Franziska V.

Franziska V.

born in 1927 – date of death unknown

Franziska V. loved to hang out in Vienna’s Prater amusement park or in the pubs in the city’s Second District. She wanted to have fun with people of her own age. She rejected the drill of the Hitler Youth or the League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel). She was a »Schlurf girl«. »Schlurf« is an Austrian German expression for idleness and means taking things easy, having fun, going for nights on the town, not following the norm.

»Schlurfs« were young members of the working class in Vienna, who during the National Socialist regime attracted attention with their unique sense of style and love of jazz music. »Schlurf« is an Austrian term for idleness. Like »Schlurf« is an Austrian term for idleness. Like the »swings« in Hamburg, the »zazous« in Paris or the »Potápki« in Prague, the »Schlurfs« lived in their own youth sub-culture which was diametrically opposed to the military drill of the Nazi youth organisations. They were persecuted by the Nazis.

The Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend, abbr. HJ) was the National Socialist youth organisation for boys; its female equivalent was the League of German Girls (BDM). All other youth organisations were banned in 1933. Children and teenagers were to be educated in National Socialist principles both in and outside school. For this reason, membership of the HJ was compulsory for all 10 to 18 year-old boys who were classed as »Aryan«.

The League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel abbr. BDM) was the Nazi youth organisation for girls and young women, the female equivalent of the Hitler Youth. All other youth organisations were banned in 1933. Children and teenagers were to be educated according to National Socialist principles both in and outside the classroom. From 1939 membership of the BDM was therefore made compulsory for all girls aged between 10 and 17 who were classed as »Aryan«.

»Schlurf girls« against the Nazis

This song text, which Franziska V. wrote in an exercise book, sums up the »Schlurf« spirit:

»You don’t need to worry about us,
because we Schlurf girls are here to stay.
Lock us away in some institution,
we’ll get out of there anyway.
We’ll whistle at their work, toss it aside,
Nights spent out, no need to abide.
So girls, don’t let them shape how you’ll be, or it’s bye-bye to freedom, just wait and see.«

Schlurf-song from Franziska’s dossier at the Bischofsried workhouse for iterants.
Source: Institut für Zeitgeschichte München – Berlin, ED 728-2880-33

However, Fanny Vesela’s parents did not approve of her lifestyle. She often came home late at night and had no interest in finding steady employment. In spring 1942 her mother sought help from Vienna’s Youth Wel­fare Office and consulted its »educational counselling service«. The authorities were quick to respond. A week later Fanny Vesela was admitted to a reformatory »for monitoring«. Additional spells in other institutions followed.

A year later the employment office found Fanny work as a domestic servant. She was allowed to live back at home with her parents temporarily. According to the files, she was dismissed »for various counts of theft«. Vienna’s Local Court subsequently ruled that she was to be placed in correctional education indefinitely. She was admitted to another institution. The educational advisor’s report described her as »workshy« and »morally degenerate«.

In July 1943 she was transferred from the Municipal Children’s Hospital for Nervous Diseases in Vienna to the Bischofsried workhouse for itinerants in Upper Bavaria at the instigation of the physician Ernst Illing. The physician Dr Hell interviewed Fanny Vesela there and wrote in her report that Fanny »contaminates the institution with ›Schlurf mentality‹«. Dr Hell recommended that Fanny be educated through work with »iron discipline and utmost severity«.

Fanny Vesela tried to escape Bischofsried on a number of occasions. After a failed escape attempt in July 1944, she was placed into »isolation« in the workhouse. She subsequently attempted to take her own life. Her parents wrote to Bischofsried asking for their daughter to be released or transferred back to an institution in Vienna. However, their appeal was rejected. After she had been in Bischofsried for a year, the Youth Wel­fare Office in the Gau (Nazi regional administrative unit) of Vienna transferred Fanny Vesela to Uckermark »youth protection camp« in northern Germany.

It is not known how long she had to spend in this youth concentration camp. In July 1945 Fanny Vesela was back in Vienna. By this point she was 18 years old. It is unclear what happened to her next.

Postkarte vom Prater in Wien
Postcard of the Prater in Vienna.
Source: Wien Museum Inv.-Nr. 205280, CC0 (https://sammlung.wienmuseum.at/objekt/38632/)

* The name has been changed

»Schlurfs« were young members of the working class in Vienna, who during the National Socialist regime attracted attention with their unique sense of style and love of jazz music. »Schlurf« is an Austrian term for idleness. Like »Schlurf« is an Austrian term for idleness. Like the »swings« in Hamburg, the »zazous« in Paris or the »Potápki« in Prague, the »Schlurfs« lived in their own youth sub-culture which was diametrically opposed to the military drill of the Nazi youth organisations. They were persecuted by the Nazis.

Authorities were already using the term »workshy« prior to 1933. For the Nazis it was a derogatory term for the unemployed, whom they accused of not wanting to find work. These people received no assistance from the state; instead, the welfare authorities made them perform heavy manual labour and the police imprisoned many of them in concentration camps. In 1938 alone the police arrested more than 10,000 »workshy« people. The Nazis considered a »workshy« disposition to be hereditary and a danger to the »national community« (»Volksgemeinschaft«).