Follow up to Episode 2: More details about the "Vote against Hitler" family history story
I did a brief overview about this story in Episode 2, but for those who are interested in more details, here it is written down:
My great grandmother, Rosa Praxel Sedlacek, was born in 1895 in a small town in the Czech Republic. She grew up in the area, married, and had a daughter- my grandmother Leopoldine Sedlacek. I don’t know much more about my great grandmother as our family history of that time period is sketchy at best…it was World War II and my grandmother doesn’t talk very much about that. However, I’ve grown up hearing a story about the 1938 election that was held in Sudetenland (the part of the Czech Republic annexed into Germany by Hitler). According to Wikipedia, here’s what happened: “(The elections of 1938) were the final elections to the Reichstag during Nazi rule and took the form of a single question referendum asking whether voters approved of a single list of Nazis and pro-Nazi "guest" candidates for the 813-member Reichstag as well as the recent annexation of Austria (the Anschluss). Turnout in the election was officially 99.5% with 98.9% voting ‘yes’.
There was intense pressure not only to vote in this election, but also to vote for the Nazi party. The village where Rosa lived voted 99% unanimously for Hitler and the Nazi party. Every single person except for one vote. Rosa refused to vote for Hitler and the Nazi party line. She received a large amount of peer pressure to change her vote so that the village leaders could report to the Nazi party that they were unanimous in their decision. Rosa refused and went on record as the only one to vote against the referendum. I don’t know what was going through her mind. I don’t know if she refused on principle or if she refused because she was crazy (a high possibility, given the dementia that plagued her in her later life). But I do know this: she refused to vote for Hitler and the party’s philosophy. She knew that she was the only one in her village who was not voting for him. She likely knew that her vote wouldn’t change the outcome of the overall election. Yet she cast that vote, and refused to change it.
I remember Rose Praxel every time I go to vote or encounter a moment where it seems hard to stand up to the truth!
My great grandmother, Rosa Praxel Sedlacek, was born in 1895 in a small town in the Czech Republic. She grew up in the area, married, and had a daughter- my grandmother Leopoldine Sedlacek. I don’t know much more about my great grandmother as our family history of that time period is sketchy at best…it was World War II and my grandmother doesn’t talk very much about that. However, I’ve grown up hearing a story about the 1938 election that was held in Sudetenland (the part of the Czech Republic annexed into Germany by Hitler). According to Wikipedia, here’s what happened: “(The elections of 1938) were the final elections to the Reichstag during Nazi rule and took the form of a single question referendum asking whether voters approved of a single list of Nazis and pro-Nazi "guest" candidates for the 813-member Reichstag as well as the recent annexation of Austria (the Anschluss). Turnout in the election was officially 99.5% with 98.9% voting ‘yes’.
There was intense pressure not only to vote in this election, but also to vote for the Nazi party. The village where Rosa lived voted 99% unanimously for Hitler and the Nazi party. Every single person except for one vote. Rosa refused to vote for Hitler and the Nazi party line. She received a large amount of peer pressure to change her vote so that the village leaders could report to the Nazi party that they were unanimous in their decision. Rosa refused and went on record as the only one to vote against the referendum. I don’t know what was going through her mind. I don’t know if she refused on principle or if she refused because she was crazy (a high possibility, given the dementia that plagued her in her later life). But I do know this: she refused to vote for Hitler and the party’s philosophy. She knew that she was the only one in her village who was not voting for him. She likely knew that her vote wouldn’t change the outcome of the overall election. Yet she cast that vote, and refused to change it.
I remember Rose Praxel every time I go to vote or encounter a moment where it seems hard to stand up to the truth!
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