Josef Johann Bayer
Personalia
Born:
Died:
Profession:
Persecution:
Deserted June 1943,
Imprisoned 23.08.1944 - 04.04.1945
Death sentence - not carried out: 30.09.1944
Memberships
Curriculum Vitae
Josef Bayer was born in Czernowitz in what is now Ukraine after the end of the First World War. Nothing has been preserved about his childhood and youth.
It can be said with certainty that Josef Bayer is in Vienna in 1938 and is opposed to National Socialism. On his 18th birthday, March 12, 1938, the German Wehrmacht invaded Austria and the free and independent Austria went under.
[...]
From the very beginning, my sincere Austrian convictions were opposed to having to serve in the ranks of the occupying army. I tried everything I could to break away from it and join an underground movement. However, this was very difficult for me, especially as I was still relatively young and had no previous political connections. I was also the only Austrian in a purely Prussian unit, which made the whole thing even more difficult. When I was on leave, I did everything I could to get in touch with men from a movement, which was virtually impossible because everyone distrusted everyone else.
[...]
After missions on the German Eastern Front and the fact that he was unable to join resistance groups, Josef Bayer decided to desert in June 1943. He managed to live underground for 14 months until he was betrayed and arrested on August 23, 1944.
On September 30, 1944, Josef Bayer was sentenced to death for 'escape from the flag' before a court martial of the commanding general in Luftgau XVII and transferred to the Vienna-Hardtmuthgasse military prison. There he waited daily for his execution.
His life was only saved by the liberation of Vienna and the defeat of the Third Reich. Josef Bayer is released from prison on 4 April 1945.
After Austria's liberation, Josef Bayer works as a tradesman and property manager, marries and joins the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich. In retirement, he moved to Rohrbach in Upper Austria, where he died childless at the age of 89.
Places
Residence:
Citations
Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv (WStLA)
