Interview with Gertrude Horn

Former resident of Lilienbrunngasse 6, Gertrude Horn recalls some of her acts of resistance:

"I was imprisoned and came to a judge who sentenced me to four weeks' arrest for not wearing the Jewish star and to fourteen days' arrest for the forbidden visit to a pub. I served the sentence at the "Liesl" [police prison, today Roßauer Lände] in a communal cell for Jews. [...] I had met a girl in prison who invited me to her home after my sentence. A few young people met there. [...] We first had to get to know each other, we were all very young, no one had any political experience. After we had met a few times, my later husband came to give a lecture. It was clear from his lecture that it was about the illegal Communist Youth League and about a separate organization of the "Mischlinge", "Mischlingsliga Wien". It was clear to us that we had to do something against the Nazi regime, we could not just wait. In the meantime the deportations to Poland had already begun. People were sent away who had had no possibility to defend themselves, so one had to build up such organizations. At that time, we still had many Jewish young people with us, whom we trained, and some of them even took part in the Warsaw Uprising. We didn't want to just wait and see what would happen to us. [...] We produced leaflets and distributed them, we wrote slogans on walls. We put the leaflets on apartment doors. We did this at night and mainly in the second district, because this was where most of the Jews lived [...] Everyone was afraid. But when you are young, you are determined to do such activities. Besides, the "Mischlingsliga" was working at a time when the war was already advanced, and the chances of survival were so slim for everyone that there was little to lose."

Source -Interview with Gertrude Horn, geb. Fanto, conducted by Nancy Ann Coyne, Wien 13./14.1.1989, DÖW, 554, in: Erzählte Geschichte Jüdische Schicksale, 222f.