Johanna Josefine Leopoldine Aloisia Horsky (geb. Färber)

Johanna Josefine Leopoldine Aloisia Färber was born in Vienna as the legitimate daughter of letter carrier Josef Färber and his wife Anna, née Göttler. After attending primary and secondary school, she first worked in her parents' household and later worked as an office clerk.

After her father was wounded in the First World War, he was granted a license for a tobacconist's shop at 22 Belvederegasse in Vienna's 4th district following the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the break-up of the dual monarchy and the expulsion of the House of Habsburg in 1918. After his early death, her mother took over the tobacconist's shop. In 1922, she married Rudolf Horsky, an ÖBB official, but the marriage remained childless. Rudolf Horsky died in 1926.

After the death of her mother, Johanna Horsky took over the tobacconist's shop. In 1934, the devout Catholic and patriotic Austrian joins the Vaterländische Front and is a supporting member of a fighting organization against National Socialism that is close to the Vaterländische Front.

As early as 1930, she takes Bernhard Birk into her apartment as a tenant. Born in Germany, Bernhard Birk is a member of strictly anti-Nazi student fraternities, district leader of a fighting organization against National Socialism close to the Vaterländische Front and editor at the magazine 'Schönere Zukunft' and later at the 'Neuigkeits-Weltblatt'. He had an unyielding, resolute and strict stance against National Socialism. After the occupation of Austria, he was immediately arrested and deported to Dachau concentration camp and Flossenbürg concentration camp.