In Memoriam Hermine Liska

Hermine Liska, née Obweger, was born in Carinthia on 12 April 1930, the youngest of five children. Until 1938, she and her four brothers enjoyed a carefree childhood growing up on their parents’ farm. The family were Jehovah's Witnesses and soon after the “Anschluss” of Austria they came under increasing pressure due to their religious beliefs. Hermine Liska was taken away from her parents to be “re-educated”, but remained true to her faith despite the separation from her family and the harassment and intimidation she was subjected to.

“In keeping with my religious upbringing, as a schoolgirl I refused to give the Hitler salute or take part in any Nazi-related activities,” Hermine Liska wrote in her memoirs. After being taken away from her parents in 1941, Hermine Liska was sent to a Nazi home for wayward girls in Waiern near Feldkirchen in Carinthia, and later to the Adelgunden Institution, a home run by nuns in Munich. At the age of 13, she was sent to a farm to work on the land. In 1944, Hermine Liska was able to return to live with her parents in Carinthia, but a few days later she was taken to stay with another family in Köttmannsdorf near Klagenfurt, where she was forced to work in an inn.

Hermine Liska’s father and brothers were also persecuted under the Nazi regime because of their religious beliefs: Hermine's father Johann was imprisoned in Klagenfurt in 1944 for refusing to join the Volkssturm, the Nazi equivalent of the Home Guard. Hermine’s brother Franz refused to be conscripted into the labour service and was imprisoned in Kaiser-Ebersdorf Prison, also in 1944. Hermine’s eldest brother Hans refused to do military service and in 1945 he was sent to Dachau concentration camp.

After the war, Hermine’s parents enabled her to attend the women’s vocational college in Klagenfurt for two years. When her mother became seriously ill, Hermine had to return to work on her parents’ farm. Looking back, Hermine said: “When I think about my childhood, it fills me with satisfaction to have remained faithful to my God and my principles, despite all the hardships and deprivations.”

From the late 1990s, Hermine Liska began to get involved as a contemporary witness and was active in the “Lila Winkel” association. In concentration camps, people who were persecuted as “Bible Scholars” i.e. Jehovah's Witnesses were marked with a purple triangle on their prison garb. From 2002, Hermine Liska also took part in the Ministry of Education’s contemporary eyewitness programme, gave numerous lectures and told her life story in schools. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the Golden Medal of Honour of the Province of Styria in 2016.

Hermine Liska died on 1 July 2024, at the age of 95. She was one of the last surviving Jehovah’s Witnesses persecuted under the Nazi regime.

Links:

• “When they took me away it was terrible” Hermine Liska’s life story
  
• Association "Lila Winkel" - Hermine Liska Remembrance Project