Aloisia Hofinger

I am glad that I can laugh today.

In November 1943, Aloisia Hofinger was discharged from the concentration camp, probably due to her employer’s pleas for clemency. Two weeks before her return she heard of her daughter’s death. Annemarie, who had been taken care of by a farmer’s family while her mother was imprisoned, had died of diphtheria at the age of 15 months. Before she was released, Aloisia Hofinger had to sign a document promising to keep silent about her imprisonment. If she disobeyed, she would again be threatened with being sent to the concentration camp. She returned to her job in Ottensheim, and although she was supported in every way by the farmer’s family, she continued to live in fear of further repression. She spent the following years living a very secluded life. Still working on the farm, she met her future husband Johann, who was a farmer and an enemy of the National Socialist regime, too. They got married in April 1945. They had a son and two daughters. Aloisia Hofinger is still waiting for the compensation payments for her forced labour at Siemens & Halske at Ravensbrück.

In connection with payments of compensation to former slave and forced labourers, she finally got compensation for her forced labour with Siemens.

Then, I already had the news that she [her daughter Annemarie] had died. And I didn't cry. Couldn't cry at all. Had no feeling of it. And afterwards, I said: „Thank god, that the Good Lord too her!“ But really only because of people. I often thought, maybe it's for the best that she died. So she doesn't have to listen to things. Because people are right mean.

Interviewer: Were you able to speak about your experience in the concentration camp with someone?
Only with my children. And I didn't want to tell them about it. In the first place the eldest daughter, she asked so much. „Greti,“ I said, „you're just going to cry so much again, I don't want that.“ She cried all night. She pitied me so much, because she wasn't able to believe that one could stand such a thing. But then, she asked again and again. I told her again, because I was glad, too, to be able to tell something. (…) And with my parents, I never spoke a word about it. About the camp, we never talked. They never asked how I fared, and I didn't say anything. Why they didn't ask, I don't know. That hurt me a long time, because I would have wanted to tell them how it was and why it came about. I worked for them [Siemens] so much there, and they had cheap labour. I don't want to say now that I have worked for them or them, because they really forced us to do that. I think it is legitimate that we get something for that time. Yes, I am glad that I can laugh today.
Ja, ich bin froh, dass ich heut´ lachen kann.

Interviewer: Weren't you able to laugh for a long time?
No, I was so serious. It was awful. But … the children were such a joy for me.

Waiting for compensation

In 1933, Siemens began to considerably replace paid labour by forced labour in its production process. In 1943, 42,000 forced labourers and 18,000 concentration camp prisoners worked in the Siemens group. This was more than 30 % of their workforce. After 1945, Siemens evaded demands for compensation by untruthfully claiming that it had been forced to employ concentration camp prisoners and forced labourers by the National Socialist leadership. In the 1960s and 1990s, Siemens paid the first compensations to Jewish and Eastern European forced labourers. In the meantime, the German government has negotiated the establishment of a foundation for compensation payments. German enterprises, amongst them Siemens, BASF, Bayer and VW, financially contribute to this foundation. They did, however, stipulate a clause in the contract that protects them from further actions.

Addendum 2009

In 2000, the foundation „Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft“ (remembrance, responsibility and future) was founded in Germany in order to organise compensation for former forced labourers; amongst others Siemens also contributed financially. By the end of 2005, the foundation had identified 1.64 claimants all over the world. In Austria, also in 2000, the „Österreichische Versöhnungsfonds“ (Austrian reconciliation foundation) was founded to compensate former forced labourers on the territory of the present-day Republic of Austria. By the end of the applications deadline, more than 110,000 applications were allowed.