Helene Wilhelmine Elisabeth Bunzmann (geb. Ullmann)
Personalia
Born:
Died:
Profession:
Persecution:
Detention 04.04.1941 - 09.05.1941
Memberships
Curriculum Vitae
Helene Wilhelmine Elisabeth Ullmann was born in Vienna as the legitimate daughter of railroad official Wilhelm Ullmann and Justine, née Makarius. After completing primary and secondary school, she married Leo Bunzmann, an inspector of the municipal tramway, in 1910 and became a housewife. Their children were born in 1925 and 1927.
On March 12, 1938, she witnessed the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. A short time later, on December 7, 1938, her husband died.
An acquaintance works for the International Sleeping Car Company and is often in Paris on business. When he is in Vienna, he can stay with Helene Bunzmann. From Paris, he constantly takes the emigrant magazine 'Österreichische Post', Swiss newspapers such as the 'Basler Rundschau' and the 'Zürcher Zeitung' as well as leaflets with legitimist content. He also took along the work 'The Grip on Austria', which was published in Paris as exile literature and was banned in the Third Reich.
Together with her friends Viktor Swoboda, Georg Klein, Franziska Hortsch, Eva Friedländer and Charlotte Adlitzer, Helene Bunzmann distributed the writings and literature she had received to acquaintances. In addition, she often discusses with Georg Klein the hoped-for imminent independence of Austria and the return of Otto von Habsburg to his homeland.
The group's activities do not go unnoticed by the Gestapo, and Helen Bunzmann is charged at large. In a trial before the special court on August 14, 1940, she was sentenced to six months in prison. She began her sentence on April 4, 1941 and served it in Vienna and the Stein prison. As her health continued to deteriorate, she was released from prison on May 9, 1941.
The widow witnessed the liberation of Austria in April and May 1945 and joined the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP Comradeship of the Politically Persecuted and Confessors for Austria. She died in Vienna at the age of 83 and was laid to rest at the Vienna Central Cemetery.
Places
Residence:
Citations
Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv (WStLA)
Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstands (DÖW)
Matricula Online
Friedhöfe Wien - Verstorbenensuche
