1938–1945: Resistance in exile

People who had had to flee Austria in 1938/39 also fought in the Allied armies and the European resistance movements against Nazi Germany. Communist and Socialist activists had been in exile for an even longer time. Their parties had already been banned by the Dollfuss regime in 1933 and 1934, respectively. About 1400 Austrians fought in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939 on the side of the democratic republic.

After the German Wehrmacht attack on Western democracies, Austrians joined local resistance groups, mostly in Belgium and France. In Britain, about 3000 Jewish refugees joined the army, and about half of them fought in armed units as of 1943. More than 6000 Austrians signed up for the US Army – most of them were Jewish refugees as well. Starting at the end of 1944, the KPÖ (Austrian Communist Party) deployed four Austrian freedom battalions in the Yugoslav Army – one of them fought in Slovenia in the spring of 1945.

Allied special forces tried to organise resistance in Austria with well trained refugees and Wehrmacht deserters – partly from Switzerland, Slovenia and Italy, partly through direct parachute operations. While many failed, some operations had success: The “Clowder” mission armed the Slovenian partisans in Carinthia, Operation “Ebensburg” contributed to the liberation in the Salzkammergut, and Operation “Greenup” spied on the Wehrmacht transports from Tyrol to Italy.

External Resources (in Germany only):

Echte „Inglorious Basterds“ in Tirol (articel in the newspaper Tiroler Tageszeitung)