Irma Schwager, Austrian-Jewish activist in French resistance, dies at 95

Irma Schwager, an Austrian-Jewish refugee who lost most of her family in the Holocaust and worked with the French resistance, has died.

Her death at 95 was announced on Monday by Austria’s Communist Party, for whom she was honorary chairwoman.

During World War II, Schwager, nee Wieselberg, lived in occupied France, where she recruited German soldiers stationed there to work against the Nazis, the French news agency AFP reported. She had fled Austria in 1938, managing to elude the Nazis, although the Gestapo raided her Paris apartment at one point, according to AFP.

After the war, Schwager returned to Austria, where she was active in the Communist Party, championed feminist causes and lobbied for nuclear disarmament.

Schwager remained active until shortly before her death. In January, she delivered a speech in Vienna to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.