Alfred Klahr (16 September 1904 – 1944) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

politician, journalist and historian. He was a leading

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

intellectual and theorist in the

First Austrian Republic The First Austrian Republic (german: Erste Österreichische Republik), officially the Republic of Austria, was created after the signing of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 10 September 1919—the settlement after the end of World War I w ...

Biography

Alfred Klahr was born on 16 September 1904 in Vienna. His father Salman Klahr worked as

hazzan A ''hazzan'' (; , lit. Hazan) or ''chazzan'' ( he, חַזָּן , plural ; Yiddish ''khazn''; Ladino ''Hasan'') is a Jewish musician or precentor trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer. In English, this pr ...

Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien The Jewish Community of Vienna (Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien or IKG) is the body that represents Vienna's Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish community. Today, the IKG has around 10 000 members. Throughout history, it has represented almost all ...

. Becoming a student at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

, Alfred Klahr joined the ''Kommunistischen Jugendverband''. From 1930 Klahr lived in Moscow and worked as representative of the Communist Youth Union of Austria. From 1935 to 1937 he taught in Austrian section of

International Lenin School The International Lenin School (ILS) was an official training school operated in Moscow, Soviet Union, by the Communist International from May 1926 to 1938. It was resumed after the Second World War and run by the Communist Party of the Soviet Unio ...

. In 1937 Klahr turned to Prague and worked in communist newspaper ''Weg und Ziel''. From 1938 - after

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

and

annexation of Czechoslovakia Annexation (Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act ...

- Alfred Klahr was active in

anti-nazi Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers wer ...

Austrian Resistance The Austrian resistance launched in response to the rise in fascism across Europe and, more specifically, to the Anschluss in 1938 and resulting occupation of Austria by Germany. An estimated 100,000 people were reported to have participated i ...

. From August 1942 he was detained in

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

(as Ludwig Lokmanis,Ruchy oporu w Auschwitz-Birkenau
polskieradio.pl prisoner number 58933). He was member of

Kampfgruppe Auschwitz The Auschwitz Combat Group (german: Kampfgruppe Auschwitz, pl, Grupa Bojowa Oświęcim) was international left-wing resistance organization in Auschwitz concentration camp. History Kampfgruppe Auschwitz was founded in 1943. In 1944, together wi ...

. 15 June 1944 Alfred Klahr (together with polish communist, PPR member, Stefan Bratkowski) managed to escape, but he died afterward, shot by the SS in nazi-occupied Warsaw.

Klahr's theory of the national question in Austria

In March and April 1937 Klahr published the series of articles titled ''Zur nationalen Frage in Österreich''. In these texts he explain how the Austria emerged from the German part of Europe to take another political direction. This permitted to understand the conflict between the

clerical Clerical may refer to: * Pertaining to the clergy * Pertaining to a clerical worker * Clerical script, a style of Chinese calligraphy * Clerical People's Party See also * Cleric (disambiguation) Cleric is a member of the clergy. Cleric may a ...

Austrofascism The Fatherland Front ( de-AT, Vaterländische Front, ''VF'') was the right-wing conservative, nationalist and corporatist ruling political organisation of the Federal State of Austria. It claimed to be a nonpartisan movement, and aimed to unite ...

and the

Pan-German Pan-Germanism (german: Pangermanismus or '), also occasionally known as Pan-Germanicism, is a pan-nationalist political idea. Pan-Germanists originally sought to unify all the German-speaking people – and possibly also Germanic-speaking ...

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

, each being expression of different social classes. In Auschwitz Klahr wrote the famous ''Auschwitz text'', as a result of debates by Austrian and German communist detained in

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

References

Bibliography
Literature about Alfred Klahr

External links

Alfred Klahr Gesellschaft

Article about Alfred Klahr and the national question
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klahr, Alfred Austrian Jews Austrian communists Communist Party of Austria politicians Jewish socialists Austrian Marxists Austrian historians Marxist historians Marxist theorists Escapees from Auschwitz 1904 births 1944 deaths Austrian expatriates in the Soviet Union 20th-century Austrian journalists Austrian Jews who died in the Holocaust Austrian people executed by Nazi Germany People executed by Nazi Germany by firearm