New free Austria
The New Free Austria resistance group was formed at the beginning of 1944 in the town of Freistadt in Upper Austria's Mühlviertel . The group was betrayed in autumn 1944 and eight of its members were executed in the final days of the war in 1945 . In addition, there were other Nazi atrocities in the city in 1945, such as socialist murders and the shooting of members of the Wehrmacht.
The Freetown resistance group "New Free Austria"
In the spring or summer of 1944, some joined Freistädter citizens under Louis hermentin together into an organization that had the goal to liberate Austria from Nazi rule. Rappersberger (1997) names the military defeats of the Wehrmacht and the arrival of the deserter Johann Königsecker as reasons for the merger. Neugebauer (1982) describes the Freistadt group as one of the most important resistance organizations in Upper Austria . Ludwig Hermentin and Johann Königsecker are named as the main functionaries of the resistance movement in the verdict of the People's Court of February 27, 1945. A peculiarity of the Freistadt group was that, contrary to the usual left-right structure of the Austrian resistance, it was composed of members from all political camps.
The activities of the resistance group are still not fully understood. Based on documents from the group, which Hermentin's apprentice Helmut Heidelberger with the presence of mind cleared after the Gestapo had arrested his boss, the following plans of the group appear plausible:
- The intention to support airborne operations by the Allies by taking over civil administration from reliable Austrians . There is also a radio link to Linz and possibly Vienna to the British.
- The modest armament of the group probably only served for self-protection or to prevent short-circuit actions by Nazi functionaries.
- A collection of money was carried out to be used for social purposes, but also to fund the work of the resistance group.
The group was uncovered through the Linz contact Willibald Thallinger, who carried out a house search on September 29, 1944 , which probably revealed incriminating documents. Thallinger was then tortured in Gestapo custody and, with the prospect of impunity, coerced into cooperation with the Gestapo (including through nicotine withdrawal , as Thallinger was a heavy smoker). The Gestapo officer Johann Haller was finally able to sneak into the group with Thallinger's help.
On October 9 and 10, 1944, there was a large wave of arrests in Freistadt by the Gestapo, further arrests in October and November followed. More than 50 men and women (1% of the citizens of Freistadt) were sent to prison.
- "For two days, the Gestapo's catch dogs were the terrors of the city, the instigators of death raged like in enemy territory . "
All those arrested were accused of high treason before the People's Court in Linz under the designation " Freistadt Trial " because they had founded or supported an organization that stood up for the independence and freedom of Austria.
Judgments
The following were sentenced to death :
- Ludwig Hermentin (born 1896), head of the health insurance company and head of the group, lives in Freistadt,
- Karl Preinfalk (born 1893), businessman, resident in Freistadt,
- Johann Angerer (born 1879), businessman, resident in Freistadt,
- Josef Haunschmidt (born 1906), dairy manager, lives in Freistadt,
- Ignaz Bayer (born 1898), dairy employee, lives in Neumarkt im Mühlkreis ,
- Johann Schöfer (born 1903), district administrator, residing in Lasberg ,
- Leopold Kotzmann (born 1884), community secretary , resident in Sandl , member of the state parliament before 1938 ,
- Willibald Thallinger (born 1911), commercial. Employee from Linz
Leopold Riepl from Sandl and Johann Königsecker were also sentenced to death, but as members of the Wehrmacht, they were sentenced by a military tribunal . Since the confirmations of the verdict no longer arrived from Berlin due to the turmoil of the last days of the war , the death sentences were no longer carried out.
After the death sentences were imposed , appeals for clemency were sent to the Reich Ministry of Justice in Berlin . Since these appeals for clemency were no longer dealt with, the following shootings were illegal even under National Socialist law. After detailed investigations and the discovery of new documents, Rappersberger (1997) comes to the conclusion that the shootings were carried out at the instigation of Gauleiter Eigruber , who had put the attending judicial officers under so much pressure that they most likely had to fear for their own lives.
Execution of sentences
On May 1, 1945, 13 people were executed at the military training area in Treffling :
Eight men from the Freistadt group "New Free Austria":
- Ludwig Hermentin
- Karl Preinfalk
- Willibald Thallinger
- Johann Angerer
- Josef Haunschmidt
- Ignaz Baier
- Johann Schöfer
- Leopold Kotzmann
Three men and one woman from a Linz resistance group:
- Karl Hehenberger
- Josef Grillmayer
- Zilli Zinner
- Friedrich Derflinger
Also Theresia Erhard, who was convicted of looting .
The "Free Town Socialist Murders"
On the evening of April 24, 1945, four people from Freistadt and one Pole were fetched from their apartments without any legal proceedings because they were suspected of being socialists or communists, and they were shot and shot south of Freistadt an der Jaunitz , near the former military swimming pool buried.
