Walter Rudolf Bezdek

Walter Rudolf Bezdek was born in Vienna, the legitimate son of conductor Franz Bezdek and Maria, née Sturm. After elementary school, he attended a secondary school, where he graduated. He then entered the service of the Republic of Austria and became a tax official at a Viennese tax office.

Walter Bezdek was not politically active, but was probably critical of the corporative state. On March 12, 1938, he witnessed the demise of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. He was then taken over into the German financial administration. In 1940, he married Christine Fuchs, a native of Styria. In April 1942, he was drafted as a soldier in World War II.

In June 1943, when Christine Bezdek was taking a cure at the Konstantinsbad spa in Eger for health reasons, she criticized the National Socialist regime and was denounced as a result. She was arrested by the Gestapo on July 5, 1943 and sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment for 'homicide'.

The contents of the letter are discovered during the letter censorship and Walter Bezdek is arrested on May 22, 1944.

In a trial before the Wehrmacht commandant's court, he is sentenced to three months in prison on May 30, 1944 for 'degradation of military strength'. He serves his sentence in Glatz prison and is released from the financial administration.

On August 22, 1944, Walter Bezdek is released from prison. He is not called up again due to a lung condition.

In Vienna, Walter Bezdek witnesses the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. On 28 June 1945, he is rehabilitated and reinstated in the financial administration.

While his wife Christine Bezdek joins the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), Walter Bezdek joins the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ).