Anna Peczenik (1911–1944), ca. 1935.
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The nurse Anna Peczenik grew up in a Jewish family and was already active in the Austrian Communist party at a young age. For that reason, the mother of one daughter was expelled from Austria in 1934. Her path led her by way of Prague and Paris to Spain, where she joined the International Brigades in 1937 and fought in the civil war. After their defeat she joined the French résistance and risked her life as a courier for many years. In 1944 she was arrested and deported to the Buchenwald women’s camp in Magdeburg. There she impressed her fellow prisoners with her unbroken courage. The circumstances of her murder by the SS have never been clarified.
