Memorial plaque for victims of the Shoa from Sommerein
Niederösterreiche Nachrichten (NÖN), August 3, 2022
German original: https://www.noen.at/bruck/erinnerungskultur-gedenktafel-fuer-opfer-der-shoa-aus-sommerein-sommerein-shoa-gedenktafel-ava-pelnoecker-steve-reindler-rosa-reindler-wolf-reindler-print-331179151
The descendants of a Sommereinian [Sommerein, a town in Lower Austria] refugee were visiting.
The hobby historian Ava Pelnöcker expected special guests in Sommerein last Wednesday: Steve Reindler (69) had come from New Zealand with his wife Lynn for the first time to visit the village from which his great-aunt Rosa and her brother Heinrich had been expelled in 1938.
In the presence of Christine Besser, the chairwoman of the local village renewal and beautification association, which supported the project financially, Steve Reindler unveiled a memorial plaque, which now commemorates the two victims of the Shoa in front of the Sommerein church. Visibly moved, Steve Reindler thanked Ava Pelnöcker, who had reconstructed the fate of his family members, which had been forgotten here [in Sommerein], on the basis of documents and contemporary witnesses, including their elementary school teacher Johanna Frast (95). "I am very happy that we can pay a bit of tribute to the Reindler family, which they deserved," said Pelnöcker.
About the history of the Reindler family: Wolf Reindler, a Jewish businessman from Vienna, purchased the house at No. 41 (today Markt 23) in 1860, where daughter Rosa (born in 1877) and son Heinrich (born in 1896) continued the family general store after the death of their father.
Following the Anschluss [annexation by Hitlerite Germany] of Austria in 1938, the situation for Austria’s Jewish citizens came to a head. That same year, the GESTAPO ordered the immediate closure of the grocery store. While the nephews Wilhelm and Ludwig Reindler succeeded in emigrating to New Zealand in 1939 despite adversities, the sale of the Sommereiner house was delayed in the course of the annexation of the village to a military training area.
Rosa was not allowed to use the proceeds from the sale for emigration and was deported to the Riga ghetto in February 1942 and murdered the following year, presumably in the Kaiserwald concentration camp.
The proceeds from the sale of the house were confiscated by the Nazi administration. Heinrich was imprisoned for his love affair with the Sommereiner Helene Kopper on the basis of the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor" and sentenced to one year in prison. Heinrich Reindler was deported to the Litzmannstadt ghetto (Łódź, Poland) on October 23, 1941, and died in the winter of 1941/42 - presumably from cold and malnutrition.
After the end of the Second World War, Heinrich's nephews Wilhelm and Ludwig tried in vain for decades to obtain financial reparations. It was not until 2013 that their five children, including Steve Reindler, were awarded a small amount by a compensation fund for a part of the property that was in the public domain, and thus at least a little justice was done - late, but still.