Heinrich Dürmayer – Wikipedia

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Heinrich Georg Peter Dürmayer , called Heinz Dürmayer (Born April 10, 1905 in Atzgersdorf near Vienna, Austria-Hungary, † September 22, 2000 in Vienna) was an Austrian resistance fighter against Austrofascism and National Socialism as well as Interbrigadist, functional prisoner in concentration camps, official of the KPÖ, lawyer and police officer.

Studies, political activity and resistance to Austrofascism [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Heinrich Dürmayer was the son of the locksmith Peter Dürmayer (1880–1959) and his wife Karoline, born Maliwanek (1880–1938), who later became both members of the NSDAP. After completing his school career at the University of Vienna, he studied law and became Dr. jur. PhD. [first] During his studies, he joined the Corps Marchia Vienna, a striking student connection. This connection was considered an equal liberal and also started Jewish students as members. [2] Then he worked as a lawyer. As a member of the SDAP and the Republican protection association, he took part in the February fights in 1934, was arrested at short notice and was a member of the KPÖ at the end of 1934. Dürmayer was detained for 17 months in 1935/36 for communist activity in the Vienna Regional Court and in the Wöllersdorf Anhalt camp. His release was associated with the requirement to leave Austria. [3] He was grown in 1937 and became an Austrian citizen again in 1945. [first]

Interbrigadist, internment and gestapohaft [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

After stays in Paris and London, Dürmayer fought on the part of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War in the Spanish Civil War in the International Brigades against the establishment of a dictatorship under Franco. [4] There he was initially machine guns in the Tschapayev battalion. [3] Most recently, as a major, he held the post of a political commissioner at the 35th division of the Interbrigades. [first] During his time at the international brigades, he worked and wrote, among other things, reports on front arrangements. [3]

His wife Renée Dürmayer (1907–1978), born Renate Lelewer, followed him from England to Spain in February 1937. She worked as a pharmaceutical pharmacy in the central pharmacy of the international brigades in Albacete. [5] [6]

After the republicans were defeated, he fled to France, where he was interned in French in February 1939 and was detained in the camps in Saint-Cyprien, Gurs and Le Vernet. After the defeat of France in World War II, he was delivered to the “Großeutsche Reich” on September 4, 1940, interrogated by the Gestapo in Vienna and recorded it. After a year of pre -trial detention in Vienna, he was again transferred to the Gestapo in Vienna in January 1942. [4]

Inmaid in the concentration camps Flossenbürg, Auschwitz and Mauthausen [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

In mid -March 1942, Dürmayer was brought to the Flossenbürg concentration camp from there. [4] There he was used in the quarry for nine months. In the Flossenbürg concentration camp, he belonged to the conditionally organized warehouse resistance around Karl Fugger. [7]

Dürmayer was transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp in January 1944 by Flossenbürg and was initially used at the prisoner camp supervision, then in the prisoner writing and later as Kapo of the SS clothing chamber. From September 1944 until the war -related evacuation of the warehouse complex in January 1945, he was the elder of the regular camp. [8] In this function, he inevitably had close contact with the camp prominence and also the warehouse SS. He was a leading member of the international warehouse resistance. In the regular camp, he belonged to the Auschwitz combat group and also used his position as a functional prisoner efficiently for this organization. [9] His later Jewish wife Janka (also Judith), block elder in Auschwitz, is also actively named by Bruno Baum as in the warehouse resistance. [ten] Hermann Langbein, as well as Dürmayer political prisoner in Auschwitz, nevertheless stated that he would have maintained too close contact with the so -called criminal prisoners and the SS and would have thus alienated from other prisoners. During the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in January 1945, Dürmayer, according to Langbein, is said to have left the camp in the car of the protection adhesion manager Franz Hößler with a different camp prominence, [9] What Dürmayer vehemently denied. [11]

