Josef Füller

Josef Füller was born in Aschbach Markt, Lower Austria, the son of farm owner Josef Füller and his wife Maria, née Bruckner. After elementary school, he completed an apprenticeship as a blacksmith and subsequently worked as an employee at iron processing companies.

As a staunch Austrian, he joined the Volunteer Protection Corps in March 1933, an armed unit that supported the state executive (police, gendarmerie) in carrying out its duties.

As a member of the Neumarkt an der Ybbs local chapter, he was on guard duty in March 1934 when National Socialists carried out a terrorist attack on a facility he was guarding. After receiving three warnings, Josef Füller was forced to use his firearm. In the process, one of the National Socialist terrorists was fatally wounded. In the subsequent trial, he was acquitted. Afterward, he returned to his regular job, most recently as an employee at the Josef Heiser Axle and Steel Cylinder Factory.

On March 12, 1938, Josef Füller witnessed the downfall of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. On April 27, 1938, he was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to the Dachau concentration camp on June 17, 1938. After the start of World War II, the Dachau concentration camp was temporarily cleared for the SS, and Josef Füller was transferred to the Flossebürg concentration camp on September 27, 1939. On March 2, 1940, he was transferred back to the Dachau concentration camp, where he was released on June 16, 1943. In the concentration camps, he was first assigned to the stoker’s crew, then to the camp’s economic operations [later: Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke].

After his release, he worked briefly for his former apprenticeship instructors but was required to report to the police weekly. On October 4, 1943, Josef Füller was drafted into the Wehrmacht and sent to the Russian front. There, he was taken prisoner of war and witnessed the liberation of Austria.

In December 1945, Josef Füller returned home and began working for the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) in January 1946. That same year, he married Angela Lischauer. They had one daughter.

In 1948, Josef Füller joined the ÖVP Association of the Politically Persecuted and Defenders of Austria. He eventually retired from the ÖBB. He died in 1990 in a hospital in Vienna.