Memorial plaque for Marie Haslauer and Mathias Wimmer

Since May 2024, an additional commemorative plaque has been placed in front of the entrance to the Berndorfer Gemeindeamt (municipal office) at the newly redesigned Franz-Xaver-Gruber-Platz, above the two Stolpersteine, remembering Marie Haslauer and Mathias Wimmer. Haslauer, born in 1899, was a native of Berndorf who, together with her husband Johann, regularly organized meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses. Both were arrested in 1939 after the Gestapo discovered that these meetings were taking place in the couple's home. After serving their sentence, the family was forced to renounce their faith, but this did not happen. Marie Haslauer and her daughter Antonia were then interned in the concentration camp Ravensbrück, subsequently deported to the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, where Marie Haslauer was murdered on September 27, 1942. The daughter survived. Little is known about Mathias Wimmer to date. Born in Berndorf in 1900, he was deported to the concentration camp Dachau only a few months after the "Anschluss." He was interned there until July 1, 1938, after which he was transferred to the camp Flossenbürg, where he died on November 17, 1941. Since he was listed as a so-called "Vorbeugehäftling" (preventive prisoner), it is assumed that Wimmer had a prior criminal record.