On January 27, 2024, these
Zeitpunkte was installed near the address Anichstraße 44. The initiative for this came from erinnern:at.

Marian Kudera
Born 5.8.1923 in Mysłowice (Poland)
Died 19.7.1944 in the Dachau concentration camp

Stefan Kudera
Born 8.9.1916 in Žnin (Poland)
Died 19.7.1944 in the Dachau concentration camp

The brothers Stefan and Marian Kudera moved to Innsbruck in autumn 1941. In October, Stefan enrolled as a student of pharmacy, which he had started studying in Poznań in 1935. At Poznań University he had declared himself a supporter of the “Polish nation”. The family lived in Mysłowice in Silesia, not far from Katowice, where Stefan Kudera had graduated from a Polish grammar school. Their father Bruno Kudera was a lawyer. He died shortly after his two sons moved to Tyrol. Stefan Kudera graduated in pharmacy in Innsbruck having passed his final exam on 26 July 1943.

His brother Marian, who was seven years younger, wanted to study medicine, but there is no record of his immatriculation. It is possible that he simply helped out in the hospital in Innsbruck. For the National Socialists, he was a “Volksdeutscher“ (a person of German language and culture but without German citizenship). On 21 February 1944, Marian Kudera was arrested by the Gestapo. They suspected him of being the leader of a Polish resistance group allegedly consisting of 60 members. His brother Stefan was also accused of being a member. The Gestapo arrested their mother and sister and confronted the whole family during questioning. The brothers were subjected to “enhanced interrogation”, i.e. systematic torture. At the end of the interrogation sessions, Marian Kudera was no longer able to walk and his whole body was covered in haematomas. The ordeal only ended when he made a confession. Stefan Kudera was also subjected to extensive ill-treatment.

Having “established the facts of the case”, Gestapo chief Max Nedwed applied to Berlin for “special treatment”. As a result, the Kudera brothers were transferred to the Dachau concentration camp on 28 April 1944 and hanged there on 19 July 1944.

Sources:

Hormayr, Gisela: Verfolgung, Entrechtung, Tod. Studierende der Universität Innsbruck als Opfer des Nationalsozialismus, Innsbruck-Wien-Bozen 2019, pp. 75-79.

Oberkofler, Gerhard: Das Martyrium eines polnischen Widerstandskämpfers in Tirol, in: Weg und Ziel, 37. Jg., Nr. 1, 1980, pp. 32-33.

Widerstand und Verfolgung in Tirol 1934-1945. Eine Dokumentation, Band 1, hg. v. Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes, Wien-München, pp. 399-402.