Josef Prieler
Personalia
Born:
Died:
Profession:
Persecution:
Schützen am Gebirge
Curriculum Vitae
Josef Prieler was born in Schützen am Gebirge in Burgenland, the legitimate son of the farmers Johann Prieler and Theresia, née Kleinl. After completing his school education, he became a soldier in the Kuk army and, as a cantor, married the primary school teacher Theresia Jaidl in 1918, with whom he subsequently had six children, one of whom died as a baby.
When the German Wehrmacht invaded Austria in 1938, the staunch opponent of National Socialism was not removed from office and was made uk [indispensable] after the outbreak of the Second World War. He was therefore not drafted into the Wehrmacht.
On October 13, 1944, a secret commando (OSS Company Dupont) consisting of Corvette Captain Jack Taylor and the three Austrians Johann Pascher, Ernst Ulsam and Fritz Gertner [code name], who had been recruited as spies in American captivity in southern Italy, was parachuted from a Royal Air Force bomber over Podersdorf. From October 25, 1944, they were hidden in the home of Matthias and Anna Kaufmann. Matthias Kaufmann had been a member of the Patriotic Front from 1935-1938 as a local councillor and leader of the Heimatschutz.
The Gestapo officer Johann Sanitzer learns (according to his statements in court) through the testimony and records of Jack Taylor that Josef Prieler is also involved in this matter. Josef Prieler frequented the Kaufmann house and presumably also supported the enterprise. On the morning of December 1, 1944, Gestapo men Heinrich Knoth and Johann Pöllhuber, accompanied by the local gendarme Andreas Mikler, entered Josef Prieler's official residence and demanded to speak to him. They enter his bedroom and Heinrich Knoth shoots him. They then try to cover up the murder as a suicide.
Josef Prieler is laid to rest in the local cemetery in Schützen am Gebirge.
Places
Residence:
Citations
Gemeindechronik Schützen am Gebirge
Otto Prieler, Privatarchiv
