Friedrich KREMPLER was born in Salzburg on September 30, 1916 in Salzburg and was baptized Catholic. He was the child of a young servant who worked in Salzburg. In the 1920s his mother got married and had two more children.
The family lived in Salzburg’s Riedenburg neighborhood until they dispersed during the Second World War.
Friedrich learned the mechanic’s trade before he was drafted at age 21 into the Austrian army in October 1937. At that time Austria had a one-year service requirement for Austrian men. At first he was assigned to the Franz-Josef-Kaserne (barracks) in Salzburg. As with many other young men his further service is unclear – until the end phase of the war and the little known war crimes that accompanied it.
The police registration records state that the 28 year old Wehrmacht soldier Friedrich KREMPLER was condemned to death for »undermining the armed forces« and was executed in Virovitica Croatia (near the Hungarian border) on March 25, 1945.
Before his violent death he had certainly learned that his 22 year old younger brother Karl had given his life on the Eastern Front for »Führer, Volk and Fatherland«. Their mother, who had lost both of her sons, died in Salzburg in 1966 at age 71. She had unsuccessfully attempted to have her older son declared a »victim for the fight for a free and democratic Austria«.
Friedrich KREMPLER is one of the many wartime victims of the Nazis military justice machinery who were condemned to dishonor and anonymity who were left out of the 1991 book on resistance and persecution in Salzburg (Widerstand und Verfolgung in Salzburg 1934-1945) and who do not appear in the electronic database of victims created by the Documentary Archives of the Austrian Resistance (Dokumentationsarchiv des Österreichischen Widerstandes – DÖW).
Sources
- Salzburg city and state archives
Translation: Stan Nadel
Stumbling Stone
Laid 28.09.2017 at Salzburg, Reichenhaller Straße 21
The symbol of the Nazis' civil and military courts: A sword and scales of justice combined with the Nazi Party eagle and swastika
Photo: Gert Kerschbaumer