Dr. Josef Gerö
Personalia
Born:
Died:
Profession:
Persecution:
Imprisonment March 20, 1938 – April 2, 1938,
Dachau Concentration Camp April 2, 1938 – July 25, 1939,
Release in 1939,
Imprisonment April 17, 1941 – June 18, 1941,
Forced labor July 22, 1944 – April 13, 1945
Curriculum Vitae
Josef Gerö was born in Maria Theresiopel in Vojvodina, then part of Hungary [now Serbia], the legitimate son of a Jewish merchant and a Catholic housewife. In 1898, the family moved to Vienna, where Josef Gerö attended elementary school and then high school. In 1914, he graduated from high school, enlisted as a one-year volunteer for World War I, and was drafted into the artillery (Field Howitzer Regiment) in 1915.
As a second lieutenant with several war decorations, he was demobilized in late November 1918 and enrolled in law school at the University of Vienna. In 1920, he earned his doctorate, joined the judicial service, was accepted into the judicial training program in 1922, and passed the judicial candidate examination in 1923. He then served as a judge and prosecutor in Wiener Neustadt and Baden near Vienna. In 1929, he transferred to the Vienna II District Attorney’s Office. In 1934, Josef Gerö moved to the Ministry of Justice and became the Minister of Justice’s political advisor in 1936.
I can assure you that I carried out my duties there solely in accordance with the laws in effect in Austria at that time, and that I allowed myself to be influenced neither by the right nor by the left in this regard.
In this capacity, Josef Gerö witnessed the occupation of Austria when the German Wehrmacht marched into Austria on March 12, 1938. He was arrested by the Gestapo on March 20, 1938, and transferred to the Dachau concentration camp on April 2, 1938, as part of the so-called “Prominententransport.” He remained there until July 25, 1939, and was subsequently released. At the same time, he was dismissed through forced retirement.
Since, as a “first-degree mixed-race person,” he could not hope to find employment in Germany, he moved with his mother and his daughter Margarete to join his brother in Agram/Zagreb. His wife, Leopoldine, remained in Vienna with their son Heinz, as he was in the 8th grade at the time. After he graduated from high school, his wife also moved to Agram/Zagreb in 1940.
On April 17, 1941, Josef Gerö was arrested again at his home by the military police on suspicion of collaborating with foreign intelligence services. On April 23, 1941, he was transferred to Graz for further interrogation and from there to Vienna on May 5, 1941. On June 7, 1941, he was brought back to Graz. On June 18, he was finally released from custody in Graz.
Although his son Heinz was drafted into the Wehrmacht on October 2, 1941, Josef Gerö, his wife, and their two children were informed on January 14, 1942, that they had been stripped of their citizenship and were required to surrender their passports. As a result, they remained in Agram/Zagreb as stateless persons.
On July 22, 1944, Josef Gerö was arrested once again and sent to Vienna for forced labor. There, he witnessed the liberation of Austria in May 1945.
After the war, at the recommendation of the SPÖ, he served as Austrian Minister of Justice in 1949 and from 1952 to 1954. In the meantime, Gerö served as president of the Vienna Higher Regional Court. As a victim of the Nazi regime, the SPÖ overlooked the fact that, from 1934 to 1938, he had participated as a public prosecutor in the persecution of revolutionary socialists and socialist insurgents.
In 1945, he also became the first president of the revived Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) and held this office until his death. Furthermore, on June 22, 1954, he was appointed the first vice president of UEFA. He also served as president of the Austrian Olympic Committee (ÖOC) from 1946 to 1954.
After his death, he was buried at the Döbling Cemetery.
Citations
Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstands (DÖW)
Universität Wien unter gedenkbuch.univie.ac.at/person/josef-geroe
Wikipedia unter de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Gerö
