Salzburg STUMBLING BLOCKS

Oskar GOLD FUSS, born 1899, Catholic, lived with his parents at 47/II Getreidegasse, where his father was caretaker. In 1920, two years before the death of his father, Oskar was admitted to the Salzburg Province Infirmary (leper) in Muelln and then admitted to the provincial mental hospital in Lehen. The ward was deported to Hartheim on 17 April 1941 and murdered there.

(Research: Gert Kerschbaumer)

Location: Getreidegasse 47

Oskar Goldfuss

Johanna STANDL, born in 1887 in Heiligenstadt (Lengau shire), Catholic, single, was housemaid and cook, worked since 1926 in Salzburg and lived mostly with her employers, most recently at 8 Griesgasse, Marianum. In February 1934 Ms. Standl was admitted to the provincial mental hospital in Salzburg-Lehen, on 21 May 1941 deported to Hartheim and murdered.

(Research: Gert Kerschbaumer)

Rosemarie DAXER, born on 1 February 1942 in Salzburg, was an illegitimate child who was placed two weeks after her birth (premature birth) in the “maid home” at 8 Griesgasse (formerly Marianum). Rosemarie’s mother, 20 years old, housemaid and kitchen maid, lived with her employers (frequent changes). Her daughter, Rosemarie was, at the request of the Reich Governor of Salzburg (Dr. Gustav Adolf Scheel, doctor)admitted in the “Vienna urban psychiatric hospital for children,” (Am Spiegelgrund): Admission on 12 July 1943, Pavilion 15 / I (death Pavilion), initial examination on 12 July 1943 (Dr. Ernst Illing), reporting to the “Reichsauschuss for the scientific recording of inherited-and born Anlagebedingt-heavy suffering” on 21 August 1943 (Dr. Marianne Tuerk), death of the 1 ½-year-old child Rosemarie, 21 August 1943, at 18:30, the official cause of death: “pneumonia”.

The malnourished child was administered with Veronal or Luminal (both barbiturates) (see Waltraud Haeupl: ”The murdered children from Am Spiegelgrund: Memorial documentation for the victims of the Nazi child euthanasia in Vienna”, Vienna, 2006, p. 90) (in German).

(Research: Waltraud Häupl, Gert Kerschbaumer)

Location: Griesgasse 8 (Marianum)

StandlDaxer

Anna FASSA, nee Krejci, born 15 January 1878 in Liefering, Catholic, was married to the commercial painter Anton FASSA (the husband died in February 1919) and had two children. The younger daughter Antonia died aged 22 in November 1919, after the birth of her first child, the elder daughter Anna died aged 26 in July 1921 after the birth of her third child.

The Fassa family lived since 1901 in Salzburg at 8 Steinbruchstrasse (owned by Anna Fassa). Mrs. Fassa, declared legally incapable in 1936, was admitted in 1937 to the provincial mental hospital Salzburg-Lehen, deported on 18 April 1941 to Hartheim and murdered there.

(Research: Andrea Strixner)

Location: Steinbruchstraße 8

Anna Fassa

Gottfried NEUNHAEUSERER OSB (Ordo Sancti Benedicti), born 1882 in Welsberg near Bruneck (South Tyrol), was Benedictine priest at St. Peter Monastery, with the religious name Romuald (1903 admittance and investiture, 1907 Perpetual Consecration, 1908 ordination as priest). From 1909 to 1920 Father Romuald filled the following positions: chaplain/cooperator, penitentiary, seminary prefect and pilgrimage priest. Father Romuald, who, from 1920 was patient in Salzburg-Lehen mental hospital, was deported on 17 April 1941 to Hartheim and murdered there on 8 May 1941.

Jakob FOERTSCH OSB (Ordo Sancti Benedicti), born 1896 in Neuensee, Upper Franconia (Bavaria), with the religious name Coelestin (investiture 1930, profession of faith 1931), was convent servant in the St. Peter Monastery and refectory attendant at St. Benedict College. After the expulsion of the monks by the Nazi regime in 1942, Brother Coelestin lived in his hometown Neuensee in Bavaria, where he was arrested for his dissident stance and deported to Dachau concentration camp on 8 October 1943 and to Ravensbrueck concentration camp on 22 November 1943. Brother Coelestine was murdered on 10 February 1944 in the Barth satellite camp.

(Research: Gert Kerschbaumer)

Location: St. Peter Monastery courtyard

Stiftshof St.Peter

Veronika MAULTASCH, nee Hofinger, born in 1876 in Altheim (Braunau district), was married to the Taxation Control Officer Leopold MAULTASCH (died 1932) and had three children. The family lived from 1910 at Schiller Street, Maxglan. In 1937, the widow moved to her son Leopold, a postal clerk, in the house at 9 Moenchsberg (Huttary House: residence of Agnes Muthspiel, Herbert Breiter, Stefan Kruckenhauser and Franz Hoppichler).

Mrs. MAULTASCH, who had been declared legally incapable in 1936, was admitted to the provincial mental hospital in Salzburg-Lehen, deported to Hartheim on 21 May 1941, and murdered.

(Research: Gert Kerschbaumer)

Location: 9 Moenchsberg (Huttary House)

maultasch

Josef SCHOEFEGGER, born 1906 in Feldkirchen near Mattighofen, Jehovah’s Witness, shoemaker, was married to Theresia, who in 1937 had a child (Josephine). The family lived at 120 Nonntaler Hauptstrasse, Salzburg, (Outer Nonntal). The husband and father was arrested for refusing military service on 24 November 1939, deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on 4 January 1940 and murdered there on the 15 April 1940. Wife and daughter survived the persecutions.

(Research: Gert Kerschbaumer)

Location: Nonntaler Hauptstraße 120

Josef Schöfegger

Karl SONNLEITHNER, born 1897 in Pilsen, Bohemia (Austria-Hungary, later Czechoslovakia), Catholic, was a son of the imperial officer Max Edler von Sonnleithner (d. 1930) and Anna, nee Stark (died 1942). The couple had three children, Max, Franz* and Anna. The family lived in Salzburg since 1903, at 1/II Arenbergstrasse. Son Karl, who had learned cabinetmaking, was ward of the Salzburg province mental hospital since 1925. He was deported to Hartheim on 21 May 1941 and murdered.

* Autobiography of Franz von Sonnleithner (born 1905 in Salzburg, died 1981 in Ingelheim am Rhein): “As diplomat in Hitler’s headquarters”, Munich 1989 (in German)

(Research: Gert Kerschbaumer)

Location: Arenbergstraße 1

sonnleithner

Karl STEINOCHER, born in 1894 in Cesky Krumlov, Bohemia (Austria-Hungary, and after that Czechoslovakia), married, Old Catholic, was conductor, member of the Austrian Socialist Party, the Republican Defense Corps, the Free Trade Union (shop steward for railway workers) and, after the prohibition of the Social Democrats in February 1934, a member of the illegal Revolutionary Socialists of Austria (RSO).
He was engaged in April 1941 by the illegal Communist Party of Austria: State Railroad Group as a member, arrested on 26 February 1942 after the network of organized resistance (KPO and RSO) had been smashed by the Gestapo. On 27 November 1942, nine railway workers, among them Karl Steinocher, were convicted to several years each in prison for conspiracy to commit treason by the High Court to Vienna. On 15 August 1942, Steinocher, who received seven years’ imprisonment, was transferred, before the sentencing, from Salzburg prison to Landsberg am Lech prison, afterwards detained in Straubing and Amberg penitentiaries, finally in the Hohenasperg fortress near Ludwigsburg, where he died, after the liberation, on 16 May 1945 as a consequence of prison conditions (pulmonary tuberculosis).
The Steinocher family (wife Therese, nee Bruckbauer, three sons) lived until 1932 in Bischofshofen, afterwards in Itzling (then Gnigl community) and from 13 August 1934 in the Bucklreuthstrasse,Salzburg.
The widow Theresa (Resi) died in 1990 in Salzburg. The youngest son, Karl Steinocher Jr., was born in 1920 in Bischofshofen, became railway worker, trade unionist, Austrian Socialist Party (SPO) politician (municipal council, provincial parliament, Federal Council), provincial party chairman of the SPO and the Deputy Governor of Salzburg Province.

(Research: Gert Kerschbaumer)

Location: Bucklreuthstraße 13

Karl Steinocher

Notburga TIEFGRABER, nee Zillner, born 1885 in Elsbethen in Salzburg, Jehovah’s Witness, was married to Johann Tiefgraber and had three children, Johann, Notburga and Maria.

The family lived first at Anif, where the children were born, and from 1932 at 10 Aigner Strasse, Salzburg- Parsch (Mayr-Melnhof marble works, today the tax office). On 15 November 1939 the couple was arrested for their faith and refusal to take part in any military service. The wife was deported to Ravensbrueck concentration camp on 15 March 1940, where she was assassinated on 22 March 1944. The husband, who was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau until 20 September 1940, was released and was able to return to his children in Salzburg.

(Research: Gert Kerschbaumer)

Location: 10 Aigner Strasse (Mayr-Melnhof, today the tax office)

tiefgrabner

August GRUBER, born 1894 in Aurolzmuenster, Catholic, married, was a signaller of the Salzburg Railway and Tramway Company (SEuTG, today, local railway), a member of the Social Democratic Party, the Republican Defense Corps, the Free Trade Union (shop steward for railway workers) and, after the ban on Social Democracy in February 1934, a member of the illegal Revolutionary Socialists of Austria (RSO).
Under the Nazi regime, the railway workers with their small cells along the minor branch lines represented the most organized resistance (RSO and Austrian Communist Party). Key figure in the RSO, employed in the Third Reich railroad workshop, was the metal turner Engelbert WEISS (beheaded on April 7, 1944 in Berlin-Ploetzensee). August GRUBER had organized an RSO group in the SEuTG (local railway), recruited members and collected money for comrades in need. On 5 February 1942, 76 railway workers, including August GRUBER, were arrested after the Gestapo had managed to infiltrate a spy into the railroad network and expose it.
August GRUBER was sentenced to death on 8 August January 1943 for conspiracy to commit high treason and executed on 23 March 1943 in Berlin-Ploetzensee as shown in the official record:

“At 18.36 the sentenced was brought by two prison officers, his hands tied behind his back. The executioner Roettger from Berlin was ready with his three assistants. The offender, who was calm and collected, was positioned without resistance on the guillotine, whereupon the executioner beheaded him with the guillotine and then reported that the sentence was executed. The execution of the sentence from presentation until announcement of completion lasted 18 seconds. ”
(“Resistance and persecution in Salzburg from 1934 to 1945”, Volume 1, p. 278) (in German)

The GRUBER family (wife Maria, nee Neuhauser, and daughter Grete) lived at 2/IV Sigmundplatz, Salzburg, since 1922. The widow, who lived until 1971 at that address, died in Nonntal nursing home in 1977. Daughter Grete, born 1922, and her son Gerhard, born in 1945, moved away in 1966.

(Research: Gert Kerschbaumer)

Location: Herbert von Karajan-Platz 2 (vormals Sigmundsplatz)

Sigmundsplatz 2