Memorial Plaque for Dr. Walter Porges, Spittal an der Drau

The Bismarckstraße 4 house in Spittal an der Drau was the residence and at the same time the practice of Dr. Walter Porges. He was born on October 23, 1887, as the child of Jewish parents, studied medicine, and served as a military doctor at the Isonzo front. In 1919, he was among the Carinthian resistance fighters active in the area of Bleiburg-Völkermarkt. The doctor was active in the municipal council of Spittal, where he mainly engaged in charitable work for the poor. In 1924, he married and had three children with his wife. After the "Anschluss" to the German Reich, Walter Porges lost his medical license and had to relocate to Vienna as a so-called "nurse of the Jews." After his arrest in the autumn of 1943, he was deported to the extermination camp Auschwitz on June 22, 1944, and murdered there. A memorial plaque at his former home commemorates him.