DI Friedrich Farda

Friedrich Farda was born in Vienna as the legitimate son of the merchant Kaspar Farda and Anna, née Winkler. After elementary school and grammar school, he studied at the Technical University in Vienna [today: Vienna University of Technology], where he gained a degree in engineering. As a student, he became involved in the Christian-German Student Association.

After this, he worked as a commercial clerk. He married Emma Genewein in 1928, but the marriage was annulled in 1932. From 1934, the staunch Austrian became involved in the Social Working Group of the Vaterländische Front.

On March 12, 1938, Friedrich Farda witnessed the demise of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. In 1941, he married Margarete Schmerhan. He then accepts a job offer in Lublin.

At the end of April 1943, Friedrich Farda receives a call-up order for May 3, 1943 in Vienna. The Christian-socialist Austrian decided not to follow the call-up order and did not return to Vienna. He fled from Lublin to Warsaw, where he wanted to go into hiding. In August 1943, he was picked up by the Wehrmacht in Warsaw and arrested. In a trial before the Wehrmacht court on September 14, 1943, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison for defeating the armed forces and escape from the flag. He was also classified as unworthy of military service.

Margarete Farda experiences the liberation of Austria from the National Socialist occupiers and the re-establishment of the Republic in Vienna. She joins the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich.

After the exact dates of Friedrich Farda's imprisonment immediately after the liberation of Austria are not yet known, April 30, 1945 is determined as the day he certainly did not survive. It was only later that April 18, 1945 became known as the exact date of his death.