Margarethe SCHALLMOSER was born in Strobl on the Wolfgangsee (41 km east of Salzburg) on December 30, 1923 and was baptized Roman Catholic.
Her parents were Maria Anna and Franz Schallmoser – a shoemaker. Their daughter Margarethe was a pupil in the St. Josef home for girls in Salzburg-Nonntal.
Under the Nazi regime Margarethe worked as a maid in various locations – a short and uneasy life that ended violently in a concentration camp.
Early in the wartime year of 1943 Margarethe fell into the clutches of the Gestapo or the criminal police – but why did she fall under suspicion? She was probably the victim of a denunciation.
What we know for certain is that the 19 year old was locked up in the police jail without being brought to trial, indicating that she hadn’t committed any demonstrable offense.
The persecution of this youth was political – Margarethe was one of those from the lower social strata who could not or would not subordinate themselves to the compulsory system of the »national community«. Therefore they were stigmatized as »alien to the community« or »asocial« – with fatal consequences.
On February 6, 1943 Margarethe Schallmoser was deported from the police jail on the Rudolfsplatz (which the Nazis called the Georg-von-Schönerer-Platz) to the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women.
She was registered as prisoner number 22813 and she was murdered there on May 22, 1944. The death of the 22 year old was recorded in the Strobl parish registry.
She was one of the terror victims who was left out of the book Widerstand und Verfolgung in Salzburg 1934-1945 [Resistance and Persecution in Salzburg, 1934-1945] published in 1991 because they didn’t appear in any police, court, or victims’ compensation records.
And for the same reason they have not been included in the Victim Registry of the Documentation Archives of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW).
Sources
- Salzburg city and state archives
- Archive of the Salzburg Archdiocese
Translation: Stan Nadel
Stumbling Stone
Laid 28.09.2017 at Salzburg, Rudolfsplatz 3
Memorial for women in the resistance against National SocialismPhoto: Stadtarchiv
