Anton REITER was born in the Pradl district of the city of Innsbruck on July 23, 1907.1
He was an unmarried butcher and had lived in Salzburg since 1930 in Salzburg. Like many other poor people he moved frequently and his last Austrian address was as a sub-tenant in the Salzburg district of Gnigl.
His precise political affiliation under the Austro-Fascist dictatorship is unclear, but we do know that the political persecution of members and sympathizers of the Austrian Revolutionary Socialists and the Austrian Communist Party led some of them to join the International Brigades that fought on the side of the Spanish Republic against a fascist military revolt in the Civil War of 1936-1939.2
In any case we know that Anton REITER went to Spain in early November 1937 and took part in the fighting there.
Later he was evacuated to France, either when the International Brigades were withdrawn from Spain or after the victory of Franco’s forces and the collapse of the Spanish Republic.
He was arrested there by the German occupation authorities in 1940 or 1941. He was deported to the Dachau Concentration Camp and registered as »protective custody« prisoner number 28639 on November 8, 1941.
The 35 year old Anton REITER was murdered in Dachau on December 2, 1942.
1 Pradl had been annexed to Innsbruck in 1904.
2 Austrian Revolutionary Socialists from Gnigl who died in Spain in 1937/38 included Josef Stöckl (born in Vöcklamarkt on March 25, 1907), Walter Hintschich (born in Leobersdorf on May 19, 1911), and Franz Schmidhammer (born in Gnigl on July 21, 1916).
Source
- Lexikon der österreichischen Spanienkämpfer 1936 – 1939, published by Hans Landauer in collaboration with Erich Hackl, Vienna 2008, pp. 115, 187, 199, 216.
Translation: Stan Nadel
Stumbling Stone
Laid 23.03.2012 at Salzburg, Mühlstraße 1
Banner of the International Brigades
Photo: Gert Kerschbaumer