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Dürmayer came to the Mauthausen concentration camp on January 25, 1945 by Wodzisław śląski. [twelfth] As President of the International Committee, he again held a leading position in the warehouse resistance in the Mauthausen concentration camp. [13] After the withdrawal of the camps SS from the Mauthausen concentration camp until May 3, 1945, the international camp committee took over the warehouse management. The main task of the committee after deducting the warehouse was to ensure the care of the prisoners with food. [14] Dürmayer was officially on May 4, 1945 in the Mauthausen concentration camp on May 4, 1945 – one day before the camp was released. [15]

On May 16, 1945, shortly after the liberation of the concentration camp Mauthausen, Dürmayer read the so-called “Mauthausen-Schwur” for the international committee called of all former political inmates. [16]

Leags the state of State [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Dürmayer (sitting on the left) hears the Grabner guarded by two police officers in September 1945.

After the exemption, Dürmayer was immediately commissioned by the State Secretary for the Interior of the Provisional government of Renner, the KPÖ leadership member Franz Honner, to build and lead a new and unencumbered state police. [17] As suffering the state policy – formal State Police Office of the Federal Police Directorate Vienna – He also subordinate the department to determine war criminals. [18] In this function, Dürmayer, whose department mainly from communists and so -called unencumbered stock, was able to arrest the former head of the political department in Auschwitz Maximilian Grabner in the field work in August 1945. At the beginning of September 1945, he subjected Grabner to a police interrogation, which was also demonstrated in the weekly show. He also managed to arrest Siegfried Seidl, the former commander of the Theresienstadt Ghettos. [19] Dürmayer had a number of support or labor camps for former National Socialists set up after taking up service, which existed alongside allied internment camps. [20] He was promoted to Higher Police Council in 1946. [21]

As an anti -fascist, Dürmayer tried to force the communist influence in addition to the arrest of former National Socialists. He had received extensive powers from the Soviet city commander. At times, almost a thousand police officers were subject to him. [22] Based on the one decided in 1945 Civil servant passing law the attitude of former concentration camp prisoners and resistance fighters in the civil service had been forced. The setting criteria for the police service were also reduced, which benefited the mostly not academically trained communists. [23] About 90% of the state police employees are said to have been members of the KPÖ. The state police under Dürmayer’s direction ran the risk of becoming “state in the state”, since it “largely withdrawn from the influence of the Vienna police department and also questioned the government’s authority from actions apart from the Austrian laws.” [24] Dürmayer led the official title from 1947 real court councilor . [21]

An alleged attempt by an explosive attack on the Viennese heroic monument of the Red Army ultimately led to Dürmayer’s dismissal. In 1947, two 19-year-old men and a 25-year-old woman were noticed in a Viennese dance restaurant who wanted to bring about “a political upheaval” in the National Socialist sense and wanted to join a werewolf group. The state police then set a spy called Herbert on the group that showed up staggered in the apartment of a suspect from Allied barracks. According to the spy, the suspect is said to have said that there are “so many monuments and other things” “who do not fit in”, and he also came to the Russian monument. After his arrest, the accused said that it was not he but the spy to use the explosives for an attack on the Russian monument. In early June 1948, the two male members were finally sentenced to several years in prison by the observed group at the beginning of June 1948. According to the Interior Minister Oskar Helmer, Dürmayer had gone too far with the use of spies and would have only created the assassination plan in order to politically exploit the facts. [25]

At the beginning of September 1947, Dürmayer was released from his post by the Interior Minister Helmer in the course of the beginning of the Cold War. The background was Dürmayer’s Prosowjetical politics in the Soviet sector and his influential position within the administration, which Helmer sees as a danger to Austria’s democracy. At the same time, Dürmayer was informed of the transfer to Salzburg. However, he did not compete in Salzburg and left the police service. [22] Shortly before his removal, he had spent important files in the Soviet city commandant. [26]

Dürmayer was in court against the memoirs of the Interior Minister Helmer (“50 Years experienced”) published in 1957 and – at least temporarily – reached the confiscation of the book. Dürmayer saw the publication to “disregard his compatibility of his compatriots” because Helmer Dürmayer, u. A. described as the “learned student of the Russian secret police” and accused the state police at the time. [27] The SPÖ-close political scientist Norbert reader later said that Dürmayer in the event of a communist takeover in Austria “” would have become a little Berija ”. [28]

Lawyer, commitment to victim associations and witnesses in Nazi processes [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Dürmayer subsequently worked again in his profession as a lawyer, including he became the legal advisor of the KPÖ. [22] Later he played “an important role in the handling of the east-west trade”. [first]

He devoted himself to the creation of the Mauthausen memorial and, as early as May 1947, commented on the site of the former concentration camp Mauthausen as follows: “A place that would be a holy place in any other country is a crazed stattness and [a] potato rack .. ” [29] In January 1998, Dürmayer, together with other former Flossbürg prisoners, campaigned for the then Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber to permanently establish a research and documentation site on the site of the former Flossenbürg concentration camp. [30] Dürmayer became a member of the KZ Association in November 1948 Federal Association of Austrian resistance fighter and victims of fascism . He justified the Association of the former Spain fighter , was a long -time general secretary of the International Mauthausomiteses And President of the Austrian Association of Democratic Lawyers . [first] In March 1947, in March 1947, he testified as a witness in the Warsaw trial. [thirty first] Even during the first Frankfurt Auschwitz process, he performed as a witness in June 1964. [twelfth]

After the criticism of the former Auschwitz prisoner Hermann Langbein on the secret process against Imre Nagy and his exit from the KPÖ, Dürmayer traveled together with the Auschwitz -surviving Josef Meisel at the end of the 1950s to Poland in order to achieve Langbein as a general secretary of the International Auschwitz Committee. [32] Also because Langbein Dürmayer’s role in his publications on concentration camps not only described as unproblematic, there was an aversion to Langbein. In 1981 Dürmayer protested in a letter to the Committee of the Anti -Fascist resistance fighters (KAW) that Langbein’s name was called in a publication by Heinz Kühnrich. The KAW finally called for the institute for Marxism-Leninism at the ZK of the SED, where the publication was to appear, not to do so. [33]

Even after the resignation of the Prague Spring, he remained a convinced member of the Communist Party in 1969 in this regard in a letter: “… I did not join the KPÖ in 1934 to fight for civil democracy for bourgeois, so -called freedom Expression, freedom of assembly and association, freedom of the press- no, I wanted the dictatorship! Our dictatorship […] There are regions and situations where you have to use methods that do not have to correspond to the ideal worldview, but are necessary to secure a happy, humanistic future. I reject an equality of hard methods on our side and the side of our enemies as wrong, demagogically, unmarxistic and undialectically. ” [34]

Over 50 years after leaving, Dürmayer was again included in the Marchia student association in November 1988. [2]

Since 1945 he was married to Janka, born Kahan (1919–2013). The couple received a daughter in 1946, the later lawyer Evelyn Dürmayer. [first]

Dürmayer has been awarded multiple awards, including With the Polish Spanish fighter medal and the Hans-Beimler medal. [first]

Dürmayer died on September 22, 2000 and was buried on the Vienna Central Cemetery on October 2, 2000. [35]

  • Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (ed.): Biographical manual of German -language emigration after 1933. Vol. 1: Politics, Economy, Public Life . Saur, Munich, 1999 (= 1980), DNB 955870380 , S. 140.
  • Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Ullstein, Frankfurt 1980 ISBN 3-54833014-2.
  • Winfried R. Garscha: The role of the security executive in denazification: file stocks and inventory gaps . In: Walter Schuster & Wolfgang Weber: Designation in regional comparison . Archives of the city of Linz 2004 (pdf; 73 kB)
  • Hans-Peter Klausch: To the anti-fascist struggle for resistance of the German, Austrian and Soviet Communists in the Fannenbürg concentration camp 1940-1945. Library and information system of the Univ. Oldenburg, Oldenburg 1990, ISBN 3-8142-0240-6. (pdf)
  • Bruno Baum: Resistance in Auschwitz. (in all editions, passim; “Heinz”) VVN, Berlin 1949 and Ö.
  • Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, assistants and victims and what became of them. A person lexicon , S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-10-03933-3.
  • The invented assassination attempt . In: The mirror . No. 2 , 1958 ( online ).
  • Edgar Schütz: Austrian journalists in the Spanish Civil War 1936 – 1939. Media policy and press of the international brigades , Series: Austrian cultural research, Volume 20, LIT Verlag, Berlin-Münster-Wien-Zürich-London 2016, ISBN 978-3-643-50759-4, p. 370f.
  1. ↑ a b c d It is f g Biographical manual of German -language emigration after 1933 , Band 1: Politics, economy, public life , Munich 1980, p. 140
  2. ↑ a b Martin Haidinger: Where have the left virtues have? . Guest comment in: Wiener Zeitung, Edition of January 30, 2008 (accessed November 15, 2013)
  3. ↑ a b c Edgar Schütz: Austrian journalists in the Spanish Civil War 1936 – 1939 , Berlin-Münster-Wien-Zürich-London 2016, pp. 370f.
  4. ↑ a b c Dürmayer, Heinrich Dr. At www.doew.at
  5. ↑ Renété Lugnsitz: Spain fighters; Foreign women in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 . Lit Punning 2012, ISBN 978-3-643-50404-3, S. 49
  6. ↑ Dürmayer, Renée, Mag. on http://www.doew.at
  7. ↑ Hans-Peter Klausch: Resistance in Flossenbürg: To the anti-fascist resistance struggle of the German, Austrian and Soviet Communists in the concentration camp Feinenbürg 1940-1945 , Oldenburg 1990, pp. 28f. and 89.
  8. ↑ Raphael Gross, Werner Renz (ed.): The Frankfurt Auschwitz process (1963–1965). Commented source edition , Scientific series of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Volume 1, Campus, Frankfurt 2013, ISBN 978-3-593-39960-7, p. 409
  9. ↑ a b Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Frankfurt 1980, S. 286f.
  10. ↑ Bruno Baum: Resistance in Auschwitz. , Berlin 1949, p. 25; 1962, p. 80. Baum dedicates his own summary section: 1949, pp. 52f., 1962: pp. 103f.
  11. ↑ Central party archive of the KPÖ, letter from Heinrich Dürmayer to the Europa-Verlag regarding “People in Auschwitz” by Hermann Langbein, November 14, 1972.
  12. ↑ a b The Auschwitz Process – Witness Heinrich Dürmayer At www.auschwitz-probrobs-frankfurt.de
  13. ↑ Ulrich Herbert, Karin Orth, Christoph Dieckmann: The National Socialist concentration camps: development and structure. Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 1998. ISBN 3-89244-289-4, p. 211
  14. ↑ Florian Freund, Bertram Perz: Mauthausen – regular camp . In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist concentration camps. Band 4: Flossenbürg, Mauthausen, Ravensbrück. C.H. Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52964-X, p. 328.
  15. ↑ Florian Freund, Bertram Perz: Mauthausen – regular camp . In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist concentration camps. Volume 4, Munich 2006, p. 332.
  16. ↑ Mauthausen-Schwur – In the wording at: Landesverband Upper Austria of anti-fascists, resistance fighters and victims of fascism (concentration camp/VDA Upper Austria)
