Irene Harand

Background

Irene Wedl was born into a prosperous Viennese family on September 6, 1900.

Education

By 1881 German and Austrian anti-Semitism was carried to new extremes when the University of Berlin professor Eugen Dühring published a violently anti-Semitic book entitled The Jewish Question as a Race, Moralsand Cultural Question.

By the late 18706 many student fraternities ( Burschenschaften) had begun to exclude Jews from membership, arguing they did not possess German moral qualities, could never duel or drink beer as well as pure-blooded "Aryans, " and were thus not fitted for membership in such exclusive circles.

Career

In the troubled 1936, before and during World War II, the individual who most effectively challenged Christians in Austria to live up to the teachings of their own religion in regard to the Jewish question was a woman, Irene Harand. Later, because the great majority of Austrians felt a need to suppress painful details of their recent history, and because her Nazi enemies almost succeeded in obliterating her memory from the consciousness of her fellow countrymen, the story of Irene Harand has only recently emerged from the shadows.

The Austrian Republic that came into existence in November 1918 with the demise of the Habsburg monarchy of Austria-Hungary was given little hope of survival. It was unable to feed itself and was burdened with the metropolis of Vienna that contained more than one-third of the new nation's impoverished population; indeed, most Austrians desired Anschluss (union) with the German Republic to the north. Furthermore, Austrian political life was a cauldron of deep-seated hatreds, with the ultraconservative Catholic party, the Christian Socials, facing an often implacably doctrinaire Marxist Social Democratic Workers' party.

With small but militant Pan-German and Nazi parties appealing to returning veterans whose idea of politics was based on physical conflict and annihilation, Austrian political life in the first half-decade of the Republic's existence was often violent and bloody. Ideologically, too, post-1918 Austrian politics exhibited extremely intolerant traits. Except for the Social Democrats, which most Austrian Jews supported, Austrian political parties during these years all campaigned on anti-Semitic platforms.

Although the Catholic Church did not condone the violent anti-Semitism of the Nazis, many Catholic clergymen including the nation's brilliant but often politically uncompromising federal chancellor, Ignaz Seipel, regarded the Jews as undesirable agents of social decomposition. The Church saw itself as a "nonpolitical" body that was leading the Austrian "spiritual" struggle against Jewry while the Christian Socials were to be found engaged in the often messy political arena. Yet, in practice, such lines were easily crossed.

This moral environment deeply distressed the Harands as well as others whose vision of a Christian society was built on justice and compassion, and who were convinced that for society to flourish Christians and Jews must be taught to tolerate and respect one another.

But neither of the Harands had a pragmatic plan for infusing Christian ideals into a troubled land's public life. Indeed, Harand would continue to remain aloof from political controversies until a series of events inexorably led her into the arena of public debate. She had become interested in the plight of an aged nobleman whose poverty had recently been compounded by a deep personal disappointment.

In the years of inflation, 1920-23, he had seen his fortune evaporate and now, in his extreme old age, he endured the pain of his son's refusal to assist him, though some years earlier he had given the son all of his lands and his castle. Believing she might be able to assist the old man, she set out to obtain justice through the law. She consulted a number of lawyers, and even though none accomplished anything of substance, all charged her substantially.

After a number of such discouraging encounters, she met with well-known attorney Dr. Moritz Zalman. Zalman differed from the other lawyers in that he showed great enthusiasm for the case, insisting that the old man could-indeed must-obtain justice. When the question of fees came up, Zalman told Harand that if she had managed to volunteer her time, energy, and funds on behalf of the poor nobleman, then he could certainly provide his legal skills gratis.

This moment was the start of Harand's political career. Harand realized that even she-who had never knowingly harbored anti-Semitic feelings-had sought out only non-Jewish lawyers prior to consulting with Zalman, who was Jewish. The instant he volunteered assistance, the thought had crossed her mind that by refusing a fee for his work Zalman was not "behaving in a Jewish fashion. " At this point, with a probing honesty characteristic of her personality, Harand concluded that she had initially interpreted the situation with an anti-Semitic mindset.

Like most Viennese of her day, she had assumed that Zalman by definition would be an avaricious, unscrupulous individual. Immediately realizing that this was not the case, she decided to work closely with Zalman not only to help one old man, but to create the foundations of a movement that would bring new and better ideas into Austrian public life. Besides being a respected attorney who often volunteered his time to help poor but deserving clients, Zalman had for years been deeply involved in political struggles on behalf of the poor and downtrodden.

He was particularly involved in cases where impoverished old-age pensioners were denied their benefits. In one such instance, his efforts had resulted in the passing of a new law that guaranteed pensions to 40, 000 men and women who had previously been denied any payments. Both Zalman's tough determination to find practical ways to accomplish a goal and his unquenchable moral concern for justice deeply impressed Harand.

