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The Austrian resistance was launched in response to the rise of the fascists across Europe and, more specifically, to the Anschluss in 1938 and resulting occupation of Austria by Germany.
An estimated 100,000 people [1] were reported to have participated in this resistance with thousands subsequently imprisoned or executed for their anti-Nazi activities. The main cipher of the Austrian resistance was O5, in which "O" indicates the first letter of the abbreviation of Österreich (OE), with the "5" indicating the fifth letter of the German alphabet (E). This sign may be seen at the Stephansdom in Vienna.
The Moscow Declarations of 1943 laid a framework for the establishment of a free Austria after the victory over Nazi Germany. It stated that "Austria is reminded, however that she has a responsibility, which she cannot evade, for participation in the war on the side of Hitlerite Germany, and that in the final settlement account will inevitably be taken of her own contribution to her liberation." [2]
The Austrian resistance groups were often ideologically separated and reflected the spectrum of political parties before the war.
Austrian resistance efforts included a group led by priest Heinrich Maier. This resistance group sought to reestablish a Habsburg monarchy after the war. It played a large role in providing the Allies with information on the production sites of the V-1, V-2 rockets, Tiger tanks, and aircraft such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet. The intelligence they provided, later uncovered by the Gestapo, was necessary in enabling the Allies to conduct precise airstrikes, minimizing civilian casualties. The group maintained contact with Allen Dulles, head of the U.S. OSS in Switzerland, and their information contributed to key operations such as Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both of which were precursors to Operation Overlord. [3] [4] The Maier group was also one of the earliest to report the mass murder of Jews, utilizing contacts at the Semperit factory near Auschwitz. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
In addition to armed resistance, numerous individuals provided support to Jewish families during the Holocaust. These efforts included hiding individuals, managing or exchanging their property to generate funds, and aiding their escape from Nazi persecution. These actions carried immense personal risk, as assisting Jews was punishable by imprisonment or death in Nazi concentration camps. Among these individuals were Rosa Stallbaumer and her husband, Anton. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1942, they were sent to Dachau concentration camp. [11] Although Anton survived, Rosa Stallbaumer did not; transferred to Auschwitz, she died there at age 44. [12]
The other groups often referred to partisans in the Salzkammergut (group "Willy Fred") or in the Ötztal. The resistance group in Ötztal founded by Wolfgang Pfaundler [ de ] and Hubert Sauerwein in 1941. Around 50 people belonged to this group. Apart from their political activity, in the beginning they did not go beyond the construction and arming phase.
The movement had a prehistory of socialist and communist activism against the era of Austrofascism from 1934. Although the Austrofascist regime was itself intensely hostile to Nazism, especially after the Austrian Nazis' failed coup attempt in 1934, known as the July Putsch.
Notable activists included Josef Plieseis and Hilde Zimmermann.
The symbol and voice of Austrian resistance was Crown Prince Otto von Habsburg who, had the monarchy been reestablished, would have been Kaiser of Austria. [23]
Much as opposing the Nazis was difficult, as maintaining organizational cohesion post the Anschluss constituted a penal offence, resistance activities were maintained throughout the period. The resistance mainly: issued counter-Nazi political leaflets; collected donations, which were mostly distributed to families of those arrested; and provided the Allies with information.
Military resistance was limited to occasional sabotage to both key civil and military installations, with most resisting by avoiding postings to the active war fronts.
Most armed resistance was undertaken in Carinthia. [24] Carinthian Slovenes formed a nucleus to the resistance after targeted deportations and forced Germanisation by the Nazi regime in 1942 led to the establishment of forest bands. As much of the Slovene Lands in Yugoslavia had been annexed to the Reich in 1941 and were subject to the same tactics of ethnic cleansing in northern Slovenia the group's activities should be seen in the context of the Yugoslavian Slovene Partisan operations.
Former Crown Prince Otto von Habsburg denounced Nazism, stating:
I absolutely reject [Nazi] Fascism for Austria ... This un-Austrian movement promises everything to everyone, but really intends the most ruthless subjugation of the Austrian people ... The people of Austria will never tolerate that our beautiful fatherland should become an exploited colony, and that the Austrian should become a man of second category. [25]
He strongly opposed the Anschluss, and in 1938 requested Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg to resist Nazi Germany and supported an international intervention, and offered to return from exile to take over the reins of government in order to repel the Nazis. According to Gerald Warner, "Austrian Jews were among the strongest supporters of a Habsburg restoration, since they believed the dynasty would give the nation sufficient resolve to stand up to the Third Reich". [26] Following the German annexation of Austria, Otto (who had been allowed to come back to Austria to publicly campaign against the Anschluss), was sentenced to death by the Nazi regime; Rudolf Hess ordered that Otto was to be executed immediately if caught, as ordered by Adolf Hitler. [27] The leaders of the Austrian legitimist movement, i.e. supporters of Otto, were arrested by the Nazis and largely executed. Otto's cousins Maximilian, Duke of Hohenberg, and Prince Ernst of Hohenberg, both sons of the late Archduke Francis Ferdinand, whose assassination in 1914 precipitated World War I, were arrested in Vienna by the Gestapo and sent to Dachau where they remained throughout Nazi rule. Otto was involved in helping around 50,000 Austrians, including tens of thousands of Austrian Jews, flee the country at the beginning of the Second World War. [28]
During his wartime exile in the United States, Otto and his younger brothers founded an "Austrian Battalion" in the United States Army, but it was delayed and never saw actual combat. [29]
The organizational cohesion offence was most keenly felt by the Austrian religious community. The Nazis, via both the civil Gestapo and police, and the military Schutzstaffel (SS), implemented both anti-religious and anti-Austrian-patriotic measures. This brought about disparate resistance from many established religious groups, whose core members came mainly from the establishment of Austrian high society. [30]
Although tolerated to a large extent, noted anti-Catholic measures and regional imposition of such brought about the formation of three large regional Catholic-based resistance groups. [30]
The first purge and arrest round occurred in Spring 1940, when the three groups had held talks on merging, in which over 100 activists were arrested, interrogated and some individuals tortured. After this, the leaders sought closer ties to the main body of the Austrian resistance movement, and although remaining separate in part for security reasons, began feeding both directly and indirectly information to the United States Military Intelligence Service (MIS). [30]
Amongst the Catholic group's members were Burgtheater actor Otto Hartmann, a spy in paid service of the Gestapo. In late 1944, his information led to the arrest of 10 key Catholic resistance organisation leaders, who were all tortured and then sentenced to death. These included the main contacts with the American MIS, Semperit Director General Franz Josef Messner (1896-1945, killed in the gas chambers at the Mauthausen concentration camp), and Chaplain Dr. Heinrich Maier (1908-1945) executed on 22 March 1945 as the last victim of the Nazi régime in Vienna. [31] Other detainees were sentenced to long prison terms, which some survived but many were killed before the final surrender. [30]
The main organised exile group during the Second World War was based around the Austrian Office in London, centre to the 30,000 strong exile community. [32] The Austrian Society, or "Austrian Office", was home to both the monarchist Austrian League and liberal Austrian Democratic Union. [33]
The Austrian resistance were involved in the Battle of Castle Itter, the Austrian village of Itter in the North Tyrol, was fought on 5 May 1945, only three days before Germany's unconditional surrender came into effect. Troops of the 23rd Tank Battalion of the US 12th Armored Division led by Lieutenant John C. "Jack" Lee, Jr., anti-Nazi German Army soldiers, and imprisoned French VIPs defended the castle against an attacking force from the 17th Waffen-SS Panzer Grenadier Division until relief from the American 142nd Infantry Regiment arrived. [34]
Austrian society has had an ambivalent attitude both toward the Nazi government from 1938 to 1945 and the few that actively resisted it. Since large portions of Austrian society either actively or tacitly supported the Nazi regime, the Allied forces treated Austria as a belligerent party in the war and maintained occupation of it after the Nazi capitulation. On the other hand, the Moscow Declaration labeled Austria as a free and democratic society before the war, and considered its capture an act of liberation.
Otto von Habsburg was the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary from 1916 until the dissolution of the empire in November 1918. In 1922, he became the pretender to the former thrones, head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece, upon the death of his father. He resigned as Sovereign of the Golden Fleece in 2000 and as head of the Imperial House in 2007.
Adolf Schärf was an Austrian politician of the Socialist Party of Austria (SPÖ). He served as Vice-Chancellor from 1945 to 1957 and as President of Austria from 1957 until his death.
Wilhelm Miklas was an Austrian politician who served as President of Austria from 1928 until the Anschluss to Nazi Germany in 1938.
Reichenau an der Rax is a market town in the Austrian state of Lower Austria, situated at the foot of the Rax mountain range on the Schwarza river, a headstream of the Leitha.
The German resistance to Nazism included unarmed and armed opposition and disobedience to the Nazi regime by various movements, groups and individuals by various means, from attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler or to overthrow his regime, defection to the enemies of the Third Reich and sabotage against the German Army and the apparatus of repression and attempts to organize armed struggle, to open protests, rescue of persecuted persons, dissidence and "everyday resistance".
Heinrich Maier was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest, pedagogue, philosopher and a member of the Austrian resistance, who was executed as the last victim of Hitler's regime in Vienna.
Austria was part of Nazi Germany from 13 March 1938 until 27 April 1945, when Allied-occupied Austria declared independence from Nazi Germany.
Großweikersdorf is a municipality in the district of Tulln in the Austrian state of Lower Austria.
The Anschluss, also known as the Anschluß Österreichs, was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938.
Wilhelm Teuber-Weckersdorf was an Austro-Hungarian officer and a Scouting pioneer in Austria, popularly known within the Scouting movement as "Willy Teuber" or "Onkel Teuber".
The Österreichische Freiheitsfront was an antifascist organization created by Austrian and German communist refugees in Brussels and Paris during the Second World War occupation of Belgium and France by Nazi Germany. It took an active part in the Belgian and French Resistance.
Karl Wolfgang Franz Count Motesiczky was an Austrian student of medicine and psychoanalysis and an active opponent of Nazism. After the German annexation of Austria, Motesiczky used his manor in Hinterbrühl to shelter Jews and other persecuted persons. He was arrested by the Gestapo on October 13, 1942, for helping Jews to flee to Switzerland. Following his deportation he perished in Auschwitz concentration camp. Posthumously, he was honoured as a Righteous Among the Nations.
German nationalism is a political ideology and historical current in Austrian politics. It arose in the 19th century as a nationalist movement amongst the German-speaking population of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It favours close ties with Germany, which it views as the nation-state for all ethnic Germans, and the possibility of the incorporation of Austria into a Greater Germany.
Otto Hartmann was an Austrian stage and film actor. Following Austria's incorporation into Nazi Germany, Hartmann acted as an informer for the authorities (Gestapo). In punishment for this he was imprisoned after the Second World War had ended.
Karl Biedermann was the commander of the Austrian Heimwehr, Major of Wehrmacht and a member of German resistance to Nazism.
Anna Hanika was an Austrian accounts clerk who became a resistance activist during the Nazi years.
Roman Karl Scholz was an Austrian author and Augustinian canon regular at Klosterneuburg. He became a resistance activist after attending a Nuremberg Rally in 1936. He was arrested in 1941 and executed in 1944.
The Order of St. George – a European Order of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, or simply Order of Saint George, is a dynastic order of chivalry and thus a house order of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, the former Imperial and Royal House of the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburg monarchy, the Empire of Austria, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Crown lands of Bohemia and Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and further nations.
Hermann Lichtenegger was an Austrian socialist trade unionist, KPÖ politician, and an Under-Secretary of State for Industry, Commerce, Trade, and Traffic in the post-war provisional Renner government. For his early work as a unionist and wartime KPÖ activities he was considered a Widerstandskämpfer, resistance fighter.
Hauptmann Karl Burian was an Austrian captain for Austria-Hungary during World War I, activist for the restoration of the Austrian monarchy, and an important figure of the Austrian resistance against Nazi Germany. After Germany's anschluss of the country in March 1938, Burian created a resistance group, the Legitimist Central Committee, which planned to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in Vienna, the Hotel Metropole. Later that year, he attempted to give German mobilization plans to a contact who was secretly a Gestapo spy. He was sentenced to five years in prison, and executed in Vienna in 1944.