Mathilde Hermine Franek

Personalia

Born:

February 25, 1885, Vienna

Died:

June 24, 1981, Vienna

Profession:

Civil servant

Memberships

ÖVP Comradeship of the politically persecuted and confessors for Austria

Curriculum Vitae

Mathilde Hermine Franek was born in Vienna as the legitimate daughter of the bather Wenzel Franek and Antonia, née Svoboda. After primary and secondary school, she became a postal clerk. She is the owner of the rented house at Hütteldorfer Straße 121 in Vienna's 14th district, where she also lives.

After the fall of Austria-Hungary, the break-up of the dual monarchy and the expulsion of the House of Habsburg, she joins the Christian Social Party (CSP). In 1934, she became a member of the Heimatschutz and the Vaterländische Front. She rejected National Socialism resolutely and out of deepest conviction. Mathilde Franek made no secret of this rejection in public.

I am pleased to confirm that I have known you personally since 1940. On the basis of repeated statements made by you to the employees of the Rudolf Schiff building management, in particular to my sister-in-law Miss Hansi Schiff, which were directed against the then ruling National Socialist regime, against the occupation of Austria in 1938, I placed my fullest confidence in you and spoke to you openly about the political situation.

[...]

Furthermore, I can confirm that you remained steadfast in your stance against the National Socialist regime after serving your sentence and were warned several times by acquaintances to hold back in view of the conviction that had already been handed down, as a second trial would almost certainly lead to a death sentence. Despite all this, you remained steadfast and upright as an Austrian until the very last day, without letting anyone put you off.

Bruno Schmitz about Mathilde Franek on December 6, 1946

Despite her outspoken behavior, she was no longer denounced. In April and May 1945, Mathilde Franek witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. She joins the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich and returned to work as a postal clerk.

Places

Residence:

Citations

Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv (WStLA)

Matricula Online

Friedhöfe Wien - Verstorbenensuche

Mathilde Franek

Civil servant
* February 25, 1885
Vienna
† June 24, 1981
Vienna
Detention