Lucia Heilman

Lucia Heilman (born on 25. July 1929 in Vienna as Lucia Kraus is) an Austrian doctor and survivors of the Nazi regime .

Life

Born to Jewish parents, she was not even nine years old when Hitler marched into Vienna: “As far as I can remember, I [...] went alone to Heldenplatz because they said there was an event there. [...] And I stood there and heard the screaming, the roaring and the calls: Heil, Heil, Heil ... I knew I wasn't one of them. [...] I felt this hooting and the mood as threatening, as extremely threatening. "

Her father, a lighting engineer, was then in Persia. He wanted to bring his family to him; Lucia's mother, the chemist Regina Kraus, geb. Stony, had the exit papers, but not enough money for the ship card. Lucia's father was interned as an enemy alien at the beginning of the war and finally deported to Australia. Lucia and her mother stayed in Vienna; Lucia had to leave her elementary school class and was no longer allowed to play in the Schlickpark: “I remember we walked from school into the park and all the benches said: 'Only for Aryans'. The trouble they went to write down on every bench: 'For Aryans only'. "

Her grandfather was arrested in front of her eyes and deported; he died on October 23, 1939 in Buchenwald concentration camp . Her friend Erna Dankner was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp with her parents and finally, at the age of 16, murdered in Auschwitz on August 17, 1942 . The parents' apartment at Berggasse 26 was confiscated by the National Socialist authorities in 1939 and handed over to an “Aryan” couple; Mother and daughter had a fortnight to move out. They came to a small collective apartment a few houses away and were supposed to be deported. But Reinhold Duschka , a friend of her father's, granted them both refuge in his workshop in the Kaiser-Franz-Josef-I anniversary fund for workshop buildings and people's apartments (Mollardgasse 85a in Mariahilf ). He got them food and clothes on the black market and got textbooks for Lucia. He knew he was putting himself in mortal danger. Over time, Regina and Lucia learned how to work metals for Duschka’s work and helped him produce his handicrafts.

“In March 1944, the air raids began. I felt joy. Almost every day at around 11 am, an advance warning was issued […] The people were able to prepare for the attack, and those who could went to their air raid shelter. We didn't dare go into the cellar, if we'd run down, they would have asked us for ID and where we come from. One day in November there was an air raid on a Sunday. My mother said: Today we go, today nobody will be in the basement, because the people from the workshop yard don't work, and if you ask us, we'll somehow talk our way out. […] Before we were in the basement, another bomb fell and we were completely covered in dust. [...] We saw that there was no roof anymore and flames blazed from the 4th floor. The workshop, our hiding place was burned. "

- Lucia Heilman : The Last Witnesses, Burgtheater 2013

Duschka does not leave mother and daughter in the lurch, accommodates them in his new studio. However, this is at ground level, with a shop window facing the street. The two have to spend half a year in a cellar compartment, in absolute darkness - behind a heavy, damp wooden door. Lucia Heilmann does not speak about this time.

In April 1945, Regina and Lucia were liberated by Russian soldiers. Lucia studied medicine, worked as a doctor, got married and had two daughters. She only saw her father once more in Australia. For many years she could not talk about her childhood. For a long time Reinhold Duschka refuses to be labeled as Righteous Among the Nations , he fears hostility. In 1991 he agrees. The Republic of Austria never honored him for his heroic deed.

In the 2013-14 season, Lucia Heilman took part in the contemporary witness production The Last Witnesses at the Vienna Burgtheater . The production related to the November pogroms in 1938 , was highly valued by the public and the press, and was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen and the Dresden State Theater .

literature

• Lucia Heilmann: Hidden in Vienna . In: Renate S. Meissner (Ed.): Lives Remembered . Life Stories of Victims of National Socialism. National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism, Vienna, 2012, Vol. 2, pp. 46–55
• Erich Hackl : On the rope. A hero story. Diogenes, Zurich 2018, ISBN 978-3-257-60913-4 ( publisher page ).

Web links

• Lucia Heilman , autobiography at Centropa
• Hidden in Vienna: Lucia Heilman (with photos)
• Remembrance of the Nazi Terror: The Last Contemporary Witnesses . Die Presse , May 8, 2010, accessed March 20, 2014

proof

1. ↑ Text book The Last Witnesses , Burgtheater Vienna 2013, 9
2. ↑ Text book The Last Witnesses , Burgtheater Vienna 2013, 10
3. ↑ Memorial plaque for Reinhold Duschka  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , City of Vienna, accessed on August 30, 2013  
4. ↑ Opening of the Reinhold Duschka memorial plaque ( memento of the original from March 20, 2014 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. , Die Grünen Wien 6, April 8, 2013, accessed on August 30, 2013 
5. ↑ Text book The Last Witnesses , Burgtheater Vienna 2013, 48f
6. ↑ Program book The Last Witnesses , Burgtheater Vienna 2013, 7