Bidspirit auction | Alexander Eifler: A Soldier of

Alexander Eifler: A Soldier of Freedom - Early and Rare Publication on the Chief of the Operational Staff of the Austrian ”Schutzbund, ” Murdered at Dachau - ”Alexander Eifler: Ein Soldat der Freiheit” - Alexander Eifler: A Soldier of Freedom, by Julius Deutsch - an early and rare publication on the Chief of the Operational Staff of the Austrian ”Schutzbund, ” who was murdered at Dachau. Published by the Austrian Social Democratic Party (Verlag Wiener Volksbuchhandlung), Vienna, 1947 - first edition. Extremely rare. An important publication about Alexander Eifler (1888–1945), written by his commander and fellow leader, Julius Deutsch. Eifler was a former Major in the Austro-Hungarian Army and Chief of the Operational Staff of the ”Schutzbund” - the armed militia of the Austrian Social Democratic Party in the 1920s and 1930s. Following the Austrian Civil War of 1934, Eifler was arrested by the Austrofascist regime of Dollfuss and Schuschnigg and sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment. After the Anschluss in 1938, Eifler was sent by the Nazis to Dachau and later to Buchenwald, where he was murdered in 1945, shortly before the liberation of the camp. The booklet was published in Vienna following the liberation of Austria, as part of the early wave of publications issued by the reestablished Social Democratic Party in memory of its heroes who had been murdered in the extermination camps and Nazi prisons. The text details the principal milestones in Eifler's life, from his service as a highly regarded officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I to his decision, following the dissolution of the Empire, to place his military skills at the service of the workers' movement and the defense of the young Austrian Republic. Deutsch describes at length Eifler's activities as Chief of the Operational Staff of the ”Schutzbund” - the armed militia of the Social Democratic Party - emphasizing his role in organizing, training, and instilling discipline in the force in the face of the growing fascist threat in Austria during the 1920s and 1930s. The booklet continues with an account of Eifler's arrest by the Dollfuss regime, his trial and sentence to 18 years' imprisonment, together with a description of his incarceration in a Vienna prison and at Stein Prison until his release under an amnesty at the end of 1935. It then documents the period of Nazi persecution - beginning with his arrest by the Gestapo immediately after the Anschluss in 1938 - Eifler was among the first activists arrested by the Nazi occupiers in March 1938. He was transferred to Dachau on the first transport - where he served as a ”block elder.” In the autumn of 1939, Alex, together with 1,500 comrades, all political prisoners, was sent to Flossenbürg to work in the quarry. The winter of 1939/40 was severe - dressed in thin cotton clothing and subsisting on meager, fatless cabbage soup, he worked in the quarry every day in the freezing cold; with his dwindling strength, he managed to survive this difficult period. Emaciated to the bone, he was returned to Dachau in the spring of 1940. At Dachau, he managed to endure the harsh conditions throughout the war years until he was murdered by the SS in the concentration camp on January 2, 1945, shortly before the liberation of the area, with the work portraying him as a symbol of the uncompromising struggle for freedom and democracy. The booklet is accompanied by rare photographs showing Major Eifler in his military uniform (a portrait photograph at the beginning of the booklet), during a field exercise of the Republican Protection League, and serving as block elder at the Dachau concentration camp alongside other prisoners. Extremely rare. Only one copy is listed in the WorldCat global library catalog. 51 pages. Wear to the cover and some of the pages. Good-moderate condition.