Erich Finsches

Erich Finsches (born 11 September 1927), also known as Erich Richard Finsches, is an Austrian Holocaust survivor, contemporary witness and non-professional actor. As a Jewish child and adolescent, he was persecuted under Nazi Germany, subjected to forced labour and deported to Auschwitz concentration camp and to subcamps of Dachau concentration camp. For many years, Finsches has spoken as a contemporary witness, particularly in the context of historical and political education at schools. He has also appeared in films by Austrian director Ulrich Seidl.

Early life and persecution

Erich Finsches was born on 11 September 1927 in Vienna into a Jewish family. After the Anschluss of Austria in 1938, he was subjected to persecution as a Jewish child. In an interview with the newsroom of the Austrian Parliament, Finsches recalled that he was arrested as an eleven-year-old during the November pogroms after searching for his missing father at a local police station. According to the OeAD project weiter_erzählen, Finsches was arrested in November 1938 and was taken to Eisenerz for forced labour in 1939.

Finsches escaped to Vienna, where he lived for a time in hiding. He was later again subjected to forced labour and fled to Hungary. According to weiter_erzählen, he lived there for two years and was involved in the Yugoslav resistance. According to weiter_erzählen, he has three children and lives in Vienna. In 2022, a more than four-hour interview with Finsches was recorded for the weiter_erzählen platform as part of the OeAD programme ERINNERN:AT.

In 2025, the Austrian Parliament published an interview with Finsches on the anniversary of the November pogroms, focusing on his memories of persecution beginning in 1938. In Seidl's feature film Dog Days, he played the old man. In Import/Export, he played Herr Schlager.

The life story of Erich Finsches forms the basis of the classroom theatre play Ein Zniachtl by Wiener Klassenzimmertheater. The play deals with Finsches's experiences as a persecuted Jew during the Nazi period and was offered in cooperation with the OeAD programme ERINNERN:AT for young audiences aged 13 or 14 and above. At Dschungel Wien, Ein Zniachtl was announced as a play about the life of Erich Finsches; it was directed by Dana Csapo and performed by Andrzej Jaślikowski. The project received support from the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism in 2023.

Filmography Bilder einer Ausstellung (1996), directed by Ulrich Seidl – participant Dog Days (2001), directed by Ulrich Seidl – the old man Import/Export (2007), directed by Ulrich Seidl – Herr Schlager To Live and Survive (2025), directed by Matthias Jaklitsch – documentary film about Finsches