Polizeirat Dr. Ferdinand (Ferdl) Berger

Ferdinand 'Ferdl' Berger was born in Graz as the legitimate son of Ferdinand Berger of the same name and Aloisia, née Sailles. The family is of the Old Catholic faith. After primary and secondary school, he begins an apprenticeship as a mechanic and joins the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ) and a Social Democratic military sports group. In 1934, he took part in the socialist February Uprisings and was imprisoned from February 21, 1934 to February 24, 1934. He was then imprisoned for socialist activities from April 28, 1934 to June 23, 1934, from February 9, 1935 to February 23, 1935, from April 20, 1935 to April 26, 1935, from May 4, 1935 to May 6, 1935, from May 17, 1935 to May 18, 1935, on July 27, 1935 and from February 2, 1936 to February 3, 1936.

After this, in 1936, Ferdinand Berger left the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) [today: SPÖ] and joined the Communist Party (KPÖ). He wanted to be sent to Spain to fight on the communist-republican side against Francisco Franco's troops. However, as he did not yet have any military experience, this was initially rejected.

A year later, he was granted permission and Ferdinand Berger left Austria for Spain on December 27, 1937 at 9:00 pm. He finally reached Paris via Zurich and Basel and was able to cross the French-Spanish border on January 1, 1938. He received military training in Valencia and was assigned to the 14th anti-aircraft battery of the International Brigades. There, he fought against the Italian and German air force, which flew attacks in Spain.

As a soldier in Spain, he witnessed the downfall of free and independent Austria when the German Wehrmacht invaded on March 12, 1938.

With Francisco Franco's victory looming, the International Brigades were disbanded. In February 1939, Ferdinand Berger fled with his comrades-in-arms across the Spanish-French border at La Junquera to France. There he was disarmed and interned near Saint-Cyprien. In April 1939, he was transferred to Paris via the Gurs camp. Just before the German troops marched into Paris, he was finally sent to a camp near Vannes in the west of France.

After France's capitulation, Ferdinand Berger was arrested by the Gestapo in Vannes in May 1940. At the end of July 1940, he was transported via Aschaffenburg, Stuttgart, Munich and Vienna to Graz, where he was imprisoned in the regional court on August 1, 1940.

On February 22, 1941, Ferdinand Berger was deported to the Dachau concentration camp. There he immediately joins the camp resistance.

On July 18, 1944, Ferdinand Berger was transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp. There he worked in the vehicle fleet. As the American troops approached, the concentration camp was evacuated on April 20, 1945 and the prisoners were sent on a death march towards Dachau concentration camp.

The American liberators caught up with them on the death march. Fearing that the Americans would not release him immediately, Ferdinand Berger fled with another concentration camp prisoner to Eggendorf on the Danube and from there by boat via Passau to Linz. From Linz, they travel to Vienna, where they arrive on May 21, 1945.

After the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic, Ferdinand Berger first works for the Volkssolidarität and marries the resistance fighter Leopoldine Blaha on March 23, 1946. He joins the federal police, completes his A-levels, studies law at the University of Vienna and becomes a police councillor.

In 1968, Ferdinand Berger resigns from the Communist Party in protest against the suppression of the Prague Spring. He retired in 1975, volunteered for the Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichen Widerstandes (DÖW) (especially the right-wing extremism collection) and became regional chairman of the Vienna Concentration Camp Association. In 1978, he joined the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich. He died in Vienna in 2004.