Sophie Vitek

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Sophie Vitek (born on January 11, 1919 in Vienna ) is an Austrian resistance fighter against National Socialism and a historian . She was sentenced to death by the Nazi judiciary together with Ernestine Diwisch , Friedrich Muzyka , Alfred Rabofsky and Anna Wala and was on death row for seven months . After that, because of an intervention with Heinrich Himmler , her sentence was changed to fifteen years in prison, but the death sentences against her comrades were carried out.

Life

The daughter of a master carpenter attended school after compulsory schooling and from 1938 was employed as a trainee inspector at the Reichspost . In addition to her work, she attended the Free Lyceum Maturaschule , from which she graduated in 1940, and from 1941 studied history at the University of Vienna . Her school friend Alfred Rabofsky introduced her to members of the Communist Youth Association of Austria (KJVÖ) in 1939 . Vitek joined the resistance group The Soldiers' Council, participated in the mailing of soldiers' letters, distributed pamphlets in 1941 and 1942 and sent out so-called "soldiers' letters", in which soldiers at the front were called to resist and desert.

On May 31, 1943, Sophie Vitek was arrested and interrogated by the Vienna Gestapo ; on July 8, 1943, a protective custody order was issued, and on September 23, 1943, the prosecutor at the People's Court in Berlin brought charges. Her school friend Alfred Rabofsky, her neighbor Anna Wala , and Ernestine Diwisch , Friedrich Muzyka and Ernestine Soucek were also accused . During the trial on February 8, 1944 before the People's Court in Vienna, she was sentenced to death and "loss of honor for life". Of the six accused, only Ernestine Soucek was sentenced to prison, all others - Diwisch, Muzyka, Rabofsky and Wala - to death by guillotine .

On March 21, 1944, the Rector of the University of Vienna, Eduard Pernkopf , received the judgment of the People's Court and on the same day informed the Dean of the Philosophical Faculty. The reasoning for the judgment reads on preparation for high treason and favoring the enemy by dismantling military strength , Vitek had "partly up to autumn 1941, partly also up to spring 1942 organized the high treason organisationally and agitationally by participating in a disintegration action on the part of the communist youth association in Vienna and, since this was done during the current war happened, thereby at the same time undertaking to feed the enemies of our empire and to inflict a disadvantage on our military power. ”Since Vitek had been sentenced to death, the university saw no need to initiate disciplinary proceedings.

Due to a personal intervention by her brother with Heinrich Himmler , the sentence against Sophie Vitek was changed to 15 years in prison on August 26, 1943, but her co-defendants Ernestine Diwisch, Friedrich Muzyka, Alfred Rabofsky and Anna Wala were brought to the Vienna Regional Court in May and September 1944, respectively executed. Vitek was also imprisoned there until October 7, 1944, when she was transferred to the women's prison in Jauer in Silesia, where she was liberated by the Red Army on April 8, 1945 .

After the fall of the Nazi regime , Vitek was able to continue her studies and finally finish it in 1951 with a dissertation on the subject of Samaritans on Austria's battlefields .

literature

  • Susanne Baier: The resistance of communists in Austria , Dipl. Arb. Vienna 1987.
  • Inge Brauneis: Resistance of women in Austria against National Socialism 1938-1945 , Diss. Vienna 1974.
  • Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance (ed.): Resistance and persecution in Vienna 1934-1945 . A documentation. B. 2, Vienna 1984
  • Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance (ed.): Resistance and persecution in Lower Austria 1934-1945 . A documentation. B. 2, Vienna 1987.
  • Katharina Kniefacz, Alexander Krysl, Manès Weisskircher: University and discipline: Members of the University of Vienna and National Socialism. Münster 2011, p. 33.
  • Marie Tidl: The Red Students . Documents and memories 1938-1945. Vienna 1976.
  • University of Vienna : Austrian Women in Resistance , entry on Sophie Vitek, written by Karin Nusko, accessed on May 16, 2015.

proof

  1. ↑ a b Katharina Kniefacz, Alexander Krysl, Manès Weisskircher: University and Discipline: Members of the University of Vienna and National Socialism , Münster 2011, p. 32 f.
  2. ↑ Divergent sources speak of eight or nine years.
personal data
SURNAME Vitek, Sophie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian historian and resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH January 11, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria