Vera Graubart

This is the story of Vera Graubart. The home of the Jewish family was confiscated and exchanged for a property the Nazis needed to complete the Gauhaus ensemble.

Vera Graubart was four years old when construction of the Gauhaus began. Her grandfather had established the S. Graubart shoe shop, which became the largest of its kind in Tyrol. Vera’s father, Richard Graubart, worked in the family business and was a member of the Jewish Community.

In Tyrol, legal discrimination against Jewish residents began in 1938. Murder and violence were a concomitant, as demonstrated by the night of the November pogrom at the latest. Vera was woken up that night by the clatter made by the murder squad. The Nazis pushed her and her mother into the nursery. Vera could not remember the details, but she heard her father suddenly scream. He was one of the victims of the Innsbruck November pogrom. Vera reached England with one of the last Kinder transports. Her mother managed to follow later.

The Gauleiter’s office offered a house belonging to the Graubart family at Museumstrasse 8 in exchange for a property needed for the Landhaus project.

In order to create an ensemble as a self-contained centre of power, the Nazis sought to acquire properties in Meraner Strasse. Owners who did not want to sell were offered expropriated Jewish homes in exchange.

Vera found her new start in life in England difficult and did not speak a word for weeks. After the war, her family successfully petitioned a court for restitution of the property at Museumstraße 8. In 1953 Vera paid her first post-war visit to Innsbruck. In 2012, in remembrance of her expulsion, she received the Cross of Merit of the City of Innsbruck – where she never felt at home again.