Together they created the Austrian People's party and, in what would turn out to be the last free parliamentary elections in Austria, campaigned in November 1930 on a platform calling for greater support for impoverished pensioners while condemning the increasingly virulent outbreaks of anti-Semitic propaganda and violence. The election results were a disappointment, indeed a veritable disaster, for the fledgling party.

Only 14, 980 Austrians cast a ballot for the Austrian People's party (8, 459 of these were in Vienna).

As a consequence, no seats were won in the national legislature, and what few contributions had flowed into the party treasury before the election could now, in the middle of a worsening economic depression, no longer be counted on. At this juncture, many might have withdrawn from political life, but a disturbing incident at the time of the election strengthened Harand's resolve to remain active. While walking on Vienna's busy Wiedner Hauptstrasse, she witnessed a parade of Nazi youths, characterizing them later as "a troop of half-grown youngsters. " While marching by, they shouted a standard Nazi slogan: "Juda verrecke" (death to the Jews). Pedestrians at the scene seemed indifferent.

Deeply shocked by this event, Harand noted that one boy of about 12 seemed transformed before her very eyes "from a human child to a little bloodthirsty beast. " Alarmed by what she had seen, Harand decided that Nazism in Austria, while still not a mass movement in 1930, had clearly become a dangerous phenomenon because of its powerful appeals to young people seeking a cause. Soon after the incident, Harand appeared at a Catholic political meeting to warn of the growing menace of Nazism.

Instead of a sympathetic reception, the audience dismissed her warnings, mocked her for a lack of political experience or judgment, and booed her off the stage as a "foolish, hysterical woman. " But it would take more than public humiliation to discourage Harand, who was determined to awaken the people of her native Vienna to the evils growing in their midst.

For over a year, she and Zalman continued to warn about the dangers of Nazism and racial hatred, spreading their message in small groups that met in apartments, cafes, and rented halls. But few seemed interested in their warnings. In both Germany and Austria, the Nazi movement grew alarmingly in size and aggressiveness. Most people were more concerned with the basics of economic survival during the depression and regarded Adolf Hitler as another Lueger, an unscrupulous demagogue whose anti-Semitism would quickly moderate once he was forced to deal with the responsibilities of actually wielding political power.

Resistance Movement Gains Strength Harand's energies were galvanized when Hitler assumed control over Germany in early 1933. In a small pamphlet entitled "So? oder So?" which included on its cover sketches of a swastika and balanced scales of justice, she communicated with a mass audience on the burning issue of the day-whether Nazism, using anti-Semitism as one of its major arguments, would be able to seize power in Austria. Financed by herself and her husband, So? oder So? was printed in an edition of 30, 000 copies, and sold for the low price of 20 Groschen.

The main thesis of the work was that virtually all of the arguments used by anti-Semites were untruths, or gross distortions, and that Jews as individuals rarely behaved in the ways that racist stereotypes had depicted them. She gave as her motive for writing a basic belief that as an Austrian, a Christian, and an "Aryan" she had a responsibility to speak up for a historically maligned people, pointedly reminding her readers that Jesus Christ had also been a Jew.

Encouraged by a favorable response to her pamphlet, which soon went into a second printing of another 30, 000 copies, Harand went about her work with a heightened sense of urgency in the summer of 1933. The Austrian Nazi party had been declared illegal in June of that year and was now engaged in numerous bomb attacks and other underground activities designed to destabilize and psychologically disarm the Austrian government.

Attacks on Jewish shops and homes in Vienna became common, and it was clear that if Nazism triumphed in Austria the fate of its Jewish citizens would be grim at best. Seeking moral and financial support from both Catholics and Jews, Harand was able in early September 1933 to release the first issue of a newspaper dedicated to enlightening the public about the menace of Nazism. Called Gerechtigkeit (Justice), it declared as its guiding principles a strong desire to fight against racial hatred and to ameliorate human suffering.

Gerechtigkeit quickly became a popular-and often controversial-publication. Many of Vienna's Jews felt their morale improve when they began reading this clearly written, courageous weekly newspaper. Some Catholics who had never given much thought to their anti-Semitic attitudes began to question some of their own assumptions (and prejudices) when confronted with powerful and passionately argued ideas. Within a short time of its founding, Gerechtigkeit reached a circulation of almost 30, 000 copies. But Vienna's illegal Nazis regarded the paper as a dangerous weapon in the hands of their enemies and demonstrated their anger by disrupting Harand's rallies and meetings with stink bombs and firecrackers.

Threatening letters were often addressed to Harand, warning that her defense of Jews made her a traitor to the "cause of pure Germandom. "

It appealed to Jews and Christians, young as well as old, and by May 1934 could claim 40, 000 members. Although membership dropped slightly in 1936 to 36, 000, in that year the Harand Movement could boast of 6, 000 non-Austrian members. The religious affiliations of the Movement's Austrian members broke down into 25, 000 Roman Catholics, 4, 000 Jews, and 1, 000 Protestants.

