Louis Hafliger

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The Louis-Häfliger-Gasse in Vienna-Floridsdorf

Louis Häfliger (born January 30, 1904 in Zurich , † February 15, 1993 in Podbrezová , Slovakia ) was a Swiss bank employee. In April 1945 he took on a mission as a delegate for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to accompany a transport of food to the Mauthausen concentration camp . Immediately before the end of the Second World War , he prevented the demolition of the underground aircraft factory in St. Georgen and the tunnels at the Gusen concentration camps and thus the murder of tens of thousands of prisoners by notifying American troops and taking them to the Gusen and Mauthausen concentration camps. He was known for this action as the “Savior of Mauthausen”, but condemned by the ICRC for his unauthorized actions and only rehabilitated in 1990. In 1950 and 1988 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Life

Family, education and work

Louis Häfliger was born in Zurich in 1904 . His father was vice director of the Hürlimann brewery . From 1919 to 1922 he completed a commercial apprenticeship, after which he worked in Zurich as an employee until 1924. From 1924 to 1926 he lived in Paris before he was employed as an employee at Bank Leu in Zurich. His first marriage in 1930 was Frieda Schnell.

Activity for the ICRC

On March 12, 1945, a few weeks before the end of the Second World War, the ICRC, under the leadership of its then President Carl Burckhardt , received assurance from SS General Ernst Kaltenbrunner that ICRC delegates could go to the National Socialist concentration camps to accompany aid transports. However, this commitment was linked to the condition that the delegates concerned would remain in the camps until the end of the war. Among the ten delegates who volunteered for such a mission was Louis Häfliger, who took a leave of absence from his work as a bank clerk.

On April 28, 1945, Häfliger arrived at the Mauthausen camp in a transport of 19 vehicles. The camp commandant, SS-Standartenführer Franz Ziereis , refused to give him the food. Häfliger insisted that Ziereis should contact Kaltenbrunner, and then went to the nearby town of St. Georgen an der Gusen . Here he learned from some residents of the conditions and the full extent of the crimes in the concentration camps of Gusen and Mauthausen. When he returned to the camp on April 30, Ziereis had contacted Kaltenbrunner. Häfliger was housed with SS-Obersturmführer Guido Reimer , the head of the espionage and sabotage defense in the camp. In a conversation with Reimer, who also trained as a bank clerk, on May 2, he learned of Himmler's plans to lock the prisoners in the Mauthausen and Gusen I and II camps in the extensive tunnel systems in St. Georgen and Gusen and to detonate them by blowing up the tunnels Murder inmates. He decided to do everything in his power to prevent this from happening.

On May 4, with Reimer's support, he painted an SS vehicle white and equipped it with a Red Cross flag. In the early morning hours of the following day, Häfliger and Reimer drove with a driver into the area to look for Allied troops. With the support of the Deputy Mayor of St. Georgen / Gusen, they encountered a patrol of 23 soldiers from the 11th Armored Division of the 3rd US Army under the command of Sergeant Albert J. Kosiek . Häfliger convinced the commandant to liberate the camp and arranged for Reimer to deactivate the explosive charges in St. Georgen and Gusen. In the afternoon of May 5, two US armored cars, led by Louis Häfliger, drove to the Mauthausen camp, which was taken over peacefully and without bloodshed. The information on the number of rescued concentration camp inmates varies between 40,000 and 60,000 depending on the source.

The representations in the literature about the person and the events at that time are controversial.

Life after World War II

Memorial plaque for Louis Häfliger in Vienna-Meidling

Louis Häfliger's contribution to the rescue of the prisoners in Mauthausen is one of the most significant deeds of a single person in the history of the Red Cross. However, Louis Häfliger was condemned by the ICRC for his unauthorized actions because, in the opinion of the committee, his actions had violated the principle of neutrality. He also lost his job at Bank Leu in Zurich. Since he was unable to get a new job in Switzerland, he emigrated to Austria in 1946 . He settled in Vienna, where he was married to Gabriele Groins, née Gabriele Groins, three years later. Maxymovitz married.

On December 2, 1955, he took the citizenship of Austria . From 1958 to 1973 he worked as an employee of the National Cash Register AG. In 1992 Louis Häfliger married Anna Planocková for the third time. He died in 1993 in Podbrezová, his wife's Slovak home parish.

Honors

In 1950 Louis Häfliger was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the then Justice Minister of the Republic of Austria , Otto Tschadek . In Israel as well as in Austria he received numerous awards as “Savior of Mauthausen”, for example the 1977 badge of honor for services to the liberation of Austria . In 1988 he was nominated again for the Nobel Peace Prize and rehabilitated two years later by the then ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga . In 1992, a 50-minute film documentary about his deed was made under the title “The forgotten rescuer: The liberation of Mauthausen concentration camp”.

In September 2003 the Louis-Häfliger-Park was opened in Zurich . Louis-Häfliger-Gasse in the Viennese district of Floridsdorf has been named after him since February 2006 . It leads through a former factory site, in which from July 1944 the “Floridsdorf Hofherr-Schrantz ” camp was part of the Vienna-Floridsdorf I concentration camp, which was assigned to the Mauthausen concentration camp as a satellite camp .

literature

Movies

  • 1992: Documentary film "The Forgotten Rescuer: The Liberation of Mauthausen Concentration Camp" by Alphons Matt

Web links

Commons : Louis Häfliger  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Diploma thesis by Johannes Starmühler, Vienna 2008 (PDF; 1.5 MB)
  2. ↑ City of Zurich August 25, 2003: Neighborhood Park in the center of Zurich North, accessed on August 5, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Hafliger, Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss bank employee, delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross
DATE OF BIRTH January 30, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1993
Place of death Podbrezová