Hermine Zaynard

Hermine Zaynard (born Hermine Schwarzer: 26 May 1913 - 19 November 1943) was an Austrian technical draftswomen who became a political activist, working with the Young Communists under Austro-Fascism. After Austria's incorporation into Hitler's new Germany in 1938, and the country's inclusion in the war which broke out the next year, she became an anti-government resistance activist. On 30 September 1943 Hermine Zaynard was convicted and sentenced by the special "People's Court" in Vienna. Her execution took place by decapitation, using the guillotine that had been installed at the Vienna District Court house five years earlier.

Life Hermine "Minkerl" Schwarzer was born in Vienna a year before the outbreak of the war that would put an end to the Austro-Hungarian empire. She attended primary school in Vienna and then completed a vocational secondary school training for work as a Kindergarten teacher. It was, however, on account of their shared involvement as anti-government resistance activists that they had met and become close.

Mother Hermine Zaynard's mother, also called Hermine Schwarzer, had been arrested on 17 March 1943 "on suspicion of communist activities". It seems likely that she had been arrested on suspicion of having been involved in her daughter's political activities. According to one source she was charged with "preparing to commit high treason and distributing illegal leaflets". However, there is no record of her having actually faced trial, so presumably the security services never obtained the level of evidence that would have been necessary "safely" to secure her conviction. Nevertheless, Hermine Schwarzer (mother) remained under suspicion so could not be released. Instead, after two months in custody in Vienna, she was transferred to the women's concentration camp at Ravensbrück, a short distance to the north of Berlin, where she was detained till May 1945.

Celebration At the start of October 1943 Hermine Zaynard wrote a letter to her father, her parents-in-law, "sweet Liesserl" (possibly a sister) "and all others who have lived me". Presumably her mother was excluded from the addressees because, being locked away in the women's concentration camp, her mother was not expected to get a chance to read it. The letter indicates that Hermine Zaynard was reconciled to the prospect that she would soon be executed, though she still hoped that she might somehow avoid such a fate. Although she has her own grave memorial at the Vienna's vast (and misleadingly named) "Central Cemetery", for many purposes Hermine Zaynard's most effective memorial is probably the letter which she herself wrote to her family just over six weeks before her execution.