Käthe Sasso

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Memorial plaque for Käthe Sasso (Berggasse 43)

Käthe Sasso born Smudits (born in Vienna in March 1926 ) is an Austrian resistance fighter , survivor of the Nazi regime and contemporary witness .

life and work

Käthe Smudits grew up bilingual with her grandmother Majka, a Burgenland-Croatian, in Nebersdorf in Burgenland and later in Vienna. Her parents Agnes and Johann were both politically active, both against the corporate state and against National Socialism . After her father was drafted into the Wehrmacht and her mother died of a serious illness in July 1941, the young girl took part as a member of the Gustav Adolf Neustadl resistance group . “The main goals of the group are to support widows of executed resistance fighters with food, listen to foreign radio stations and distribute leaflets against fascism. [...] Some important members of the group were Emilie Tolnay , Therese Dworak , Maria Sip , Rosalia Graf and her husband Johann Graf , as well as the Gaida couple. All of them were executed for treason over time . “In August 1942, at the age of 16, Smudits was arrested by the Gestapo , in January 1943 as a prisoner in the Vienna Regional Court , barely escaped the death sentence , was transferred to the Oberlanzendorf labor education camp, and finally deported to Berlin in September 1944 and two weeks later to the Ravensbrück concentration camp . On April 28, 1945, she had to start the death march towards the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . "On the first night of the death march, near Wustrow , [she] and her friend Mizzi Bosch manage to escape from the group and then return to Vienna."

After the liberation by the Allies , she stayed in Vienna and married Josef Sasso - like her resistance fighter. The two had three children and moved to Lower Austria . From the 1990s Sasso made herself available as a contemporary witness. On May 5, 2008 and January 27, 2013, she spoke at commemorative rallies on Heldenplatz in Vienna , and in 2013 as part of the Holocaust commemoration of the network platform Now set an example! .

Publications

  • Not just in words, in fact. Käthe Sasso tells her youth in the resistance audio book (3 CDs). Suppose Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86385-003-6
  • Death row below me . In: Karin Berger et al. (Ed.): The sky is blue. May be. Women in Resistance, Austria 1938-1945 , Promedia 1985, ISBN 978-3-900478-05-6 .

literature

  • Evelyn Steinthaler: Self-determined resistance in women 1938. Persecuted - Resistant - Followers , Milena-Verlag Vienna, 2008, ISBN 978-3-85286-161-6 .
  • Evelyn Steinthaler: We were just happy that it was over. in Vienna 1945 , Milena-Verlag Vienna, 2015, ISBN 978-3-902950-25-3 .
  • "An eyewash". The resistance fighter Käthe Sasso on Nazis in the federal government, on compensation for prison sentences and the fascism of the 1970s, in: Morgen, Heft 1 (2016), p. 11.

Documentary film

  • Hit me, I won't reveal anything! Käthe Sasso, resistance fighter , director: Kurt Brazda . ORF III , November 9, 2013

Web links

proof

  1. ↑ a b A Letter to the Stars ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on January 31, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lettertothestars.at
  2. ↑ Alexander Cammann: audio book. Memory, speak. Käthe Sasso moves with her experiences from resistance and concentration camps . DIE ZEIT Nº 39/2012 of September 20, 2012, accessed on January 11, 2017.
  3. ^ Rainer Mayerhofer: Youth in the resistance and concentration camp. Käthe Sasso tells about her life in an audio book , Wiener Zeitung, October 30, 2012, accessed on January 11, 2017.
  4. ^ Resistance fighter Käthe Sasso honored in parliament , dieStandard.at, November 5, 2013, accessed on January 11, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Sasso, Kathe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smudits, Käthe (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian resistance fighter and contemporary witness
DATE OF BIRTH March 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna