Josef EGGER, born on March 8, 1891, in Radstadt, was Catholic, unmarried, and a merchant by profession. He ran a flower shop in Bischofshofen and had a prior criminal record due to his sexual orientation.
Under Nazi rule, he moved to the city of Salzburg. He was a subtenant in the Itzling district.
The criminal record of the Salzburg Regional Court shows that on September 19, 1939 — at the start of World War II — Josef EGGER was sentenced to 18 months of »severe imprisonment« under Section 129 I b of the Austrian Penal Code, which remained in effect at the timec — »unnatural sexual acts with persons of the same sex.« 1
It is also documented that the criminal police had Josef EGGER, who was being held in the detention center of the Salzburg Regional Court, deported to the Dachau concentration camp: he arrived on October 5, 1940, as prisoner No. 20149 (»police preventive detention« with a green triangle).
Josef EGGER was murdered at the Dachau concentration camp on April 5, 1941, at the age of 50 (official cause of death: »heart and circulatory failure«); he was subsequently cremated and buried in the local cemetery in Bischofshofen.
1 Under the Nazi regime, proceedings were brought against 338 individuals — including six women — at the Salzburg Regional Court under Section 129 I b — »unnatural sexual acts with persons of the same sex«— of the Austrian Penal Code, which remains in force today.
However, the court files preserved in the Salzburg State Archives were destroyed in the 1990s.
Sources
- Salzburg City and Provincial Archives: Police registration records and criminal records of the Salzburg Regional Court
- Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial and Arolsen Archives
Translation: Stan Nadel
Stumbling Stone
Laid 18.04.2013 at Salzburg, Meierhofweg 13 (Ecke Ratsbriefstraße)
Photo: Gert Kerschbaumer