Bienerstraße

Saggen quarter

November 2008 © Thomas Kleissl

8, Bienerstraße

In March 1938 the Gestapo Innsbruck was officially established at 1, Herrengasse and its head was the Bavarian criminologist Dr. Wilhelm Harster. Between March 1938 and May 1939 the headquarters of the Gestapo was moved to 8, Bienerstraße – today’s administration centre of the Austrian Federal Railways. On the night of the pogrom many Jews were taken to Bienerstraße and imprisoned there. In 1939 the Gestapo moved back to Herrengasse and remained there till May 1945. (I)

The Gestapo in Innsbruck was run by the following persons:

1938 to 1939 – Dr. Wilhelm Harsterborn in Bavaria in 1904

1939 to 1940 – Dr. Forstner und Dr. Leopold Spann, both Germans

1940 to 1941 – Dr. Wilhelm Müller, born in Cologne in 1902

1941 to 1942 – Adolf Hoffmann, born in Mainz in 1904

1942 to 1944 – Werner Hilliges, born in Berlin in 1903; Rudolf Thyrolf, a German born in Warsaw in 1906; Friedrich Busch, a German

1944 to 1945  – Dr. Max Nedwed, born in Hallein in 1904


27, Bienerstraße

The couple Fanny Krieser, née Kleinmann, and Julius Krieser-Eibuschütz, originally from Poland, lived at 27, Bienerstraße together with their Innsbruck-born children Rudolf, Käthe and Erna.

During the November Pogrom, Julius Krieser was mistreated, arrested, and detained with all the other Jews at the headquarters of the Innsbruck Gestapo in 8, Bienerstraße for several days.

Julius had been living in Innsbruck since 1897 and, together with his wife, they ran the “Kleiderhaus Julius Krieser,” a men’s clothing store at 4, Erlerstraße. In their free time, they both enjoyed playing chess. Julius Krieser began serving on the board of the Jewish Community in 1931. Son Rudolf was a talented musician, often playing violin at concerts of the Innsbruck Music Society and studying law. He died at the age of 20 on October 1, 1931, in the psychiatric clinic in Innsbruck.

The twin sisters Käthe and Erna attended the Gymnasium in Sillgasse. In June 1938, Erna took a job as a nanny for the Jewish family of Charlota Ottolenghi, née Sarsowski, in Florence, Italy. This began a diverse correspondence between Erna and her mother Fanny, as well as her sister Käthe, in which they described the dramatic developments in Innsbruck and hopes for an imminent emigration.

Letterhead Kleiderhaus Julius Krieser (a)

On April 15, 1938, Good Friday, all the shop windows of Jewish stores in Innsbruck were defaced, including those of “Kleiderhaus Julius Krieser.” Julius Krieser had to sell off his inventory at greatly reduced prices, and in September 1938, the business was forcibly sold to “Birnbauer & Flick” under the policy of Aryanization.

4, Erlerstraße – Kleiderhaus Julius Krieser (awning) and Women´s lingerie store Pini Stössinger   15.04.1938 (b)

After the ban on residence for Jews in Tyrol came into effect, Julius Krieser, his wife Fanny, and Käthe moved to Vienna on December 15. In a postcard dated December 3, Fanny Krieser wrote about how hard it was for her to say goodbye “to the resting place of my unforgettable child.”

After a short stay with Dora Treves, an aunt of Charlota Ottolenghi, in Trieste, Erna left Europe on March 16, 1939, aboard the freighter “Aghia Zoni.” After a five-week journey, during which she met many Jewish fellow citizens from Innsbruck again, including Eva Alloggi and her son Aldo, Rabbi Elimelech Rimalt and his family, Hermine Silberstein, the Binder couple, and members of the Spindel, Komet, and Stiassny families, she arrived in Palestine on April 22, 1939. She would never see her family again.

Greek freighter Aghia Zoni (c)

Käthe attended a Hachscharah, a course organized by the Zionist youth movement to prepare for immigration to Palestine, for several months. In March 1941, she married Otto Grünhut in Vienna. In September 1941, both were deported to the Lodz ghetto and murdered. On July 17, 1942, Julius and Fanny Krieser were deported from Vienna to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where they were likely murdered around 1944.

Erna Krieser married Jacob Schiller, a Hungarian-born future construction entrepreneur, and had two children. Two years after her husband’s death, Erna Krieser died in Israel in 1994. (II)


update 23.10.2023

Translation:

(I) Gerhard Buzas

(II) Translated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT

Literature:

Thomas Albrich < Wir lebten wie sie... - Jüdische Lebensgeschichten aus Tirol und Vorarlberg > Haymon Verlag 1999

Wilfried Beimrohr < "Gegnerbekämpfung" - Die Staatspolizeistelle Innsbruck der Gestapo > in: Rolf Steininger / Sabine Pitscheider (Hg.), Tirol und Vorarlberg in der NS-Zeit (Innsbrucker Forschungen zur Zeitgeschichte 19), StudienVerlag 2002, S 131-150

Johannes Breit <  Das Arbeitserziehungslager Innsbruck-Reichenau und die Nachkriegsjustiz > Maturafachbereichsarbeit Juni 2007

Niko Hofinger < Es is, Ernerl, sehr traurig. Ich werde fast krank dies alles mit ansehen zu müssen." Die Entrechtung und Vertreibung Innsbrucker Juden ab 1938, erzählt in den privaten Briefen der Frauen der Familie Krieser > in: Horst Schreiber (Hg.), 1938 – Der Anschluss in den Bezirken Tirols, Eine Veröffentlichung des Innsbruck Stadtarchivs, Folge 62, Studien zur Geschichte und Politik, Bd. 21, Michael-Gaismaier-Gesellschaft,  StudienVerlag 2018, S 370-399

Horst Schreiber < Jüdische Geschäfte in Innsbruck - Eine Spurensuche > Projekt des Abendgymnasiums Innsbruck; Tiroler Studien zu Geschichte und Politik 1, herausgegeben von der Michael-Gaismair-Gesellschaft, StudienVerlag 2001, S 66-67

Andrea Sommerauer < Die Gestapo-Zentrale > in: Gabriele Rath / Andrea Sommerauer / Martha Verdorfer (Hg.), “Bozen Innsbruck – zeitgeschichtliche stadtrundgänge”, Folio Verlag 2000, S. 109-113

Picture Credits:

(a) Letterhead Kleiderhaus Julius Krieser – http://altneu.han-solo.net/osfia/tng_wordpress/showmedia.php?mediaID=3241 – visit 10.10.2018

(b) 4, Erlerstraße, stores Stössinger und Krieser – © Stadtarchiv / Stadtmuseum Innsbruck 

(c) Frachter Aghia Zoni – http://www.nostal.co.il/Site.asp?table=Terms&option=single&serial=13005&subject=%E0%E5%F0%E9%E5%FA%20%EE%F2%F4%E9%EC%E9%ED&portal=%E4%F2%F4%EC%E4%20%E5%F2%EC%E9%E5%FA%20%EC%E0%94%E9# – visit 10.10.2018

Reference:

Wilfried Beimrohr – Mail

Hohenems Genealogie – Family Krieser – visit 10.10.2018

Interview in German with Michael Haupt (freirad) and Niko Hofinger (historian) about the correspondence of the family Krieser – https://cba.fro.at/374704 , visit 16.04.2019

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