Death of Nazi and antifascist victims of Rudolf Gelbard

One of the most famous survivors of the Holocaust and witnesses of the Nazi regime died: the journalist Rudolf Gelbard died Wednesday night at night at the age of 87 in Vienna.

Gelbard was a long-time leader of the League of Social Democratic Freedom Fighters and a convinced anti-fascist. He was born on December 4, 1930 and grew up in Leopoldstadt. Gelbard was deported at the age of twelve in October 1942 with his Jewish parents in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. He survived, but many of his relatives and friends, including many children, did not survive.

With his parents, he experienced liberation on May 8, 1945. In the late 1940s, Gelbard became the Austrian Socialist Youth Academy, in the 1950s, the SPÖ party school of Vienna.

Contemporary Witnesses in Schools, Universities and Educational Institutions

He was a member of the social democratic freedom fighters after the war. An unshakable antifascist, he considered his duty as a survivor to educate in schools, universities and educational institutions, and as an education officer of the Jewish religious community. .

Gelbard was also a member of the Documentation Committee of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW). Professionally, he worked for the "mail". On December 7, 1996, he was elected to the federal executive of Freedom Fighters and was part of it until his death. "We will keep his memory and continue to act in his mind," said the organization in a statement of the organization.

Many prices

Gelbard has received numerous awards for his commitment. The Republic of Austria has awarded him the professional title of Professor and many other awards, including the Joseph Samuel Bloch Medal. The Republican Club – New Austria has awarded for ten years the "Rudolf-Gelbard Prize for Education against Fascism and Anti-Semitism". The first winner in 2008 was Gelbard himself.

In October of the previous year, he sent a video message to the public in which he warned against involvement of the FPÖ government and listed Nazi war criminals as members of the fraternities.

Honorary Tomb at the Central Cemetery

"With Rudolf Gelbard, Austria loses an important contemporary witness to the Holocaust, a warned warlord on anti-Semitism and intolerance, as well as a committed advocate of democracy, democracy and democracy. Humanism and the law, "said Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen. "With Rudolf Gelbard, one of us left," said SPÖ party leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner.

"Whenever a Holocaust witness leaves us, our society becomes poorer," said Vienna City Councilor Veronica Kaup-Hasler (SPÖ). The city honored Gelbard with the golden sign of the state of Vienna and now provides him with a tomb of honor in the central cemetery. "With him, we lose a remarkable personality and a close friend," says Oskar Deutsch, president of the Jewish community. Funeral will take place Thursday at 4:30 pm at Zentralfriedhof, IV.