Hugo Berdach
Personalia
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Curriculum Vitae
Hugo Berdach was born in Vienna into a Jewish family, the legitimate son of Adolf Berdach and his wife Ernestine, née Winternitz. His parents' marriage broke up a few years later and Hugo Berdach was raised by his mother.
In Vienna, Hugo Berdach attended elementary school and then grammar school, where he graduated. He then worked for an import-export company, where he regularly visited the eastern provinces of Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Egypt.
Based on his professional experience, he later set up his own business as a trading agent for Ottoman and Bulgarian tobacco. The company is very successful, which is why he is able to buy several properties in Vienna-Döbling.
On June 7, 1903, he marries Toni Kraus and subsequently becomes the father of two sons and a daughter. In 1905, Hugo Berdach joins the 'Pioneer' lodge of the Grand Lodge of Vienna. As a merchant, he also became the general representative of German and Greek companies in the Balkan states.
Due to a chronic foot complaint, Hugo Berdach was not drafted into the First World War. In November 1918, he witnessed the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the break-up of the dual monarchy and the expulsion of the House of Habsburg. In the early 1920s, he finally moved with his family to one of the properties he had acquired in Döbling, where he had a villa built in 1925.
Hugo Berdach also founded a factory for sausage casings and invested in a cinema. In 1936, he suffers a stroke from which he never recovers.
On March 12, 1938, Hugo Berdach witnesses the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. With the occupation of Austria, German legislation is adopted and with it the 'Nuremberg Race Laws', according to which he is considered a 'full Jew'.
Hugo and Toni Berdach's three children manage to emigrate to England and the United States of America. A visa already issued to Toni and Hugo Berdach for emigration to the United States of America can no longer be claimed due to the outbreak of the Second World War, which is why they have to remain in occupied Austria.
The National Socialist rulers confiscate the Berdach family's property and Toni and Hugo Berdach have to move to a 'Jewish house' at Türkenstrasse 21 in Vienna's 9th district. From there, they were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp
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Citations
Mindler, Robert (2021): Verfolgt, Vertrieben, Ermordet. Auf den Spuren der Wiener Freimaurerei ab 1932 (Wien)
Verein Steine der Erinnerung an jüdische Opfer im Alsergrund (2019): Stationen der Erinnerung im Alsergrund. Teil 3 (Wien)
