Memorial plaque for Jewish citizens of the community St. Andrä im Lavanttal

A memorial plaque was unveiled in the Generationenpark St. Andrä in the Lavanttal in September 2022, commemorating the Jewish citizens of the community. The metal stele remembers the couple Lothar and Hildegard Auerbach, who came from Silesia to Carinthia with their three children in 1936. They managed a remote farm in Schaßbach near St. Andrä and employed the apprentice Gerhard Gadiel there. With the “Anschluss” in 1938, the farm was seized, and Lothar Auerbach and Gerhard Gadiel were arrested during the November Pogrom and sent to Gestapo custody in Klagenfurt, from where they were deported to the Dachau concentration camp. After being released from Dachau, Lothar Auerbach was able to emigrate with his wife and three children to England, and the family survived the Holocaust. Gerhard Gadiel, however, was later arrested again, deported eastwards and murdered.