Ernst Franz Konar

• Born on: 12.8.1921
• Birthplace: Vienna (Wien),
• Category: Diploma program
• Right of domicile: Wien (Wien),

The English version is based on a translation by artificial intelligence. The authentic version is the German version.

Ernst Franz Konar was one of the two sons of Cäcilie (born 30 June 1892 in Vienna, known as Cilli) and the chemist and commercial officer Josef Konar (born 13 February 1891 in Vienna as son of Mathias and Apollonia Konar), who had married in Vienna in 1919. Although neither he nor his parents were of the Jewish faith, Ernst Franz was regarded as a ‘Mischling’ (half-breed) under Nazi ideology because his maternal grandparents were of the Jewish faith. Consequently, in the summer term of 1941, Ernst Franz was only permitted to enrol at the University of World Trade on a provisional basis, having previously graduated from a boys’ secondary school in Vienna’s 20th district. At the end of November 1941, the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and Public Instruction (Berlin) refused to grant him admission to the university. Consequently, Konar was ‘officially de-registered’ in December 1941 on the grounds of ‘rejection of the mixed-race application’. Arguing that his brother Walter (born 22 November 1919 in Vienna) had been permitted to study chemistry at the University of Vienna, Konar submitted a new application shortly afterwards. However, in his statement, the rector of the university, SS-Obersturmbannführer Kurt Knoll, pointed out that, despite his status as a ‘half-breed’, Walter had been admitted solely because, unlike Ernst Franz, he had volunteered for the Wehrmacht, had served on the front lines in Czechoslovakia, Poland and France, and had been awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class. The Ministry was only too happy to take up this line of argument, and in early June 1942, Konar’s application was once again rejected.

It was not until after the Second World War that Ernst Franz Konar was able to complete his studies at the University for World Trade; three semesters were recognised as compensation. On 30 June 1946, he received his degree certificate, and on 13 July 1949, he was awarded a Doctor of Commercial Sciences degree for his doctoral thesis on Die Finanzierung in der Betriebswirtschaft und ihre derzeitigen Möglichkeiten (Financing in Business Administration and its Current Possibilities).

Until December 1943, Ernst Franz Konar lived in his parents’ flat at Ospelgasse 27/2/9 (20th district of Vienna), where the family had been registered since 1923. Subsequently, he moved to 11 Sonnenfelsgasse (1st municipal district). He was married to Gertrud (born 11 August 1936).

Because her parents were Jewish, her mother Cäcilie was forced by the Nazi regime to adopt the standardised first name Sara. Thus, she was regarded by the Nazi regime as a ‘Jew’ according to the Nuremberg Race Laws, and, like all other women classified as ‘Jewish’, she was to be stigmatised and segregated by means of the legally prescribed additional first name Sara. His father Josef, in turn, was sent to the Detention Centre Vienna I on 19 October 1944. Prior to this, Josef had been arrested by the Vienna headquarters of the Secret State Police (Geheime Staatspolizei, Gestapo), which was based between 1938 and 1945 in the former Hotel Metropol at Morzinplatz 4 (1st municipal district).

Three relatives on Ernst Franz Konar’s mother’s side were victims of the Shoah:

• His grandmother Debora Helfgott (born 17 June 1859, maiden name Scholem or Eisenberg) had married Arnold Helfgott (alias Anschel) on 23 October 1882 in her hometown of Kraków. In Vienna, the marriage was declared valid on 17 February 1889 at the Leopoldstadt Synagogue (Tempelgasse 5, 2nd municipal district). On 20 August 1942, Debora was taken from Seegasse 9 (9th municipal district), where the Jewish Hospital of Vienna was located at the time, to Vienna’s Aspang railway station. From there, shortly after 7.00 pm, the elderly lady was deported, along with some 1,000 other Jewish men and women, under strict guard on train Da 504 to Theresienstadt/Terezín. After a journey of over twelve hours, the train reached the station in the Bohemian town of Bohušovice nad Ohří/Bauschowitz an der Eger, from where the mostly elderly passengers (average age: 69) had to walk the remaining two miles to the ghetto and concentration camp. It was here that the 83-year-old woman died on 28 September of the same year.

• Like many other Jewish men and women, Ernst Franz’s uncle Eduard Helfgott (born 11 August 1890 in Vienna), who had married Paula (maiden name Hauser) in a civil ceremony in Vienna on 24 December 1921, and his daughter Susanne or Zuzana (born 13 March 1926 in Gablonz a.d. Neiße/Jablonec nad Nisou, also known as Suse), were deported from the house at Kelleyova 6 (5th Prague district) where the two had been registered, to Theresienstadt on 27 July 1942. From there, father and daughter were taken on 4 August to Maly Trostinec (Reichskommissariat Ostland, now in Belarus). Like the vast majority of Jews deported there, they were presumably shot or gassed shortly after the train arrived. In any case, neither of them lived to see the end of the Second World War.

Ernst Franz Konar died on 30 September 1979 at the age of 58; he was buried at Vienna’s Central Cemetery just under a week later. He was laid to rest in the same grave where his mother had been buried since 1970 and his father since 1978. His wife Gertrud, who had died on 17 June 2026 at the age of 89, was also laid to rest here on 3 July 2026. Ernst Franz’s brother Walter, who held a doctorate in philosophy, died in March 2008 at the age of 88. He, too, found his final resting place at Vienna’s Central Cemetery.

The name of Ernst Franz Konar appears on the memorial to members of the University for World Trade who were persecuted by the Nazi regime, which was unveiled on 8 May 2014 on the campus of the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Author: Johannes Koll

Source material

Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Universitätsarchiv, Studierendenkarteikarte.
Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Archiv der Republik, 02 Unterricht, Kurator der wissenschaftlichen Hochschulen in Wien, Kart. 13, GZ 5201 ex 1941-1944.
Universitätsarchiv Wien, RA GZ 97/II ex 1943/44 nach Brief von Dr. Herbert Posch und Katharina Kniefacz (Universität Wien) an Dr. Johannes Koll (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) vom 13. Februar 2013.
Meldeauskünfte des Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchivs, GZ MA 8 – B-MEW – 788137/2013 (Josef Konar) und 178621/2014 (Ernst Franz Konar).
Opferdatenbank des Dokumentationsarchivs des österreichischen Widerstands zu Debora, Eduard und Zuzana Helfgott, http://www.doew.at [3. September 2026].
GenTeam. Die genealogische Datenbank, Index der jüdischen Matriken Wien und Niederösterreich zur Eheschließung von Debora und Arnold Helfgott, http://www.genteam.at [29. Juni 2026].
GenTeam. Die genealogische Datenbank, Die Ziviltrauungen in Wien zwischen 1870 und 1939 zur Eheschließung von Eduard und Paula Helfgott, http://www.genteam.at [29. Juni 2026].
Friedhöfe Wien, Verstorbenensuche zu Ernst Franz Konar, seinen Eltern und seiner Ehefrau: http://www.friedhoefewien.at/eportal/ [3. September 2026].