Selma Steinmetz

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Selma Steinmetz ( September 1, 1907 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary - June 16, 1979 ) was an Austrian educator and resistance fighter .

life and work

Steinmetz's parents were active Social Democrats; she too joined the Social Democratic Workers' Party while studying history , German and pedagogy at the University of Vienna . As a Jewish and left-wing teacher, she was not employed in the corporate state , which is why she emigrated to France in 1937. She wanted to take part in the Spanish Civil War , which did not succeed. She then joined the French Communist Party , worked in their literature distribution and met Oskar Grossmann . After the German occupation of the country, she joined the resistance, took part in the extremely dangerous Travail allemand and worked on the production of illegal newspapers and leaflets for German soldiers. In June 1944, she and other communists were arrested by the Gestapo and tortured for days. When she was transferred to a camp, she was liberated by the French Resistance .

In December 1945 Steinmetz returned to Vienna - like other communists like Hilde Koplenig , Elisabeth Freundlich and Genia Quittner - and subsequently worked as a librarian for the Wiener Städtische Libraries . After founding the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW) in 1963, she joined this institution, worked on building the library and - together with the DÖW director Herbert Steiner , as well as with Bruno Sokoll , Tilly Spiegel and Friedrich Vogl - on research of the Austrian resistance. Alongside Erika Thurner , Steinmetz is considered to be the first resistance researcher to investigate the persecution and murder of the Austrian Roma and Sinti .

Honor

In 2017 the Selma-Steinmetz-Gasse in Vienna- Floridsdorf (21st district) was named after her.

Works (selection)

  • Bettina Brentano: Personality, Artistry and World of Thought , Vienna: Dissertation 1931
  • Austria's gypsies in the Nazi state , Europa-Verlag 1966
  • The struggle for freedom of the Austrian people 1938-1945 , documentation archive of the Austrian resistance 1985

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Selma Steinmetz. In: dasrotewien.at - Web dictionary of the Viennese social democracy. SPÖ Vienna (Ed.)
personal data
SURNAME Steinmetz, Selma
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian educator and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1979