Karl Pfeifer (; 22 August 1928 – 6 January 2023) was an Austrian journalist.

Life

Karl Pfeifer was born to a Jewish family on 22 August 1928 in

Baden bei Wien Baden (Central Bavarian: ''Bodn''), unofficially distinguished from Baden (disambiguation), other Badens as Baden bei Wien (Baden near Vienna), is a spa town in Austria. It serves as the capital of Baden (district of Austria), Baden District in t ...

, near

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. After the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

of 1938 his family fled to Hungary. In 1943 the

Socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

youth organization

Hashomer Hatzair Hashomer Hatzair (, , 'The Young Guard') is a Labor Zionism, Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary. It was also the name of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party, the ...

decided to evacuate Pfeiffer to

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

together with a group of other young refugees. He lived in a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

there and from 1946 served in

Palmach The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Phalanges/Companies") was the elite combined strike forces and sayeret unit of the Haganah, the paramilitary organization of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of th ...

, the elite troop of the underground Jewish army

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

, whose members subsequently became part of the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

. Pfeiffer left Israel in 1951. In 1982 Pfeiffer became the editor of ''"Gemeinde"'', the official organ of the Viennese Jewish community. In this function he wrote in an article in 1995, that the political scientist Werner Pfeifenberger had used "Nazi tones" in the yearbook of the freedom party academy. Karl Pfeifer said that Pfeifenberger had played the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

down and accused the

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

of being responsible for

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

's war in 1933. Afterwards Pfeifer was sued by Pfeifenberger and acquitted in two instances. When in 2000, the Vienna public prosecutor brought charges of re-Nazi activity against Pfeifenberger, he committed suicide. The editor of the right magazine ''ZurZeit'',

Andreas Mölzer Andreas Mölzer (born 2 December 1952) is an Austrian politician and former Member of the European Parliament for the Freedom Party of Austria. Biography Born in Leoben, Styria, Andreas Mölzer is of Styrian origin and attended grammar school in ...

, called Pfeifer then in a press release to its subscribers, to be part of a "hunting party" which had Pfeifenberger driven into suicide – The "Jewish journalist" had released the "legal avalanche against Pfeifenberger". In consequence, Pfeifer sued for compensation in the Austrian courts. On 15 November 2007, Pfeifer got under article 8 of the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

right adjudicated – at the same time, the

Republic of Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

was convicted and required to pay € 5,000 compensation for the failure of the courts. From the early 1990s, Pfeifer worked as a Vienna correspondent for Israeli radio and as a freelance journalist for the London monthly

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

magazine ''

Searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely luminosity, bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a part ...

'' and the

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

weekly newspaper '' Hetek''. Pfeifer also belonged to the board of trustees of the documentation archive of Austrian resistance. In 2008, Mary Kreutzer produced a documentary for the Society for Critical Research on Antisemitism about his life entitled ''Zwischen allen Stühlen.Lebenswege des Journalisten Karl Pfeifer''. It was shown in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy and Israel. In 2011, the film was shown in the presence of Karl Pfeifer at the Austrian Institute of the Minnesota University in Minneapolis and at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York. Pfeifer died on 6 January 2023, at the age of 94.

Merits

* 2003: Joseph Samuel Bloch Medal from the Action against anti-Semitism in Austria * 2018

Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria The Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria () is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria. It is divided into 15 classes and is the highest award in the Austrian national honours system. History The Decoration of Hono ...

in Gold * 2022 won

Simon Wiesenthal Simon Wiesenthal (31 December 190820 September 2005) was an Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture, and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Janowska concentration camp (la ...

award

References

https://archive.today/20130421031700/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=39599§ioncode=1 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pfeifer, Karl 1928 births 2023 deaths Austrian journalists Austrian Jews Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to Mandatory Palestine Hashomer Hatzair members Austrian expatriates in Hungary Austrian expatriates in Israel People from Baden bei Wien Palmach members Israeli military personnel of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War