Rittmeister Guido Hermann Karl Maria Freiherr von Colard

Photo von Guido Freiherr von Colard — Guido Freiherr von Colard (Guido Freiherr von Colard jun., Privat)

Personalia

Born:

June 18, 1894, Sarajevo

Died:

April 10, 1983, Großmugl

Profession:

Civil servant

Persecution:

Imprisonment 01.06.1938 - 27.10.1939,
Buchenwald concentration camp 27.10.1939 - 28.02.1941,
Imprisonment 21.05.1943 - 10.09.1943,
Flossenbürg concentration camp 10.09.1943 - 15.04.1945

Honors:

Bronze Military Meritorious Service Medal with war decorations and swords

Silver Military Meritorious Service Medal with war decorations and swords

Charles Troop Cross

Bulgarian Cross of Merit with War Decorations and Swords

Memberships

ÖVP Comradeship of the politically persecuted and confessors for Austria

Curriculum Vitae

Guido Hermann Karl Maria Freiherr von Colard was born in Sarajevo, the son of k.u.k. General of the Infantry, Hermann Freiherr von Colard and Paula Alexia, née Österreicher. He has an older sister. After elementary school in Lemberg [today: Lviv in the Ukraine], he attended the lower school of the Stiftsgymnasium in Kremsmünster and then transferred to the Militär-Oberrealschule in Mährisch-Weißkirchen, where he graduated in 1914.

On March 12, 1938, Guido Freiherr von Colard witnessed the demise of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. He was assigned to the passport department of the Gestapo by the new rulers. There he unlawfully helped emigrants and Jews to obtain exit permits.

This did not go unnoticed and Guido Freiherr von Colard was arrested by the Gestapo on June 1, 1938. On October 27, 1939, he was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp

Guido Freiherr von Colard mit seinem Sohn 1952 — Guido Frhr. von Colard (r.) mit seinem Sohn 1952 (Guido Frhr. von Colard jun., Privat)

In freedom, Guido Freiherr von Colard tells relatives and acquaintances about the conditions in the concentration camps. Through acquaintances from before the occupation of Austria in 1938, he made contact with Slovakian resistance groups and founded a resistance group in Vienna together with the lawyer Napoleon Bihary and the wagon owner Theodor Tichy. They pass on military information about their Slovakian acquaintances to foreign secret services. He married Ula Bauer in 1942, but the marriage broke up in 1945.

When an English parachutist parachuted near Lake Neusiedl in early 1943, he was soon arrested in Vienna. He had the address of Guido Freiherr von Colard with him. Since the latter was in Munich, he was not arrested by the Gestapo until May 21, 1943. As the arrested parachutist Guido Freiherr von Colard did not betray the Gestapo, he could not be tried for 'preparation for high treason'. He was therefore deported without trial to the Flossenbürg concentration camp on September 10, 1943. He was able to escape there on April 15, 1945, just before the liberation by the US Army.

In April and May 1945, he witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. In 1946, he founded a trading agency and a wholesale business for consumer goods and in 1947 married Hermine Rutzki, née Putz, with whom he had a son. In 1948, he joined the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich