'Love in midst of horror': the Auschwitz wedding

'Love in midst of horror': the Auschwitz wedding

Tragic lovers: the Friemels on their wedding day in Auschwitz
Tragic lovers: the Friemels on their wedding day in Auschwitz. Photo: JOE KLAMAR / Wienbibliothek im Rathaus/AFP
Source: AFP

New feature: Check out news exactly for YOU ➡️ find “Recommended for you” block and enjoy!

The two newlyweds have dressed up for the picture, but they are not smiling. And for good reason: their union was sealed at Auschwitz -- the only wedding known to have taken place in the death camp.

The yellowed photo of Rudolf Friemel, an Austrian communist who resisted the Nazis, and his Spanish wife Margarita Ferrer Rey, is now on show in his home town Vienna.

It is the centrepiece of an exhibition, "The Wedding of Auschwitz", which uses papers donated by their family to tell the couple's heart-breaking story.

Friemel met Ferrer Rey in Spain after going there to fight with the International Brigades in 1936 against General Franco's fascists during the Spanish Civil War.

He was sent to Auschwitz in 1942 after returning home.

In the camp he was set to work repairing SS vehicles, and was held in "better conditions than other prisoners", according to Vienna's Social Democratic mayor, Michael Ludwig, who wrote the introduction to the catalogue.

Read also

Defying warnings, Jews embark on Ukraine pilgrimage

PAY ATTENTION: Click “See First” under the “Following” tab to see YEN.com.gh News on your News Feed!

But why the Nazis granted the Friemels -- their bitter enemies -- "such an unique privilege to be able to marry remains a mystery to this day," Ludwig added.

Escape attempt

The couple's son was also allowed to attend the marriage in the death camp
The couple's son was also allowed to attend the marriage in the death camp. Photo: JOE KLAMAR / Wienbibliothek im Rathaus/AFP
Source: AFP

"What I find most interesting is that we see that there was love in the midst of horror," the couple's grandson, Rodolphe Friemel, told AFP from his home in southern France.

He wondered if "maybe my grandparents did all this just to see each other again," with Margarita allowed to travel to Auschwitz from Vienna for the wedding with their son -- who was born in 1941 -- and Friemel's father.

The marriage was registered at 11 a.m. on March 18, 1944, as the slaughter at the camp reached its peak.

Some one million Jews were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau as well as homosexuals, prisoners of war and others persecuted by Germany's Nazi regime.

Read also

Tears as British public pays respects to queen's coffin

Friemel, 48, gave the wedding documents, including congratulations messages from other prisoners, to the Vienna City Library early this year to ensure their preservation.

His grandfather was allowed to wear civilian clothes and let his hair grow for the occasion, and a cell was made available to the couple for their wedding night in the camp brothel.

But the respite was shortlived. Rudolf Friemel was hanged in December 1944 for helping to organise an escape attempt. The camp was liberated a month later.

A wedding card from other prisoners wishing the couple a 'happy and child-rich future'
A wedding card from other prisoners wishing the couple a 'happy and child-rich future'. Photo: JOE KLAMAR / Wienbibliothek im Rathaus/AFP
Source: AFP

All his wife and child -- who moved to France after the war -- were left with were his heartbreaking letters and poems.

Margarita died in 1987.

The show runs at Vienna City Library until the end of the month.

New feature: Check out news exactly for YOU ➡️ find "Recommended for you" block and enjoy!

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.