example. A historical contribution to the crisis of the socialist movement. Publishing house for politics and economy, Cologne 1953.
  • Wolfgang Neugebauer : Building people of the world to come. History of the socialist youth movement in Austria (= publications of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for the history of the labor movement ). Europaverlag, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-203-50526-6 .
  • Peter Pirker : Subversion of German rule. The British War Intelligence Service SOE and Austria. Vienna University Press, Vienna 2012, p. 477ff.
  • Maria Dorothea Simon : self-testimony. In: Hermann Heitkamp, ​​Alfred Plewa (Hrsg.): Social work in self-testimonies. Volume 2. Lambertus, Freiburg im Breisgau 2002, pp. 225-272.
  • Albert Sternfeld: Subject: Austria. Affected by Austria. 2nd Edition. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2001, p. 201ff.
  • Florian Traussnig: External Military Resistance: Austrians in the US Army and War Intelligence Service in World War II. Böhlau, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-205-20086-4 , pp. 93ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Joseph Buttinger: Using the example of Austria. A historical contribution to the crisis of the socialist movement. Publishing house for politics and economics, Cologne 1953; P. 97.
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer: Bauvolk the world to come. History of the socialist youth movement in Austria (= publications of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for the history of the labor movement ). Europaverlag, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-203-50526-6 , p. 216.
  3. ^ Joseph Buttinger: Using the example of Austria. A historical contribution to the crisis of the socialist movement. Verlag für Politik und Wirtschaft, Cologne 1953, p. 99.
  4. ↑ Joseph T. Simon: Eyewitness. Memories of an Austrian Socialist. A very personal contemporary story. 2nd Edition. Lit Verlag, Vienna / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-7000-0803-3 , p. 115ff.
  5. ↑ Joseph T. Simon: Eyewitness. Memories of an Austrian Socialist. A very personal contemporary story. 2nd Edition. Lit Verlag, Vienna / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-7000-0803-3 , pp. 207ff.
  6. ↑ Joseph T. Simon: Eyewitness. Memories of an Austrian Socialist. A very personal contemporary story. 2nd Edition. Lit Verlag, Vienna / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-7000-0803-3 , pp. 274ff.
  7. ↑ Joseph T. Simon: Eyewitness. Memories of an Austrian Socialist. A very personal contemporary story. 2nd Edition. Lit Verlag, Vienna / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-7000-0803-3 , p. 303ff.
  8. ↑ Joseph T. Simon: Eyewitness. Memories of an Austrian Socialist. A very personal contemporary story. 2nd Edition. Lit Verlag, Vienna / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-7000-0803-3 , p. 346ff.
  9. ^ Peter Pirker : Subversion of German rule: the British war secret service SOE and Austria. V&R unipress, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-89971-990-1 , p. 477.
  10. ↑ Joseph T. Simon: Eyewitness. Memories of an Austrian Socialist. A very personal contemporary story. 2nd Edition. Lit Verlag, Vienna / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-7000-0803-3 , p. 384ff.
  11. ↑ Joseph Simon, Ernst Winkler: We are the state. An Austrian civic education for everyone , publishing house of the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions, Vienna 1960.
  12. ↑ Joseph T. Simon, Ernst Winkler: Das Staatsbürgerbuch. 10th edition. Forum Verlag, Vienna 1981.
  13. ^ Rudolf Kirchschläger : Foreword by the Federal President. In: Joseph T. Simon, Ernst Winkler: Das Staatsbürgerbuch. 10th edition. Forum Verlag, Vienna 1981, no p.
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer: Introduction. In: Joseph T. Simon: Eyewitness. Memories of an Austrian Socialist. A very personal contemporary story. 2nd Edition. Lit Verlag, Vienna / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-7000-0803-3 , p. 5f.
personal data
SURNAME Simon, Joseph T.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Simon, Joseph Thorvald; Simon, Josef Theodor; Hasi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian lawyer and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1976
Place of death Vienna