WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.839 So I want you to visualize two photographs for 00:00:02.839 --> 00:00:05.299 a second. In your left hand, you're holding a 00:00:05.299 --> 00:00:08.480 picture of a young woman in Vienna. She's got 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:12.080 this soft, hopeful look. She's trained to be 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:14.000 a kindergarten teacher, probably surrounded by 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:16.839 kids, thinking about lesson plans and summer 00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:18.879 holidays. Right. It's a picture of a life that's 00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:22.500 just starting, full of potential. Exactly. But 00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:24.399 now I want you to look at the photo in your right 00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:27.899 hand. It's the exact same woman, her main zanard. 00:00:28.339 --> 00:00:32.179 But she's 30 years old now. The softness is completely 00:00:32.179 --> 00:00:34.619 gone. She's standing in a courtroom facing a 00:00:34.619 --> 00:00:37.579 judge who is screaming at her. Yes, scream. She's 00:00:37.579 --> 00:00:40.020 a technical draftswoman by trade. But in this 00:00:40.020 --> 00:00:43.179 moment, she is a convicted trader and she's listening 00:00:43.179 --> 00:00:46.179 to a sentence of death. by guillotine it is a 00:00:46.179 --> 00:00:49.240 brutal juxtaposition and uh what makes it so 00:00:49.240 --> 00:00:51.079 haunting is that we aren't talking about a movie 00:00:51.079 --> 00:00:53.759 script here we are digging into the actual historical 00:00:53.759 --> 00:00:56.340 records the court documents the biographical 00:00:56.340 --> 00:00:59.079 entries and the final letters of a real woman 00:00:59.079 --> 00:01:01.520 who lived and died in the heart of the nazi machine 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:05.219 yeah we are doing a deep dive today into the 00:01:05.219 --> 00:01:08.019 life of hermine zanard she was born hermine schwarzer 00:01:08.019 --> 00:01:10.060 and honestly going through this stack of source 00:01:10.060 --> 00:01:13.120 material you brought it's uh it's really heavy 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:15.780 stuff but Our mission today isn't just to tell 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:18.540 a sad story, right? Absolutely not. The goal 00:01:18.540 --> 00:01:20.120 is to understand the transformation. I mean, 00:01:20.459 --> 00:01:22.579 how does a house painter's daughter from a working 00:01:22.579 --> 00:01:25.599 class district go from organizing youth group 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:28.519 trips to becoming a high priority target for 00:01:28.519 --> 00:01:30.900 the judicial system of the greater German rife? 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:34.280 We really need to unpack the human cost of resistance 00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:37.640 when the state essentially holds all the cards. 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:40.659 We're looking at political conviction under totalitarian 00:01:40.659 --> 00:01:42.560 pressure. And that's the part that really hooked 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:44.799 me. Because on paper, she's just an ordinary 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:47.040 citizen. She's not a general. She's not a politician. 00:01:47.219 --> 00:01:49.959 She's a draftswoman. Exactly. So let's rewind 00:01:49.959 --> 00:01:52.060 a bit. Where does this story actually start? 00:01:52.260 --> 00:01:54.239 Because I'm guessing she didn't just wake up 00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:56.299 one day and decide to take on the Third Reich. 00:01:56.500 --> 00:01:59.099 No. It starts in a very specific time and place. 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:04.099 Vienna, 1913. She's born on May 26, which is 00:02:04.099 --> 00:02:06.819 just a year before World War I explodes. Her 00:02:06.819 --> 00:02:09.580 father, Heinrich Theodor Schwarzer, was a house 00:02:09.580 --> 00:02:11.740 painter's assistant. So a very working class 00:02:11.740 --> 00:02:14.000 background. Very much so. She attends primary 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:16.020 school and then does her vocational training 00:02:16.020 --> 00:02:18.840 for kindergarten teaching. But to really understand 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:20.819 her mind, you have to look at her teenage years. 00:02:21.340 --> 00:02:24.069 She joined a group called the Red Falcons. or 00:02:24.069 --> 00:02:26.770 the rote falcon. Right, I saw that in the documents. 00:02:27.129 --> 00:02:29.229 And just to be clear for you listening, based 00:02:29.229 --> 00:02:31.409 on the historical records we're looking at, this 00:02:31.409 --> 00:02:33.689 was a socialist youth organization. We're not 00:02:33.689 --> 00:02:35.909 taking any political sides here, just reporting 00:02:35.909 --> 00:02:37.770 what the sources tell us about the environment 00:02:37.770 --> 00:02:40.270 she grew up in. Exactly. It was a massive movement 00:02:40.270 --> 00:02:42.569 in Vienna at the time. And she wasn't just a 00:02:42.569 --> 00:02:46.069 casual member. By 1933, when she was 20, the 00:02:46.069 --> 00:02:48.150 records list her as an official of the movement. 00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:50.580 Wow. Yeah, and there's this specific detail in 00:02:50.580 --> 00:02:52.539 the biographical entries that stands out. That 00:02:52.539 --> 00:02:55.060 same year, she actually traveled to Austin, Belgium 00:02:55.060 --> 00:02:57.560 for the International Red Falcons Conference. 00:02:57.960 --> 00:03:00.819 Which is huge. I mean, for a young working class 00:03:00.819 --> 00:03:03.960 woman in 1933 to travel internationally, that's 00:03:03.960 --> 00:03:06.599 not just a weekend getaway. That's a major life 00:03:06.599 --> 00:03:08.840 event. It shows her dedication, right? She was 00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:12.219 deeply committed to this activism. But then we 00:03:12.219 --> 00:03:16.090 hit a massive turning point. 1934. the year everything 00:03:16.090 --> 00:03:18.870 changes in Austria. Right. The Dolfus government 00:03:18.870 --> 00:03:22.090 is in power, ruling by decree, and they completely 00:03:22.090 --> 00:03:24.830 ban left -wing activism. All the youth groups, 00:03:25.030 --> 00:03:26.990 the political organizations her mind was a part 00:03:26.990 --> 00:03:30.110 of, they become illegal overnight. So she's 21 00:03:30.110 --> 00:03:33.650 years old. Her entire ideological world is outlawed. 00:03:33.870 --> 00:03:35.349 I think most people would probably just keep 00:03:35.349 --> 00:03:37.090 their heads down at that point. But she doesn't. 00:03:37.150 --> 00:03:39.629 Her mind actually steps up. She joins the young 00:03:39.629 --> 00:03:41.750 communists and becomes a group leader for the 00:03:41.750 --> 00:03:43.810 Vienna -Margareton district. And there are immediate 00:03:43.810 --> 00:03:45.889 consequences for that, aren't there? Oh, absolutely. 00:03:46.270 --> 00:03:49.830 Between 1934 and 1938, the records show she served 00:03:49.830 --> 00:03:53.210 three separate prison terms. Three terms. Totaling 00:03:53.210 --> 00:03:55.370 30 months in prison. Two and a half years of 00:03:55.370 --> 00:03:58.990 her early 20s spent in a cell. That establishes 00:03:58.990 --> 00:04:02.120 an incredible level of resilience. Long before 00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:05.180 the Nazis even crossed the border, she is already 00:04:05.180 --> 00:04:07.719 a hardened activist. That's a crucial point. 00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:11.879 When March 1938 rolls around and Germany annexes 00:04:11.879 --> 00:04:15.180 Austria, her mind isn't some naive idealist. 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:17.519 She is actually released from the Wiener New 00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:20.819 Dorf. prison right as the country is being incorporated 00:04:20.819 --> 00:04:22.920 into Hitler's Germany. Talk about out of the 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:25.339 siging pan and into the fire. Exactly. And this 00:04:25.339 --> 00:04:27.699 is where we enter the period of her double life. 