Desider Friedmann was born in Boskovice (now in the Czech Republic). He became an active Zionist while still in his teens. He moved to Vienna, Austria, and when that community became the first in the Central Europe with a Zionist majority, he was elected its vice-president – and later president. In 1934, he was appointed to the Austrian Council of State. Friedmann fought for Jewish rights and expanded the community’s educational, cultural and social programs. Shortly after the 1938 Anschluss he was arrested by the Nazis and sent to various concentration camps. In 1944, he and his wife were sent from Theresienstadt concentration camp to their deaths in Auschwitz.