Karl KARGL was born in the small community of Veitsch deep in the mountains of Upper Styria (c. 280 Km east of Salzburg & c. 80 Km north of Graz) on September 18, 1903 and was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. He was a son of an unmarried laborer named Hermine Kargl.
We know little about his life: Like his mother, Karl KARGL worked at the Veitscher magnesite works [magnesite is a mineral used to produce heat-resistant material for lining blast furnaces, kilns and incinerators]. In 1941 he was a soldier in the German Wehrmacht, attached to the 1st company of the Wehrmacht division stationed in Salzburg, and held the enlisted rank of »rifleman«.
A previously unnoticed document of the Nazi’s Court Martial system provides information about his violent end: The 37-year-old »rifleman« Karl KARGL was murdered or driven to suicide on September 7, 1941 in the prison of the Salzburg Regional Court.
Did he leave any farewell words?
As in other cases like this, the criminal police who were supposed to investigate these deaths remained silent.
We can presume that his body was buried in the section of the Salzburg City Cemetery reserved for anonymous interments of unknown or dishonorable individuals.
What is certain is that Karl KARGL was one of a number of victims of the Nazi terror who were not recorded in either the documentation Widerstand und Verfolgung in Salzburg 1934-1945 (published in 1991) nor in the online databank of the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance.
Finally, it should be remembered that Karl KARGL had a mother who survived the war and who never learned what her son had to endure in Salzburg.
Sources
- Registration books in the archives of the Graz-Seckau Diocese and the Salzburg Archdiocese
- Division 188 Court Martial: Report to the Wehrmacht Information Office
Translation: Stan Nadel
Stumbling Stone
Laid 09.09.2024 at Salzburg, Kajetanerplatz 2
Report court martial Div. 188 to Wehrmacht information office