Oberlehrer Karl Josef Laab

Karl Josef Laab was born in Vienna as the legitimate son of Michael Laab, a clerk, and his wife Leopoldine, née Ziska. After elementary school, he attended the Bürgerschule for one year before transferring to a Gymnasium. After four years in the lower grades of high school, he attended the State Teacher Training College, where he graduated on September 25, 1912. He then enrolled in philosophy at the University of Vienna and began working as an elementary school teacher on February 15, 1913. He dropped out of his studies after seven semesters.

Karl Laab was not drafted into World War I but continued to work as an elementary school teacher. He passed his teaching certification exam on April 12, 1915. After holding several positions, he began working at the elementary school at Am Platz 2 in Vienna’s 13th district and joined the Association of Catholic Teachers. In Vienna, he witnessed the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the collapse of the dual monarchy, and the expulsion of the House of Habsburg.

On June 25, 1922, Karl Laab married elementary school teacher Marie Sedlak; the marriage remained childless. The patriotic Austrian later joined the Fatherland Front and strictly rejected National Socialism. He also made his opposition public and took action against National Socialist colleagues. On July 6, 1935, he was appointed principal of the elementary school at Am Platz 2. His wife resigned from her teaching position that same year to care for her ailing parents.

In the fall of 1937, at Café Exzelsior on Landstraßer Hauptstraße in Vienna’s 3rd district, he referred to Adolf Hitler, among other things, as a “syphilitic paralytic” and made derogatory remarks about the NSDAP. The café’s owner, Leo Neurauter, and a patron, Karl Majon, were eyewitnesses to these remarks.

On March 12, 1938, Karl Laab witnessed the downfall of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. Eyewitnesses at Café Exzelsior reported him to the Gestapo, and he was arrested on March 15, 1938. On May 24, 1938, he was deported to the Dachau concentration camp, and he was formally dismissed from the teaching profession on September 20, 1938.

Karl Laab was officially dismissed from the teaching profession on February 28, 1938, and released from the concentration camp on March 13, 1939. The abuse and untreated intestinal cysts subsequently led to the onset of colon cancer, from which he died on April 27, 1943. He was laid to rest at the Vienna Central Cemetery.

His wife, Marie Laab, lived to see the liberation of Austria and the reestablishment of the Republic in April and May 1945, respectively. She returned to teaching and became a member of the newly founded Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) as well as the ÖVP Association of the Politically Persecuted and Defenders of Austria. She later retired as an elementary school principal and died in 1972.