What is the life of a person who will ultimately go down in history as a mass murderer and war criminal? This oppressive question will be the focus on Wednesday, November 15th, when the Melodium cultural association invites you to a lecture and panel discussion in the Peuerbach Castle Hall at 7:30 p.m.
The trigger for a closer look at the life and work of the former Peuerbach lawyer Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg was research by the then law student Benedikt Ertl. A few years ago he noticed that the name Sammern-Frankenegg could be read under the motto “To honor the fallen” on the war memorial at the Peuerbach cemetery. Sammern-Frankenegg was a committed National Socialist and SS police leader in Warsaw, where he played a key role in the deportation and murder of 300,000 Jewish people. He died in battle against Tito partisans in the Balkans in 1944. During his student days, Sammern-Frankenegg’s ideological homeland was the German national singing group Skalden in Innsbruck; in Peuerbach he was, among other things, chairman of the ÖTB general gymnastics club. As an illegal National Socialist, he was briefly imprisoned during the corporate state.
Thanks to Benedikt Ertl’s research, the matter finally started to move: a working group was set up and many, even controversial, discussions were held with politicians, parishioners and club representatives. The Peuerbach author and historian Elisabeth Schmidauer also came on board. Through her research, she got to know the historical person Sammern-Frankenegg in an impressive way and will now bring her findings closer to the interested community population.
Information and clarification about crimes against humanity during the Nazi regime does not remain a matter for political representatives at well-known memorial sites on recurring commemoration days. No, this also happens on a “small scale”, in the community at the war memorial, in the personal environment of former perpetrators, so to speak. This process of fact-based processing of contemporary history will accompany the descendants of parents’ and grandparents’ generations throughout their lives. A conscious, proactive approach as a commitment to collective responsibility towards history and the victims of the Nazi dictatorship. The efforts to redesign the war memorial can also be seen as positive. Old crimes are depicted and the victims and fellow citizens of Sammern-Frankenegg are remembered with dignity.
On November 15th on the podium: Elisabeth Schmidauer, pastor Hans Padinger, historian Clemens Gruber and lawyer Benedikt Ertl. Peter Adelsgruber will moderate the event, Lydia Mayr will play the piano. Admission is free.
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Source: Nachrichten
