Johann Vetrovsky

Johann Vetrovsky was born in Vienna as the legitimate son of master blacksmith Karl Vetrovsky and Franziska, née Faukal. After five years of elementary school, he attended two years of secondary school and then became a commercial clerk [formerly: office clerk]. Between 1928 and 1929, he was a member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (SDAP) [today: SPÖ]. From 1931, he became involved with the communist Red Help and from 1933 with the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ).

Johann Vetrovsky attended communist training in Moscow between 1934 and August 1936. After returning home to Vienna, he was arrested and sentenced to four months in prison for communist activities on December 29, 1936.

On March 12, 1938, Johann Vetrovsky witnessed the demise of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. He was arrested on the same day as the occupation of Austria and deported on April 2, 1938 on the so-called 'Prominent Transport' to the Dachau concentration camp. After the German Wehrmacht invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the Dachau concentration camp was cleared for the SS and Johann Vetrovsky was transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp on September 27, 1939. There he was sent to the 'treadmill', where he was forced to drag stones in circles in a mud hole all day while SS men threw stones at him and poured cold water on him. This punishment was accompanied by food deprivation.

On March 2, 1940, he was transferred from the Flossenbürg concentration camp back to the Dachau concentration camp, where he remained until the liberation by the US Army on April 29. In April and May 1945, he witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. He returned to Vienna and once again became involved in the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ). However, due to his mistreatment in the concentration camps, he had to undergo surgery as early as 1946 and lost his left shoulder blade and left kidney, rendering him unable to work. In the same year, he left the Catholic Church and got married.