Remembering that words alone would not suffice to combat ethnic and religious hatreds, the Harand Movement organized several shelters in Vienna that were able to provide hot drinks, food and warmth for 200 to 300 unemployed and homeless people daily in the city's bitterly cold winter months. Aware that her message of religious toleration and resistance to Nazi racism could only be effective if disseminated to as many people as possible, Harand showed remarkable creativity in "packaging" the ideas of her movement in many different forms. The successful pamphlet So? oder So?, as well as the newspaper Gerechtigkeit, served to sound the alarm about Nazism, but other methods of recruitment and persuasion were constantly being tried. To win over alienated youth, an organization called the Austrian Youth League (Österreichischer Jugendbund; ÖJB) was created; many of its members came from the Social Democratic youth organizations banned in February 1934.

Also popular was a youth chorus that served as an auxiliary of the ÖJB, which gave a number of successful concerts of Austrian folk songs. Another novel idea was the issuance of a phonograph record, one side of which contained a brief statement by Harand, with the other side reserved for a song, "Gute Menschen'' (Good People), which summed up the humane optimism of the Harand Movement.

A final method of spreading the message was a series of perforated gummed labels which resembled postage stamps but had no postal validity. Printed in several languages, these labels depicted great Jewish thinkers, artists, and scientists and were meant to counter the Nazi slander that Jews had never been cultural benefactors. On at least one occasion, these labels were used in Nazi Germany by underground members of the Harand Movement who were in touch with their Vienna headquarters.

In 1937 courageous members of the Movement entered the exhibition hall in Munich housing the Nazi regime's anti-Semitic propaganda exhibition "Der ewige Jude'' ("The Eternal Jew"). Here they plastered the walls and exhibition frames with many of these labels, which depicted among other individuals the noted Jewish scientists Paul Ehrlich and Heinrich Hertz and politicians Benjamin Disraeli and Walter Rathenau.

By 1935 some conservative Austrians were clearly thinking of the day when an increasingly powerful Nazi Germany would be able to absorb the weak Alpine republic, and were thus less enthusiastic about supporting an outspoken anti-Nazi like Harand. It was probably for this reason that she was unable to find a publisher among the established publishing houses; undaunted, she had her manuscript privately printed and published. In the first chapter of in Sein Kampf, she defined as one essential feature of Nazism its reliance on lies, defining a lie as "a filthy weapon a crime against God, against Nature and against Humanity. "

While most of Sein Kampf was a vigorous defense of the Jews, Harand's book also analyzed and condemned other destructive forces in the modern world, particularly the long-existing spirit of rabid nationalism that made it possible for Hitler's movement to seduce and control otherwise decent human beings. Arguing that national feelings based on attitudes of superiority toward another people could only act as a poison and lead to war, she made it clear that, while she considered herself to be a good Austrian, such love of country was patriotism-not a narrow-minded and intolerant nationalism. Perhaps realizing that at least in the short run hers was to be a losing battle, Harand wrote in the Preface: I hope that [this book] will bring consolation to the victims of National Socialism. It ought to assure them that there are still some people in this world who will not submit to the terror of the Third Reich but who will fight until the danger of Nazi expansion is banished from the earth and the victims of National Socialism are rescued from their torturers.

The 1935 publication of Sein Kampf turned Harand into a declared enemy of the Third Reich. With its provocatively anti-Nazi title it quickly came to the attention of Nazi Germany's supreme censorship board, the Reichsschrifttumskammer, which kept tabs on any publication deemed dangerous to the regime.

In the board's list of banned books issued in October 1935, Sein Kampf was described as being both "dangerous and undesired. " With this listing, it became clear that Harand was now regarded as an active and dangerous foe of the Hitler regime. Not only Nazi literary agencies but Heinrich Himmler's feared SS and Gestapo placed her name on lists of those individuals in Austria who would be "dealt with accordingly" at such time that Nazi control extended to her country.

Fortunately both Harands were in Great Britain at the time of the Anschluss which marked the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March 1938. Had they been in Vienna, there is little doubt that they would have been sent to Dachau concentration camp, where the first anti-Nazis were transported when the Nazi rulers destroyed the vestiges of independent Austria. After a brief period in Great Britain, the Harands emigrated to the United States, where Irene continued her defense of Jewish honor against Nazi propaganda.

By the 1956, her work was forgotten in both her native Austria and her new homeland America. Only in her final years did her life's work begin to receive the recognition it deserved. In 1969 she was honored by Israel's Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority as one of the non-Jewish individuals who helped Jews during the Holocaust period and thus deserved recognition as one of the "Righteous among the Nations. "

One of the members of the commission that recommended her for the award noted the courage necessary in her activities of the 1936: [T]o deliver public speeches at a time when Austria was swept by a wave of political assassinations meant exposing oneself to great risk. This woman waged a desperate and unceasing war which placed her in great peril. She sent her boys to hand out the newspaper at street corners.

The children were beaten and she was beaten too. She stood her ground against vilification and threats. If this is not a struggle in which one risks one's life, then I don't know what risk means. She fought to save Austrian Jewry. After decades of indifference, Harand's Austrian homeland began to take an interest in her achievements in the 1976. She visited Vienna and was honored there in 1971.

It was not, however, until 1990, some ten years after her death, when a public housing project in the heart of Vienna was named after her, that she became known again to the average Viennese. No doubt she would have appreciated the April 20th date chosen for the dedication ceremonies.

Every April 20th had been celebrated in the Third Reich with elaborate ceremonies, for it was the birthday of Hitler. After many decades, at least symbolic justice had triumphed in a small corner of Hitler's homeland.

Achievements

• She was an Austrian leader in Vienna who vigorously attacked the evils of Nazism, anti-Semitism, and religious intolerance and was honored by Israel for her efforts. She started the Harand Movement, an organisation Weltbewegung gegen Rassenhass und Menschennot (World Movement Against Racial Hatred and Human Suffering) in 1933 and actively campaigned throughout Europe before World War II. She was one of the founders of the Austrian People's party. Harand was not deterred. Encouraged by the initial successes of her publications, in 1933 she founded a "Movement against Anti-Semitism, Racial Hatred and Glorification of War. " Anyone could join this organization, which was usually simply referred to as the Harand Movement. In August 1935 Harand published a book that became her most compelling indictment of Nazism and anti-Semitism. Entitled Sein Kampf, this work was obviously meant to refute the arguments first raised a decade earlier by Hitler in Mein Kampf.
  
  In 1969 she received the honorary title of a Righteous among the Nations from the state of Israel for her resistance against the Nazi anti-semitism. In 2008 a square in the Vienna district of Wieden was named in her honour.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Hitler's Lies/An answer To Hitler's Mein Kampf

    (First published in Vienna in 1935,'Hitler's Lies' by Iren...)

  • Sein Kampf ("His Fight"): Answer to Hitler and his Mein Kampf

    (152 pgs. Index)

  • His Struggle (An Answer to Hitler)

    (......)

Religion

Her father, a manufacturer, was Roman Catholic; her mother was Lutheran. To avoid any religious conflicts in the family, Irene and her three siblings were all raised as Catholics, but one of Irene's aunts was Jewish, making two of her cousins half-Jewish. Such religious and ethnic mixtures were quite common in pre-1914 Vienna, and among the educated elite toleration, rather than disapproval, was the general spirit in which such personal matches were viewed.

Views

But anti-Semitism was common among the poorer, less educated groups in society who had been propagandized by the demagogues. During a summer holiday as a young girl, Irene had a firsthand experience with anti-Semitism when she, an older sister, and her two half-Jewish cousins were surrounded by a group of local peasant children who taunted them with pejorative anti-Semitic slogans. Decades later she recalled running, with her older sister in the lead, to the security of the family cabin. Vividly, she remembered what it had been like to be "on the receiving end" of racist hatred, noting that "one never forgets the first time one feels oneself frightened to death, and sees the world as being full of nothing but enemies. "

While both Harands were politically conservative and sympathetic to the principles of monarchism, during the first decade of their marriage they avoided political controversies, concentrating instead on creating a pleasant life for themselves. Although she had not attended a university during the 1926, Harand read widely and familiarized herself with the major economic and political controversies of the time. During these years she increasingly came to read about, and sometimes discuss with friends, two closely intertwined problems that concerned politically active Austrians: the continuing hostility toward the nation's Jewish minority, and a small but growing ultraradical movement that pledged to solve once and for all Europe's "Jewish problem. "

Quotations: Nazism, she believed, was "guilty of robbing our children of their childhood, stealing our children from us and making criminals of them. "

In a box featured on the first page of each issue, Harand proclaimed the reason for her defense of the honor of Austria's Jews: "I fight anti-Semitism because it defames our Christianity. "

Sein Kampf ends with both a grim warning and words of shining hope: "National Socialism is the greatest menace of the century. In fighting it, we must use weapons which the Nazis scorn: Idealism and Courage, Common Sense and Love, Truth and Justice!"

Connections

In 1919 she married Frank Harand, who had served as a captain in the Austrian army during World War I. Like his bride, he was a devout Catholic who believed that if the world was to be spared another bloodletting such as the recently ended war, it would have to rebuild its moral values and social institutions on Christian principles of justice, love, and toleration.

husband:

Frank Harand

References

• Ihre Pflicht war der Widerstand: Irene Harand und ihr Kampf gegen Hitler (German Edition)