The Austrian resistance () was launched in response to the rise of fascism across Europe and, more specifically, to the Anschluss in 1938 and resulting annexation of the Austrian Republic by Nazi Germany.
An estimated 100,000 people were reported to have participated in this resistance with thousands subsequently imprisoned or executed for their anti-Nazi activities.
One cipher of the Austrian resistance used from 1944 onward was O5, indicating "OE," another way of writing the letter Ö which begins the German name of the country; '5' indicated the fifth letter of the alphabet (E). This sign may be seen at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna. From 1939, the Nazi regime did not use the term ; when Austria was referred to, it was as Ostmark ('Eastern march'), with the implication that Austria was merely an outer region of Greater Germany and not a country in its own right.
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."
Overview
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.Christoph Thurner "The CASSIA Spy Ring in World War II Austria: A History of the OSS's Maier-Messner Group" (2017), pp 35.Operation Crossbow – Preliminary missions for the Operation Overlord The Maier group was also one of the earliest to report the mass murder of Jews, utilizing contacts at the Semperit factory near Auschwitz.Elisabeth Boeckl-Klamper, Thomas Mang, Wolfgang Neugebauer: Gestapo-Leitstelle Wien 1938–1945. Vienna 2018, , p 299–305.Hans Schafranek: Widerstand und Verrat: Gestapospitzel im antifaschistischen Untergrund. Vienna 2017, , p 161–248.Fritz Molden: Die Feuer in der Nacht. Opfer und Sinn des österreichischen Widerstandes 1938–1945. Vienna 1988, p 122.Peter Broucek "Die österreichische Identität im Widerstand 1938–1945" (2008), p 163.Hansjakob Stehle "Die Spione aus dem Pfarrhaus (German: The spy from the rectory)" In: Die Zeit, 5 January 1996.Christoph Thurner "The CASSIA Spy Ring in World War II Austria: A History of the OSS's Maier-Messner Group" (2017), pp 187.
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.Morse, Steven and Peter Landé. Dachau Concentration Camp Records (online database): Retrieved online April 11, 2018. Although Anton survived, Rosa Stallbaumer did not; transferred to Auschwitz, she died there at age 44."Rosa Stallbaumer," in 124 Victims of the Resistance: Short Biographies, in The Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz in Innsbruck. Bregenz, Austria: Verein Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust: Gedächtnis und Gegenwart (Association National Socialism and the Holocaust: Memory and Present), retrieved online April 6, 2018.
Austrian resistance organizations and groups
Non-partisan groups , , Helfenberg, Prinz Eugen (founded during the Balkan campaign, the group name is associated with Prinz Eugen's military strategy) and others.
Armed groups Carinthian Slovenes as partisans of Carinthia (see Yugoslav partisans) and the partisan which was led by a Communist leader and was supported by the USSR. This partisan group also established close cooperation with Tito's partisans, and two Austrian battalions fought with them. By the end of the war, the Austrian Freedom Front had become the only armed movement in Austria.
