Ministerialrat Dr. Josef Rossmanith

Personalia

Born:

August 21, 1904, Vienna

Died:

January 28, 1969, Vienna

Profession:

Police officer

KZ Number:

13836, 488

Curriculum Vitae

Josef Rossmanith was born in Vienna as the legitimate son of security guard Johann Rossmanith and his wife Berta, born a blacksmith. After elementary school, he attended the secondary school in Freudenthal in Silesia [today: Bruntál in the Czech Republic] and graduated there in 1923. In the same year, he enrolled in law at the University of Vienna and was awarded a doctorate in law in 1927.

On March 12, 1938, Josef Rossmanith witnessed the demise of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. He was arrested by the SA on the same day as the occupation of Austria and deported to the Dachau concentration camp on April 2, 1938 on the so-called 'Prominent Transport'. After Hitler's invasion of Poland, the concentration camp was evacuated at short notice and Josef Rossmanith was transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp on September 27, 1939. He was transferred back to Dachau concentration camp on March 2, 1940 and released from prison on April 22, 1940. That year, he married Maria Schafranek and subsequently became the father of a daughter and a son.

Due to his imprisonment, Josef Rossmanith was unable to find a job and had to move into an allotment house with his family. He was later drafted into the Wehrmacht and was taken a Soviet prisoner of war at the end of the war.

While a prisoner of war, Josef Rossmanith witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic in April and May 1945. He returned from Soviet captivity in 1947. After his return, he was rehabilitated and became security director of the province of Upper Austria. In 1957, he returned from Upper Austria to Vienna to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, where he became a ministerial councillor and married Maria Schafranek, also in church.

Photo of Josef Rossmanith index card Dachau concentration camp
Josef Rossmanith index card Dachau concentration camp
Image: Arolsen Archives

Places

Residence:

Persecution:

Citations

Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv (WStLA)

Österreichisches Staatsarchiv (ÖStA)

Archiv der Universität Wien

Arolsen Archives

Matricula Online

Friedhöfe Wien - Verstorbenensuche

Josef Rossmanith

Police officer
* August 21, 1904
Vienna
† January 28, 1969
Vienna
Dismissal, Detention, Concentration camp