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:30.300 She knows the Gestapo will be watching people 00:04:30.300 --> 00:04:32.540 with her kind of record. So she gets a professional 00:04:32.540 --> 00:04:34.720 job working as a technical draftswoman in an 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:37.000 office. Which is a job that requires total focus. 00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:39.300 Right. But at the same time, she's attending 00:04:39.300 --> 00:04:42.879 night school. A matura schule. Wait, let's pause 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:45.040 on this for a second. So the Matura is the exam 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:46.899 you take to get into university, right? Yes. 00:04:47.139 --> 00:04:50.139 She is working a demanding day job and then going 00:04:50.139 --> 00:04:52.759 to school at night to study for university exams. 00:04:52.980 --> 00:04:55.699 That shows so much ambition. She wants an education 00:04:55.699 --> 00:04:58.540 despite the absolute political chaos around her. 00:04:58.660 --> 00:05:01.680 She's planning for a future. But there's a third 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:04.680 layer to her life. She officially joins the illegal 00:05:04.680 --> 00:05:08.300 Communist Party, the KPO, and her specific role 00:05:08.300 --> 00:05:10.899 was incredibly dangerous. What was she doing? 00:05:11.149 --> 00:05:13.829 The documents say her job was maintaining contacts 00:05:13.829 --> 00:05:16.529 between leadership cells across different Austrian 00:05:16.529 --> 00:05:19.189 regions. She was the connective tissue for the 00:05:19.189 --> 00:05:21.370 underground. I can't even imagine the stress. 00:05:21.670 --> 00:05:24.389 You're drawing technical schematics by day, studying 00:05:24.389 --> 00:05:26.829 at night, and then secretly coordinating resistance 00:05:26.829 --> 00:05:29.170 cells. And it's around this time she gets married, 00:05:29.290 --> 00:05:33.269 right? Yes. In 1940, She marries Leopold Zeynard. 00:05:33.389 --> 00:05:35.870 He was a typesetter. And the sources note that 00:05:35.870 --> 00:05:38.069 they actually met through their anti -government 00:05:38.069 --> 00:05:40.310 activism. So their whole relationship was forged 00:05:40.310 --> 00:05:43.310 in the resistance. Exactly. But it's wartime. 00:05:43.550 --> 00:05:45.689 And Leopold is eventually drafted into the German 00:05:45.689 --> 00:05:47.949 army. Even though he's actively opposed to the 00:05:47.949 --> 00:05:50.310 government. The records say he was drafted very 00:05:50.310 --> 00:05:53.089 reluctantly. But the war machine needed men. 00:05:53.269 --> 00:05:55.850 So now her mind is alone in Vienna, running these 00:05:55.850 --> 00:05:57.930 dangerous communications while her husband is 00:05:57.930 --> 00:06:00.939 in the military. And this brings us to the specific 00:06:00.939 --> 00:06:04.019 charges that eventually lead to her arrest. April 00:06:04.019 --> 00:06:09.199 29th, 1942. What exactly did the Gestapo catch 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:11.639 her doing? The official charge was advantaging 00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:14.000 the enemy and preparing to commit high treason. 00:06:14.439 --> 00:06:16.300 And the prosecution's case centered entirely 00:06:16.300 --> 00:06:19.459 on one man. Julius Cornwhites. Right, the senior 00:06:19.459 --> 00:06:21.420 official. The source material calls him a foreign 00:06:21.420 --> 00:06:24.459 communist. Yes, he had been smuggled into Austria 00:06:24.459 --> 00:06:26.699 specifically to rebuild the party's leadership. 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:30.139 He was a massive target for the authorities and 00:06:30.139 --> 00:06:32.319 Hermine's role was arranging accommodation for 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:33.959 him, hiding him. And there was something else 00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:36.480 too, something involving her husband. This is 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:38.819 the critical part. She was accused of facilitating 00:06:38.819 --> 00:06:41.639 secret meetings between Cornwhites and her husband, 00:06:41.819 --> 00:06:44.120 Leopold. While Leopold was on leave from the 00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:47.079 army. Exactly. Wow. So even while wearing a German 00:06:47.079 --> 00:06:50.939 uniform, Leopold is meeting with top -level underground 00:06:50.939 --> 00:06:54.589 leaders. It was incredibly bold. But it all unraveled. 00:06:54.670 --> 00:06:58.670 Her mind is arrested in April 1942. But her trial 00:06:58.670 --> 00:07:01.509 doesn't actually happen until September 1943. 00:07:01.930 --> 00:07:03.569 And we need to talk about the court where this 00:07:03.569 --> 00:07:06.029 trial took place. The Volksgerichtshof in Vienna. 00:07:06.550 --> 00:07:09.579 The People's Court. Yes, presided over by Dr. 00:07:09.699 --> 00:07:11.899 Kurt Albrecht. And we have to be clear about 00:07:11.899 --> 00:07:14.259 what this court was. The government brought these 00:07:14.259 --> 00:07:17.220 courts up to date specifically to handle political 00:07:17.220 --> 00:07:20.079 cases. This wasn't about finding the truth. It 00:07:20.079 --> 00:07:23.040 was a mechanism of state terror. It was essentially 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:26.500 a show trial. Yes. She was tried alongside three 00:07:26.500 --> 00:07:29.399 co -defendants, Friedrich Hedrich, his wife Erna, 00:07:29.579 --> 00:07:32.399 and Margaret Bronopetnot. Friedrich was eventually 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:35.259 executed while the other two women received jail 00:07:35.259 --> 00:07:37.870 sentences. But there's a detail in the court 00:07:37.870 --> 00:07:40.209 records regarding Hermine that is just heartbreaking. 00:07:40.750 --> 00:07:42.829 When she is standing in that courtroom in September 00:07:42.829 --> 00:07:46.189 1943, they don't refer to her as Frau Zeynard. 00:07:46.569 --> 00:07:49.029 No, the records refer to her as the widow Zeynard. 00:07:49.149 --> 00:07:51.420 Because of what happened to Leopold. Right. Leopold's 00:07:51.420 --> 00:07:53.199 standard had already been tried by a court martial 00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:56.300 back in December 1942. He was convicted of advantaging 00:07:56.300 --> 00:07:58.639 the enemy. The historians note this was likely 00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:00.600 for trying to persuade his fellow soldiers to 00:08:00.600 --> 00:08:03.879 desert. And he was executed. In early March 1943. 00:08:04.579 --> 00:08:06.819 So when her mind faces the judge six months later, 00:08:06.980 --> 00:08:08.759 she already knows her husband is dead, killed 00:08:08.759 --> 00:08:10.920 for the exact same cause she is on trial for. 00:08:11.240 --> 00:08:13.680 The psychological toll of that is staggering. 00:08:14.839 --> 00:08:17.079 Standing there, knowing the outcome is already 00:08:17.079 --> 00:08:20.769 written. And it was. On September 30th, 1943, 00:08:21.310 --> 00:08:23.709 Hermann Zehner and Friedrich Hedrich were sentenced 00:08:23.709 --> 00:08:27.050 to death. And to add to the punishment, they 00:08:27.050 --> 00:08:29.730 suffered deprivation of civil rights. Meaning 00:08:29.730 --> 00:08:31.670 they were legally stripped of their citizenship 00:08:31.670 --> 00:08:34.009 before they were even killed. Exactly. There 00:08:34.009 --> 00:08:36.250 was a plea for clemency, but it was rejected 00:08:36.250 --> 00:08:39.269 by Justice Minister Theorak on November 1st. 00:08:39.490 --> 00:08:42.110 So that brings us to her final days. We have 00:08:42.110 --> 00:08:45.490 a letter from Early October 1943, right? We do. 00:08:45.850 --> 00:08:47.830 While she was waiting in the Vienna courthouse 00:08:47.830 --> 00:08:50.450 prison, she wrote a letter to her father, her 00:08:50.450 --> 00:08:52.950 in -laws, and someone she calls Sweet Lace Earl. 00:08:53.590 --> 00:08:55.769 What does she say in it? She writes that she's 00:08:55.769 --> 00:08:58.049 reconciled to her execution. She has accepted 00:08:58.049 --> 00:09:00.429 it. Though she admits she still holds onto a 00:09:00.429 --> 00:09:03.610 tiny sliver of hope. It's incredibly human. Even 00:09:03.610 --> 00:09:06.090 though she has a physical grave, historians actually 00:09:06.090 --> 00:09:08.009 consider this letter to be her most effective 00:09:08.009 --> 00:09:10.610 memorial. But there's a glaring omission in that 00:09:10.610 --> 00:09:13.230 letter. She addresses her father and her in -laws, 00:09:13.570 --> 00:09:15.690 but she doesn't address her mother. That's right. 00:09:15.950 --> 00:09:18.309 Her mother, who was also named Hermione Schwarzer, 00:09:18.549 --> 00:09:21.509 isn't mentioned. And the reason why reveals the 00:09:21.509 --> 00:09:24.149 absolute ruthlessness of the regime. They targeted 00:09:24.149 --> 00:09:26.429 the whole family. They did. Her mother had been 00:09:26.429 --> 00:09:29.850 arrested back in March 1943 on suspicion of distributing 00:09:29.850 --> 00:09:32.710 leaflets and treason. There wasn't enough evidence 00:09:32.710 --> 00:09:35.679 to actually try her in court. So they just let 00:09:35.679 --> 00:09:39.980 her go? No. They sent her to Ravensbruck concentration 00:09:39.980 --> 00:09:43.259 camp. My God. She was detained there until May 00:09:43.259 --> 00:09:47.139 1945. So Hermine didn't write to her mother because 00:09:47.139 --> 00:09:49.080 she likely knew her mother was already in the 00:09:49.080 --> 00:09:51.700 camp system. It's just total devastation, the 00:09:51.700 --> 00:09:54.340 husband, the daughter, the mother. Yes. And on 00:09:54.340 --> 00:09:57.059 November 19th, 1943, the sentence was carried 00:09:57.059 --> 00:10:00.500 out. Hermine Zaynard was decapitated by guillotine 00:10:00.500 --> 00:10:02.899 in the Vienna District Courthouse. She was 30 00:10:02.899 --> 00:10:05.269 years old. It's a lot to process. You start with 00:10:05.269 --> 00:10:06.909 this image of a young woman training to teach 00:10:06.909 --> 00:10:09.470 kindergarten, and she ends up becoming a pivotal 00:10:09.470 --> 00:10:12.269 link in a massive resistance chain. It summarizes 00:10:12.269 --> 00:10:14.629 a broader pattern we see in the source material. 00:10:15.269 --> 00:10:17.889 The sheer ruthlessness of the judicial system 00:10:17.889 --> 00:10:20.230 against domestic resistance. They didn't just 00:10:20.230 --> 00:10:23.250 target the individual activist. They systematically 00:10:23.250 --> 00:10:26.490 dismantled entire families. Hermine, Leopold, 00:10:26.570 --> 00:10:30.590 her mother. The cost. was absolute. It really 00:10:30.590 --> 00:10:33.110 was. But, you know, as we wrap up this deep dive, 00:10:33.190 --> 00:10:35.330 there's one detail I just can't shake. We've 00:10:35.330 --> 00:10:36.929 talked about the smuggling, the secret meetings, 00:10:37.009 --> 00:10:39.830 the letters, but my mind keeps going back to 00:10:39.830 --> 00:10:43.149 the Matura Shul. The night school. Yeah. I want 00:10:43.149 --> 00:10:44.830 you listening to just think about that for a 00:10:44.830 --> 00:10:48.490 second. It is the height of the war. Her husband 00:10:48.490 --> 00:10:51.669 is drafted. She is organizing an underground 00:10:51.669 --> 00:10:54.049 resistance network, knowing that if she makes 00:10:54.049 --> 00:10:56.710 one mistake, she will be executed. The pressure 00:10:56.710 --> 00:10:59.179 is unimaginable. Right. And yet, in the middle 00:10:59.179 --> 00:11:01.740 of all that terror, she is studying for university 00:11:01.740 --> 00:11:03.879 entrance exams. She's opening textbooks. She's 00:11:03.879 --> 00:11:06.059 doing homework. Planning for DeMar. Exactly. 00:11:06.539 --> 00:11:08.559 It makes you wonder about the incredible capacity 00:11:08.559 --> 00:11:11.700 of the human spirit to plan for a future, to 00:11:11.700 --> 00:11:14.480 invest in an education, even when the present 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:17.659 makes your very survival unlikely. It's almost 00:11:17.659 --> 00:11:20.750 the ultimate act of defiance, isn't it? refusing 00:11:20.750 --> 00:11:22.929 to let the terror take away your belief in a 00:11:22.929 --> 00:11:25.409 tomorrow. It's a powerful thought to leave on. 00:11:25.490 --> 00:11:27.990 It really is. Something for all of us to mull 00:11:27.990 --> 00:11:30.529 over. Thank you for walking us through this source 00:11:30.529 --> 00:11:32.490 material. It's been an incredible deep dive. 00:11:32.669 --> 00:11:34.769 Thank you for having me. And thank you for listening. 00:11:35.129 --> 00:11:37.870 Keep questioning, keep exploring, and we'll catch 00:11:37.870 --> 00:11:38.909 you on the next deep dive.