Rudolf Heitler

Rudolf Heitler was born in Wagram ob der Traisen in Lower Austria as the legitimate son of a Jewish couple, master butcher Israel Heitler and his wife Julia, née Friedmann. After attending elementary and middle school, he trained as a master butcher and smokehouse operator. In 1911, he married Anna Haiderer, a Catholic cook; however, the marriage remained childless.

Rudolf Heitler was drafted into World War I and returned home as a war invalid suffering from a nervous disorder. In 1920, he moved with his wife to Wels in Upper Austria, obtained a business license to trade in furs, hides, scrap iron, scrap metal, feathers, wagons, etc., and opened a store at Kaiser Josef Platz 53 in Wels. He also lived in the same building. Neither Rudolf Heitler nor his wife were politically active.

On March 12, 1938, Rudolf Heitler witnessed the downfall of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. With the occupation of Austria, German legislation was adopted, including the “Nuremberg Race Laws,” under which he was classified as a “full Jew” married to an “Aryan woman.”

With the occupation of Austria, the hostility toward him intensified. He was regularly harassed by fellow citizens and SA members. On May 18, 1938, a police officer appeared in his store, accused him of fraudulent behavior, summoned him to appear the next day, and told him he would lose everything.

At the end of his tether and convinced that his suicide would save the business—and thus his wife’s livelihood—he hanged himself in his store.

However, Rudolf Heitler’s suicide did not prevent Anna Heitler from having her business expropriated. He left her a farewell letter.

Anna Heitler moves to Vienna and lives there as a housewife. In April and May 1945, she witnesses the liberation of Austria and the restoration of the republic. She later joins the newly founded Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP Association of the Politically Persecuted and Defenders of Austria.