Johann Andreas Hödl

Johann Andreas Hödl was born in Gloggnitz, the son of railroad official Andreas Hödl and his wife Elisabeth, née Eder. After finishing school, he followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Austrian Federal Railways. For many years, he was the dispatcher of Wiener Neustadt before taking up the position of dispatcher and stationmaster of Gutenstein.

In addition, Johann Hödl was active in the Austrian Homeland Security, where he was the town leader of Wiener Neustadt in 1934. During the National Socialist coup attempt in July 1934, he was actively involved in its suppression and supervised the National Socialists imprisoned in Wiener Neustadt and held at Wiener Straße 12.

In the night of March 11-12, 1938, Johann Hödl was taken out of bed by a group of National Socialists led by an illegal SA man and taken to the police prison in the Wiener Neustadt town hall building. After his wife is able to visit him one last time the next day, he is taken to Vienna and deported to Dachau concentration camp on the so-called Prominent Transport, the first transport of Austrian prisoners to a concentration camp.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Dachau concentration camp is cleared for the SS at short notice and Johann Hödl is transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp, which is currently being built, on September 27, 1939. He had a stomach ailment, which left him in poor health. When he falls very ill - probably with dysentery - he reports to the sick barrack. From there he writes two letters to his wife, the second of which is particularly heavily censored. In the first letter, he writes about the possible death of a Hans, but as he is the only Hans in the family, he probably means himself and sees his death approaching.

Shortly after receiving the second letter, his wife received the news from the concentration camp that he had "died of a stroke" on March 27, 1940.