These were the BH servant Alois Miesenböck, the unskilled worker Richard Gold, the unskilled worker Jakob Smal, a former Russian prisoner of war from the First World War who stayed behind, the Ziegelschlager Johann Zeilinger and the Pole Stephan Modelsky, a farm worker. Merl (1980) takes the view that the murder of the named had been planned well in advance, because the member of the district leadership, Josef Czech, said to Ms. Miesenböck: "that he is sorry for Mr. Miesenböck, because there will be something again".
In addition to the district leader Gittmayr, the members of the district leadership Johann Hauff and Josef Czech were fully responsible for the act . The following were also involved in the murders: Rudolf Knoll, community official from Pregarten ; Karl Zimbrich, he came from Linz and was a coffee house leaseholder in Freistadt and Josef Obermayr, chauffeur for the district management.
The further fate of the perpetrators:
Kreisleiter Gittmair probably interrogated the arrested, but otherwise held back. Like Czech, Gittmair can be described as a classic “ desk felon ”. Czech and Hauf have been able to go underground to this day. Gittmair hanged himself on June 5, 1946 in the municipality of Tumeltsham in the Innviertel . Zimbrich was sentenced to ten years in heavy prison in 1948, but Obermayr was acquitted.
The military martial arts
In the last days of the war, nine members of the Wehrmacht were sentenced to death and shot by a court martial in the Freistadt barracks:
- Karl Haghofer, Waldbrunn, 35 years
- Hubert Gruber, Eferding , 36 years
- Johann Fuchsgruber, Hansdorf, 43 years
- Albert de Deyn, Dendermonde , 27 years
- Horst Hilmar Seidel, Trieb, 35 years
- Albert Kubsik, Golling, 37 years
- Johann Schinnerl, Steyr , 20 years
- Adolf Habelt, Vienna, 43 years
- Oskar Moser, Ottenschlag, 33 years old
Johann Blöchl (1972) reports of a woman who had to watch her husband being shot and desperately begged for mercy for her husband with all her strength. And Merl (1980) describes a particularly tragic event in "Period of Occupation in the Mühlviertel":
“The fate of the young man from Steyr always affected me particularly closely. In the Waldviertel he had left the troops that were already in the process of disbanding and had informed his parents in Steyr by telephone from the post office in Mönchdorf that he could withdraw from the danger zone and would be home in a few days. A fanatical post office clerk informed the gendarmerie, the young man was transferred to Freistadt, sentenced to death and immediately executed. The pastor Kittinger, who accompanied the young Austrian to the place of execution, told me that the young boy could not understand and grasp what was happening to him ” .
The post office clerk Marianne Reindl, who reported the young man from Steyr, was sentenced in 1948 for denunciation to twelve years in heavy dungeon plus financial loss.
See also
literature
- Johann Blöchl : My memories . OLV Linz 1972.
- Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance : Resistance and persecution in Upper Austria 1934–1945 . Volume 2, Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1982.
- Edmund Merl: Occupation in the Mühlviertel: based on d. Development in the political district of Freistadt , OLV-Buchverlag, Linz 1980.
- Wolfgang Neugebauer : Various resistance groups . In: Resistance and persecution in Upper Austria 1934–1945 , Volume 2, pp. 356–357, Ed. Documentation Archive of Austrian Resistance, Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Gesellschaft mbH, Vienna 1982.
- OÖ Nachrichten: Memorial inaugurated . In: Textarchiv OÖ Nachrichten, Linz: Extra from May 10, 1990, p. 1336021185; URL: Upper Austria News Archive (download: July 5, 2005).
- OÖ Rundschau: Debate about memorial for deserters . Freistädter Rundschau; No. 25; June 23, 2005.
- Othmar Rappersberger: The resistance group “New Free Austria” in Freistadt 1944/45 and their fate . In: Freistädter Geschichtsblätter : The fateful year 1945 in Freistadt 2nd part, issue 11, publisher Stadtgemeinde Freistadt, Freistadt 1997.
- Franz Stein Maßl: The swastika in the hill country . National Socialism, Resistance and Persecution in the Freistadt District 1938–1945, Ed. Franz Stein Maßl, Edition Geschichte der Heimat, Grünbach 1982.
Individual evidence
- ^ Rappersberger 1997, page 18
- ↑ Neugebauer 1982, page 18
- ↑ Neugebauer 1982, page 356
- ↑ a b Stein Maßl 1988, page 121
- ↑ Stein Maßl 1988, page 123
- ↑ Merl 1980, page 14
- ^ Mühlviertler Bote , April 9, 1946, In: Hakenkreuz im Mühlviertel , p. 132
- ↑ Stein Maßl 1988, page 126f
- ↑ a b Stein Maßl 1988, page 127
- ↑ Rappersberger 1997, page 117
- ↑ a b Merl 1980, p. 17
- ↑ Stein Maßl 1988, pp. 153f
- ↑ Stein Maßl 1988, p. 157f
- ↑ a b Merl 1980, p. 18
- ↑ Blöchl 1972, p. 136
- ↑ Stein Maßl 1988, p. 117