Svenja Kalmar teaches history and biology at a high school close to Vienna. Her work on queer Holocaust history was recognized with the Orfeo Iris Prize These views are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Wiener Holocaust Library. His story was not unlike that of many other Viennese Jewish emigrants: he was descended from Polish-Jewish parents, born in Vienna, and lived in the largely Jewish second district of Leopoldstadt.
Schrefel escaped Vienna following his persecution by the Gestapo. But one thing sets Schrefel apart: his life offers a queer counterpoint to the majority of Holocaust and Austrian Jewish histories. In the absence of a testimony of his own, much of what we offer here is guesswork.
To queer historians, these are familiar challenges. We are particularly interested in exploring how this single case study can shine new light on Austrian Jewish and Holocaust history, and histories of Jewish emigration from Nazi Greater Germany to Britain. Both of his parents were born in what was then the Polish part of Austria-Hungary, which became independent Poland after Bieszczady county and Zolochiv, respectively. Heinrich attended eight years of school and then trained as a dental technician.
The Gestapo came across Schrefel following the arrest of another Jewish man for sodomy. In June , the Gentile wife of the tailor Bernhard Weinberger caught her husband in bed with another man and reported him directly to the Gestapo. The following investigation of his contacts turned up Heinrich Schrefel.
The people in the case demonstrate the old multinational Vienna: Jews and Gentiles, ethnic Austrians and Viennese Czechs. Echoing Marsha Rozenblit , most of the Jewish protagonists were either born in what became Poland after , or their parents were.
