Dr. Franz Sigmund Eidlitz

Franz Sigmund Eidlitz was born in Vienna, the son of a Jewish couple, the merchant Rudolf Eidlitz and Olga, née Bauer. After elementary school, he attended the Elisabethgymnasium [today: Rainergymnasium] in Vienna's 5th district, where he graduated in 1907. In 1908 he converted to the Catholic faith and enrolled in law at the University of Vienna. After obtaining his doctorate in law, he married Elisabeth Henhapl in 1914 and subsequently became the father of a son and a daughter. He volunteers for one year for the k.u.k. Military and is sent to the I. World War I to the k.u.k. Infantry Regiment No. 27 'Albert I King of the Belgians'. He disarmed as a lieutenant in 1918.

After this, he began working for the Lower Austrian Trade Association and was promoted to General Secretary of the Lower Austrian Trade Association, as well as General Secretary of various associations affiliated with the Lower Austrian Trade Association. He joins the Wiener Heimatschutz and the Vaterländische Front. As an officer of the Vienna Heimatschutz, he was actively involved in the suppression of the National Socialist July Putsch in 1934, during which Federal Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was murdered.

Until the occupation of Austria by the Third Reich, Franz Eidlitz was vehemently opposed to National Socialism and committed to a free Austria. On March 12, 1938, he had to witness the demise of his homeland with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. With the occupation of Austria, German legislation was adopted and with it the 'Nuremberg Race Laws', according to which Franz Eidlitz was considered a 'full Jew'. He was released on the day of the invasion.

On April 26, 1938, Franz Eidlitz was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp on September 23, 1938. From there, he was transferred to Gestapo custody in Vienna on December 10, 1938 and released on October 5, 1939. He was then unemployed.

On January 16, 1941, Franz Eidlitz was arrested again and deported to Dachau concentration camp on April 16, 1941. He was murdered there on May 19, 1941. The cause of death is given as 'pneumonia'.

His wife Elisabeth witnessed the liberation of Austria and later joined the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich.