Helga Emperger: The strong voice against forgetting in Villach

Helga Emperger: The strong voice against forgetting in Villach

The story of Helga Emperger from Villach is a moving memory of the time of the Second World War and the resistance to the Nazi regime. Today, on May 25, 2025, the 96-year-old is not tired of sharing her experiences. She lively remembers her childhood in Lienz, where she was born on December 25, 1928. At the age of four, her family moved to Villach, where she was soon drawn into the turmoil of the war. Her family was actively involved in resistance, which had tragic consequences.

in November 1944, Helga Emperger was arrested with her sister. The shadows of the war became particularly dark for the family when her mother, Maria Peskoller, resistance fighter, was executed in Graz on December 23, 1944. This cruel story found her precipitation in the play "Anna and the Partisans" by Ekkehard Schönwiese, which addresses the experiences of time and illuminates the fates of those who fought for their lives and freedom. Helga was released from custody in Klagenfurt in April 1945, only to find out that Villach, once her home, was in ruins.

The memories of the war

While her mother fought in resistance, Helga was in bed in the last days of the war at the end of the war in a state of the illness. Reports of contemporary witnesses, such as Hans and Josef Ressmann from Ledenitzen, who experienced the last days of the war in Lower Austria in May 1945, show that the experiences were varied and shaped by great suffering. Villach was heavily bombed as a railway junction, which led to a massive destruction of the city.

Helga remembers the nightmare, the view of her parents' house, which was now a fire ruin. Despite these terrible memories, she has never forgotten the promise that she gave her mother: staying strong and being a decent person. Your committed attitude is particularly important in order not to be forgotten the atrocities of the Nazi regime.

the resistance in the historical context

Helga Emperger is part of a broader history of resistance to the Nazi regime, which also took place in other parts of Germany. For example, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, the national conservative mayor of Leipzig, resigned from his position in 1937 in protest against anti -Semitism. It became part of a concerted resistance group, which also included personalities such as Ulrich von Hassell and General Ludwig Beck. In response to the increasing urgency of resistance, these bourgeois resistance groups to a coup d'état, which illustrates the different forms of resistance in German space.

In this wide range of resistance initiatives, the district of the district is also mentioned, which discussed concepts on the reorganization of Germany after the fall of the Nazi dictatorship. Their orientation to a European Federation shows that resistance was not only intended nationally but also internationally. These historical currents are part of the memory and help to contextualize the acts of courageous individuals like Helga Emperger.

Helga has continued to forget her commitment to this day. Their voice and voices of the survivors are crucial to keep the darkest chapters of history alive and to sensitize future generations.

Dolomitenstadt reports that Helga Emperger is an outstanding witness of her time. According to Kleine Zeitung , their experiences also influence the ideas about the resistance against the Nazi regime. A comprehensive picture of the resistance draws dhm by documenting the multitude of resistance movements and their historical importance.