The other groups often referred to partisans in the Salzkammergut (group "Willy Fred") or in the Ötztal. The resistance group in Ötztal founded by 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. One major league of 200–300 fighters called the . Their activities extended from 1944 to Western Styria. They began to attack in the districts of Leibnitz and Deutschlandsberg (Styria) infrastructure facilities such as municipal offices and gendarmerie. They also sabotaged militarily important facilities such as bridges and railways. Also in Styria, in the area around the Erzberg, in the area of Ennstal, there were different resistance groups. The aim of the actions was mainly the paralyzing of rail transport and the front replenishment. The communist group centered around the miners Martin Michelli, Johann Pech, Siegfried Pichler and Alexander Soukup planned, among other things, the demolition of bridges of Erzbergbahn, but was arrested by the Gestapo in late 1941 and the members largely sentenced to death. The so-called Salzkammergut partisans under the direction of the im August 1943 fled from the concentration camp Hallein communist Spain fighter Sepp Plieseis hid in a hideout ("hedgehog"/"Igel") at the "Ischler Hütte" (Ischler cottage) in the Totes Gebirge and maintained close contact with resistance circles in the area. The difficult and dangerous supply was done by dedicated women from the valley. In fact, in order to avoid reprisals against the civilian population, the group did not have an armed man, combat taken or violent actions set. Karl Feldhammer from Bad Aussee was, however, in the course of his arrest by the Gestapo Linz shot on January 26, 1945. His wife was Marianne "Mariandl" Feldhammer. In the Salzkammergut from the end of April 1945 also acted from the British SOE in the mountains of hell remote combat group under the leadership of the former socialist Albrecht Gaiswinkler from Bad Aussee. Both resistance groups appeared politically in the wake of the liberation by US troops in early May 1945 and participated in the rescue of the stolen art from all over Europe, which were stored in a tunnel of the salt mine in Aussee. These resistance fighters were also involved in the arrest of Nazi criminals like Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Resistance in (state) enterprises: (also a member of the catholic antifascist freedom movement ) Intelligence agency (Abwehr) resistance: Erwin von Lahousen He joined the resistance circle against Hitler within the 'defense'. It is believed that he kept his contact network with British, Czechoslovaks and Russian agents during the war. Lahousen ordered that agents destined for Britain be trained primarily for spying, also with disastrous results. The case Lahausen is very controversial, there are different opinions. Various publications have been published that speak for him. Military resistance in the Wehrmacht: Robert Bernardis, Heinrich Kodré, group around Major Carl Szokoll (including Operation Walküre / Operation Valkyrie) Major Karl Biedermann, Hauptmann and Oberleutnant joined the resistance group of Austrian members of the Wehrmacht, led by Major Carl Szokoll, within the Wehrkreiskommando XVII. In the spring of 1945, this planned the "" whose goal was to assist the Red Army in the liberation of Vienna and to prevent major destruction. Biedermann should have occupied with his troops key positions in the city and to prevent the blowing up of bridges. But the planned for April 6, 1945 "" was betrayed. Robert Bernardis, Heinrich Kodré, Karl Biedermann, Alfred Huth and Rudolf Raschke were sentenced to death by the German "People's Court" (Volksgerichtshof) and executed the same day. In 1967 a barrack was named "" (1140 Vienna, Penzing), in remembrance of these three Austrian officers of the German Wehrmacht Major Karl Biedermann, Captain Alfred Huth and Lieutenant Rudolf Raschke.
Catholic conservative bourgeois camp of Austria, the group The CV (Cartellverband): an umbrella organization of catholic male student fraternities, which Maier and Caldonazzi also belonged.
The two groups called "" around Roman Scholz and . Already in autumn 1938, the Augustinian canon Roman Karl Scholz founded a resistance group together with his friend Viktor Reimann. On an earlier trip to England Scholz had been able to make political connections there. After the "Anschluss Österreichs" he sent regular reports on the situation in Austria and the activities of the resistance, which he had translated into English by his colleague Rüdiger Engerth. The networking of his resistance group spread from Vienna to Lower Austria (Mostviertel, areas around Baden), Upper Austria and Tyrol. In 1939, the Gestapo spy Otto Hartmann joined the scene. The leading officials Roman Karl Scholz, Gerhard Fischer-Ledenice, Hans Zimmerl, Hanns-Georg Heintschel-Heinegg, Karl Lederer, , Alfred Miegl, Augustin Grosser, Günther Loch and were first brought to prisons before the People's Court in 1944, sentenced to death and executed in Vienna's Landesgericht in the same year. It is believed people around Roman Scholz () were involved in Operation Anthropoid – the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (see media). The Abbot of the Cistercian Monastery died in 1941 in Anrath Prison. In or at the consequences of the detention died Lieutenant a. D. Richard Färber, Adolf Gubitzer, Heinrich Hock and Marie Schlagenhauser. as a group around Jacob Kastelic "Östfrei" a monarchist resistance group around The sermons of the Baptist with frequently interspersed Nazi criticism Numerous priests like , Johann Gruber, , Matthias Spanlang, and , Peter August Blandénier, Maria Restituta, the Priests Jakob Gapp and Otto Neururer, the Father Franz Reinisch, the Provikar Carl Lampert