Alfred Burian

Alfred Burian was born in Moravian Pisek [today: Moravský Písek in the Czech Republic] as the legitimate son of railroad official Adolf Burian and Franziska, née Nejezchleby. Nothing is known about his childhood and youth. In 1910, he began working as an administrative employee at the Brevillier & Uraban company in Neunkirchen. Two years later, in 1912, he married Elisabeth Jankovits.

After the occupation of Austria by the Third Reich on March 12, 1938, Alfred Burian was arrested and imprisoned in Neunkirchen. Although he was suffering from a bladder ailment, he received inadequate treatment and was transferred to the Wiener Neustadt district court on July 20, 1938, where he was released from prison on September 7, 1938. Under pressure from the NSDAP, Alfred Burian loses his job at Brevillier & Uraban as he is considered 'politically unreliable' and has to leave Neunkirchen by September 8, 1938.

He moves to Vienna with his wife and is unemployed for the next two years. He then found work again as a dispatcher at the Dornacher Steinbrüche company and became involved in the resistance group around Hans Knoll, who later became the director of Alpine Montan Gesellschaft.

On October 31, 1944, Alfred Burian was arrested again and severely mistreated by Gestapo officer Rudolf Hitzler. On November 5, 1944, he was deported to the Dachau concentration camp, where he fell ill with furunculosis, facial erysipelas, intestinal leakage and urine leakage. When he was liberated by American troops on 29 April 1945, he had lost 80 kg to 48 kg.

In liberated Austria, Alfred Burian found work again as a clerk and became involved in the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich