Rudolf Friemel

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Rudolf Friemel , called Rudi Friemel (born May 11, 1907 in Vienna ; † December 30, 1944 in Auschwitz ) was an Austrian resistance fighter against National Socialism and a communist who belonged to the conspiratorial camp resistance in Auschwitz.

Life

Friemel, a car mechanic by profession, was a member of the Socialist Workers 'Youth and from 1925 a union member and from 1926 a member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP). He was a member of the Republican Protection Association and participant in the armed uprising in mid-February 1934 against the Austro-Fascist corporate state under Engelbert Dollfuss .

Friemel then fled to Czechoslovakia and was arrested on his return in late July 1934 and arrested for participating in the uprising and sentenced to seven years in prison on October 8, 1935.

He was released early from Stein prison on July 23, 1936. Friemel later became a member of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ). In mid-January 1937 he emigrated to France and from there on March 9, 1937 to Spain . From March 1937 Friemel fought as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War in the International Brigades against the establishment of a fascist dictatorship. After the defeat of the Republicans, he fled to France at the beginning of February 1939 , where he was interned in the Gurs camp. There he signed up for the unarmed labor service , worked as a miner in Carmaux and lived in Arthès (Tarn) with the Spaniard Margarita Ferrer Rey. Their son Edouard was born on April 26, 1941 in Albi . After the occupation of France by the German Reich , Friemel reported at the end of July 1941 to be transported back to Vienna and was handed over to the Gestapo by the French authorities at the demarcation line in Vierzon , together with his partner and their child . He was identified by the Gestapo in Vienna .

While Margarita Ferrer and Edouard were transported via Stuttgart to Kirchheim / Teck, where they had to stay in the so-called Wächterheim, a home for single mothers, Friemel was transferred to the main camp of Auschwitz on January 2, 1942 , where he received prisoner number 25,173 received. Friemel was a prisoner functionary in the SS driver service and initially belonged to the Austrian resistance group established in 1942 in the main camp. Other members of the resistance group were Alfred Klahr , Hermann Langbein , Ludwig Soswinski , Ernst Burger and Ludwig Vesely . In May 1943, the Auschwitz combat group emerged from the Austrian resistance group and the Polish camp resistance . Friemel, who on October 27, 1944, helped inmates of the international combat group to prepare for their escape, was denounced by an initiated SS man, interrogated by employees of the Political Department and imprisoned in the bunker. On December 30, 1944 Friemel was due to "Escape help" along with burgers and Vesely and the Polish prisoners Piotr piąty and Bernard Swierczyna on the parade ground of the main camp before being beaten 15,000 prisoners hanged .

Friemel was the only prisoner in Auschwitz concentration camp who was allowed to marry while imprisoned. After his first marriage to Pauline Fucka from Vienna had been divorced, he applied to marry Margarita Ferrer. Ferrer and Friemel's father, Klemens, also tried hard to get a marriage permit. His father, bride, and child were finally allowed to travel to Auschwitz for marriage. On March 18, 1944, the marriage was concluded at 11 a.m. in the camp's own registry office, where otherwise only death certificates were issued. Friemel, who was allowed to grow his hair for the occasion, married in civilian clothes and not in concentration camp inmate clothing . The prisoner photographer Wilhelm Brasse himself took the wedding photo. The couple was also allowed to spend a night together in the Auschwitz camp brothel .

Commemoration

The writer Erich Hackl processed this Auschwitz episode in 2002 literary in “ The Wedding of Auschwitz. An incident ”.

In Ernst-Ludwig-Gasse 8/1 in the 10th district of Favoriten , a plaque commemorates Rudolf Friemel. In 2004, the City of Vienna also honored the memory of Friemel with Rudolf-Friemel-Gasse, also located in Favoriten .

literature

  • Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Ullstein-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main; Berlin; Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-548-33014-2 .
  • Erich Hackl: The wedding of Auschwitz. An incident . Diogenes-Verlag, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-257-06324-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Austrians in the Resistance
  2. ↑ a b Friemel, Rudolf on doew.at
  3. ↑ Rudolf Kropf: Die Befreiung von Auschwitz , p. 3. In: auschwitz information , 67th edition, January 2005, Institute for Social and Economic History, Johannes Kepler University Linz (pdf; 82 kB)
  4. ^ Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. 1980, p. 304 f.
  5. ^ Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. 1980, p. 304 f.
  6. ^ A b Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. 1980, p. 328
  7. ^ An exception in the Galerie des Horens: The wedding photo of Margarita Ferrer Rey and Rudolf Friemel , illustration for Auschwitz photographer Wilhelm Brasse is dead , Spiegel Online, October 23, 2012
  8. ↑ Literature - Marriage in the Realm of the Dead In: Der Spiegel , issue 38 of September 16, 2002, p. 189
personal data
SURNAME Friemel, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Friemel, Rudi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian resistance fighter, communist, participant in the Spanish Civil War and concentration camp prisoner
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1944
Place of death Auschwitz concentration camp