Heinrich Giovanelli

This is the story of Heinrich Giovanelli. In the Nazi era, the National Socialists persecuted him as a Jew, and he lost his job at the Landhaus.

Heinrich Giovanelli was born in Klosterbruck (today’s Louka) in Moravia in 1884. He attended a grammar school in Vienna. In 1908 his career took him to Innsbruck. At the Landhaus he worked his way up to become head of the Department of Social Affairs.

Although he was baptised a Roman Catholic, the National Socialists persecuted him as a “first-degree Jewish half-breed”. On 16 March 1938, he was relieved of his managerial position and given work as an ordinary clerk in the department. He nevertheless took his oath of office to Adolf Hitler in April 1938 – in vain: Six months later he was forced to take retirement.

Until October 1944, he lived largely unmolested in Innsbruck – until the Gestapo deported him to Rositz in Thuringia. In a forced labour camp he had to perform extremely hard physical labour. The living conditions resembled those in a concentration camp. The hardships were too much for him; he collapsed and was released as being unfit for work.

Back in Innsbruck, he worked as a clerk in a firm. He was well treated there and survived the Nazi period. In May 1945 he was reinstated as head of the Department of Social Affairs in the Landhaus. There he was in charge of the housing office. Bomb damage, stranded refugees and the requirements of the occupying forces were the main focus of his work.

The torments of the previous years had left their mark on him. In poor health, he retired at the end of June 1947. He died in Innsbruck in 1976.