Chair from a NSV mothers’ convalescent home in St. Gilgen, 1941/1946

Solid oak chair from a former mothers’ convalescent home run by the National Socialist Peoples’ Welfare (NSV) in St. Gilgen on the Wolfgangsee lake. The history of this piece of furniture is closely tied to that of the Herz-Kestranek family, whose members were persecuted as Jewish by the Nazi regime. In 1938 the National Socialists robbed the family of its villas in St. Gilgen. Later, the buildings were used by the National Socialist Peoples’ Welfare organisation as maternity and convalescent homes. These were for mothers and their children who fit the Nazi’s racial definition of the Volksgemeinschaft (“people’s community”). A stay could last up to four weeks and the buildings were furnished with new, rustic oak furniture for this purpose. After restitution of the villas to the surviving members of the Herz-Kestranek family in 1946, the family kept the furniture and later opened a bed and breakfast in the same building.

Date: ca. 1941/1946

Accession: Donation, 2018

Location: St. Gilgen, Wolfgangsee