  17. ↑ Werner Sabitzer: 60 years after the end of the war – difficult new beginning . In: Public security – the magazine of the Interior Ministry , MAI/JUNI 2005, S. 73–75 (pdf; 213 kB)
  18. ↑ Winfried R. Garscha: The role of the security executive in denazification: file stocks and gaps. In: Walter Schuster, Wolfgang Weber (ed.): Designation in a regional comparison: the attempt at a balance sheet (= Historical Yearbook of the City of Linz 2002 ). Archive of the city of Linz, Linz 2004, ISBN 3-900388-55-5, pp. 551ff.
  19. ↑ Kurt Hacker: In the service of the public. In: Franz Danimann; Hugo Pepper (ed.): Austria in April ’45 , Europaverlag, Vienna, Munich, Zurich, 1985, pp. 173–176. Printed in: Auschwitz Information, 67th edition, January 2005, University of Linz, Institute for Social and Economic History, Johannes Kepler (pdf; 82 kB)
  20. ↑ Austria. Council of Ministers, Peter Mähner, Walter Mentzel: Protocols of the Council of Ministers of the Second Republic: July 17, 1946 to November 19, 1946 , Verlag Austria, 2005, p. 57
  21. ↑ a b List of persons from KPÖ members in the Vienna police At www.klahrgesellschaft.at
  22. ↑ a b c Erwin A. Schmidl: Austria in the early Cold War 1945-1958: spies, partisans, war plans , Böhlau Verlag Vienna, 2000, ISBN 978-3-205-992165, pp. 108f.
  23. ↑ With hammer and sickle in the state police The press, July 13, 2012
  24. ↑ Andreas Huber: Designation and return. Student 1945-1950 . In: Andreas Huber, Katharina Kniefacz, Alexander Krysl, Manes Weisskirchner: University and discipline: members of the University of Vienna and National Socialism , Lit-publisher, who 2011, issbn 978-3-643-50265-0, S. 223
  25. ↑ Rudolf Jerabek: Criminal history – girl murder and assassination . In: public security, issue 1/2006, p. 38
  26. ↑ Christoph Fraperationii, Erich Schmidt-Opbooes, Thomas Tweener Friis: Spy among friends. Partner service relationships and west reconnaissance of the organization and the BND , Ch. Links Publishes, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86153-946-9, S. 123
  27. ↑ The invented assassination attempt . In: Der Spiegel, edition 2 of January 8, 1958, pp. 31f.
  28. ↑ Norbert reader: The fear of social democracy of the return of the monarchy . In: Clemens Aigner et al.: The Habsburg trauma. The difficult relationship of the Republic of Austria to its history . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna-Köln-Weimar 2014 ISBN 978-3-205-78917-8, p. 51, 60, here p. 58
  29. ↑ Quoted from: Bertrand Perz: The Mauthausen concentration camp memorial to the present in 1945 . Study publisher, Innsbruck-Wien-Bozen 2006, ISBN 978-3-7065-4025-4, p. 64.
  30. ↑ Future of the memorial ( Memento from October 8, 2007 in Internet Archive )
  31. ↑ Volker Buy: Rudolf Höß. The commander of Auschwitz. A biography. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne/ Weimar/ Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-412-22353-3, p. 10
  32. ↑ Brigitte Bailer, Bertrand Perz, Heidemarie Uhl: The Austrian memorial in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The history of origin and new concept . In: Dirk Ruppnow, Heidemarie Uhl (ed.): Exhibit contemporary history in Austria. Museums – Memorials – Exhibitions , Böhlau, Vienna and 2011, ISBN 978-3-205-78531-6, p. 161
  33. ↑ Simone Barck: Antifa history (s): A literary search for traces in the GDR of the 1950s and 1960s , Böhlau Verlag, Cologne and Weimar 2003, ISBN 3412138029, p. 112
  34. ↑ Dürmayer on March 19, 1969 in a letter to Gustl Herrnstadt. Quoted from: Edgar Schütz: Austrian journalists in the Spanish Civil War 1936–1939 , Berlin-Münster-Wien-Zürich-London 2016, pp. 370f.
  35. ↑ Heinrich Dürmayer grave site , Vienna, central cemetery, group 54, No. 24.
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