Dkfm. Willy Klein

Willy Klein was born in 1914 in Vienna as the son of a Catholic and a Jewish woman. After visiting the Volksschule in 1931 he maturates at the Wiener Schubertgymnasium. He then insulates trade sciences at the University of World Trade. In the same year, his father dies. In 1932 Willy Klein joined the student association Ottonen. The building of the student connection is located in Altmünstergasse 4, in the 9th. Viennese district. He concludes his studies in 1934 and starts working in a bank.

Willy Klein is senior student of the Ottonen Student Association when it was on 12. March 1938, on the day of the occupation of Austria by Hitler-Germany, decide to dissolve formally and go into resistance. At this meeting, Karl Burian is appointed as new chairman. At that time, Willy Klein has already hidden the member lists of the connection. Willy Klein is supposed to settle for France after the submission of the presupposed self-resolution, especially since he is considered to be a “half Jew” according to the Nuremberg race laws.

On 16. March 1938 Willy Klein is bringing the announcement to the conciliation police. However, because of the lack of member lists, he is pre-loaded by the Gestapo and held in custody for 3 days. He gets beaten and loses a tooth. He is released with the help of two non-uniform officials, but immediately flees Switzerland to Paris, where he is a liaison officer with the exile resistance. Otto von Habsburg acts. It remains in the city until December 1938, overlooks a hydrocyanic acid act of the National Socialists and, after the strengthening of the attitude of the French authorities, will shift refugees to the Lot et Garonne department to the south-west of France. After the invasion of Hitler-Germany in France, he lives there undetected as a “submarine”. This is how he experiences the end of the war.

After the war he marries Giséle and lives with her in France, in Montpellier. He has three sons with Giséle. Willy Klein works up to the director of the “Crédit Agricole”, takes extensive travel and often returns to his original homeland where he meets with his old friends of the Ottonen student association. He died in 1989 in Montpellier.