Therese Dworak

Therese Dworak (born as Therese Wurm on October 12, 1899 in Vienna ; died on June 21, 1944 there ) was an Austrian resistance fighter against National Socialism . She was sentenced to death by the Nazi judiciary together with Emilie Tolnay and the married couple Johann and Rosalia Graf and executed with the guillotine in the Vienna Regional Court .

Life

Born the fifteenth of eighteen children of the Wurm family, she attended compulsory school and first worked in the household, then as a laborer in a shoe factory. In 1918 she had a son. In 1938 she married the wood turner Karl Dworak (born in Vienna in 1891).

The couple was arrested by the Vienna Gestapo on July 14, 1942 , subjected to identification, photographed and interrogated. On December 22, 1943, Karl and Therese Dworak, together with the married couples Johann and Rosalia Graf and Anton and Emilie Tolnay, were indicted by the senior Reich attorney at the People's Court . Therese Dworak was accused of having taken part in the rebuilding of the illegal KPÖ and of having provided accommodation and food for the communist functionary Adolf Neustadtl who had broken out of prison . In doing so, she made it possible for him to "carry out extensive development work". She was also accused of participating in “anti-subversive communist meetings”, producing and distributing “writings that degrade the military force”, acting as a liaison within the KPÖ and collecting donations for Red Aid Austria .

On April 14, 1944 Therese Dworak, Johann Graf and Rosalia and Emilie Tolnay the People's Court of Vienna for "conspiracy to have been treason and aiding the enemy " to death sentenced Anton Tolnay to ten years in prison . "What is striking about this trial is that all women accused are sentenced to death and executed, while of the husbands involved only Johann Graf is sentenced to death." On June 21, 1944, Therese Dworak, Johann and Rosalia Graf were led to the scaffold and inside Executed with the guillotine a few minutes . The co-defendant Emilie Tolnay was beheaded a few days later, on July 5, 1944 .

Commemoration

Her name can be found on a memorial plaque unveiled in 1946 for the victims of the fight against fascism in the district management of the KPÖ- Penzing at Drechslergasse 42 and on a plaque in the execution room of the Vienna Regional Court , which today is a place of dedication to commemorate the victims of the Nazi regime is dedicated. Therese Dworak was buried in the shaft grave complex of group 40 of the Vienna Central Cemetery , in row 22, grave 217. The grave complex is now an honorary grove dedicated to the executed resistance fighters.

literature

• Wolfgang Neugebauer: Resistance and Persecution in Vienna 1934-1945 . tape 1 . Österreichischer Bundesverlag for teaching science and art, Vienna 1984, p. 125 .
• Wolfgang Neugebauer: Resistance and Persecution in Vienna 1934-1945 . tape 2 . Austrian Federal Publishing House for Science and Art Education, Vienna 1984.
• Erich Fein: The stones speak. Memorials of the Austrian struggle for freedom; Memorials for the victims of fascism; A documentation . Europaverlag, Vienna 1975, ISBN 978-3-203-50497-1 .
• Willi Weinert: "You can put me out, but not the fire": Wiener Zentralfriedhof - Group 40. A guide through the grove of honor for the executed resistance fighters . 3. Edition. Alfred Klahr Society, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-9502478-2-4 .
• Spiegel, Tilly : Women and Girls in the Austrian Resistance. Monographs on contemporary history. Vienna 1967
• DÖW files: 5733d, 6872, 6901, 19793/25

Web links

• Karin Nusko: Austrian Women in Resistance : Short biography Therese Dworak , accessed on July 27, 2015.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Karin Nusko: Austrian Women in Resistance : Short biography Therese Dworak , accessed on July 27, 2015.
2. ↑ Consecration place (former execution room) - memorial plaques with the names of 536 people executed . Post War Justice, accessed June 28, 2017.