229:. A few years after the marriage Ferdinand Pesendorfer, like millions of others, became unemployed. The marriage nevertheless survived till 1942. Meanwhile, Resi Pesendorfer took cleaning and laundry work, but the family were still obliged to forage for berries with sticks in the surrounding woods. As a result of the destitution in which they found themselves, Resi Pesendorfer contracted
475:, as a local man, already had a detailed knowledge of the region, but he nevertheless had a high-profile as a wanted man. Pesendorfer organised his concealment and enabled him to become a resistance leader in the region by providing the vital courier network which enabled him to sustain effective contact with the resistance groups in the various villages and towns.
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engagement. For the women who lived in the valley below the logistical challenge of keeping so many men supplied with food, weaponry and munitions was formidable. Any villagers found in possession of illegally slaughtered meat faced severe punishment. Resi
Pesendorfer later recalled the winter of 1944/45 as her most difficult time during
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arrest was a contingency for which there had been time to plan: she succeeded in telling her interrogators nothing substantive, while consistently denying all allegations put to her. She was released after a relatively brief period of detention, the authorities having determined that they had insufficient evidence to detain her further.
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suggests that desertions were increasing. Towards the end of 1944 it was estimated that "Der Igel" had become home to approximately 500 men, most of whom had arrived not, in the first instance, to become activist partisan fighters but in order to avoid being found and sent back to their regiments.
467:, Mali Ziegleder and other resistance activists smuggled civilian clothes into the camp and helped Plieseis to escape, which following several weeks of meticulous preparation he did on 23 October 1943. With the support of Pesendorfer and her network he was then spirited away to the mountains of the
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deserters hiding out in the mountains steadily increased. The focus of activities for Resi
Pesendorfer's network of women shifted. Pesendorfer herself had recently taken work as a cleaner at a holiday villa which was unoccupied. In Autumn 1942 "Villa WaldhĂĽtte" became a perfect hiding place for
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at the end of 1944 and came to
Pesendorfer for help. Naturally once the new arrivals had joined the community there was plenty of work to be done, felling trees, both for construction work extending the interior of the salt-caves network and as firewood, along with more directly focused resistance
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in May 1942. It was impossible to know what the authorities already knew of her illegal activities, either from an unsuspected government spy infiltrated into one of the
Communist cells with which she associated or from indiscretions disclosed by an arrested comrade under torture. Nevertheless,
217:. One source states that she became a member of the Social Democratic movement in 1926, though it remains unclear whether or not she ever became a party member. It was also in 1926 that Theresia Laimer married Ferdinand Pesendorfer. The couple's son was born shortly afterwards. Austria was
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involved trying to persuade soldiers to desert from the army. It had been found that women were generally more successful at this work than men. Tasks might simply involve leaving a pile of leaflets urging desertion on park benches, in trains, or in other public places. At the other extreme,
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constructed a large but secret hideaway-headquarters in the mountains, adapting for the purpose an otherwise unused salt mine. Salt has been mined in the area for at least five hundred years so there must have been a vast network of tunnels that could provide shelter from the elements and, ample
201:. She was one of six siblings. Michael Laimer, her father worked in the salt mines. Her mother, born Barbara Wimmer, died when she was ten. As soon as she left school Theresia took farm work in the area in order to be able to contribute to feeding the family. She later found work with a
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region, where the topography made it relatively easy for those who knew the terrain to avoid capture, but finding hiding places to avoid the worst predations of the Alpine winters presented its own special challenges. Over the next couple of years the number of resistance activists and army
205:. Subsequently she was employed for a princess in Schwarzenbach, for whom she worked as a chambermaid. Her father remarried quite soon after the death of his first wife, but Resi Laimer's relationship to her father's second wife was always a "distant" one.
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became greater than before. Pesendorfer became a focal point for it. Increasingly, over the following few years, it was not just messages that needed to be delivered to secret locations, but also supplies of food, medication, explosives and weapons.
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the work involved identifying depressed looking soldiers home on leave in bars and engaging them in conversation. There were even comrades who wrote letters to soldiers who had returned from leave back to the front line, urging that they desert the
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region. His cover name. "Willy" became the synonym by which the regional resistance group was identified. Later he took the precautionary step of changing his cover name to "Fred". Regardless of whether or not this temporarily confused
323:. The persecution to which illegal communist cells were subjected by government agencies became more brutish than hitherto. In 1938 Pesendorfer escaped permanent arrest by state authorities in the newly established "
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had satisfied himself that smoke from fires could not be seen from outside the mine before choosing the location for his headquarters. (Today the remains of "Der Igel" have become a popular destination for hikers.)
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teamed up with students from the
History Workshop Salzburg to produce a 37 minute documentary film about the Resistance in the Salzkammergut. The film, titled "Der Igel" includes interviews with Resi Pesendorfer,
619:(the widow of Sepp Plieseis) and Leno Egger. Pesendorfer was 83 at the time of the interview, the film of which is believed to be the only surviving source in which she speaks for herself on the subject.
291:. Women were found to be particularly suitable for such courier work because they were far less frequently stopped and questioned than men. Resi Pesendorfer also engaged locally with the
559:. Resi Pesendorfer was among those taking a lead in organising supplies for "Der Igel". Other members of the network known to have been involved in administering this work included
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at the time, it led subsequent generations of historians and commentators to apply the soubriquet "Willy-Fred" to the
Salzkammergut activist network. During the first part of 1944
379:. Resistance activists who had not been located at the time of the arrests were forcibly conscripted for military service during the months that followed, and sent to serve on the
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Rolinek, S., Lehner, G. & Strasser, C. (2009) Im
Schatten der Mozartkugel – Reiseführer durch die braune Topografie von Salzburg. Wien: Czernin.
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region, taking a lead in the concealment of increasing numbers of army deserters and others with political records which made them targets for the
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447:. He had been captured in 1941 while making his way home from France. In 1943 he had been sent as part of a forced labour gang from the main
407:. Discrete deliveries of necessary food, munitions and explosives were also arranged. Resi Pesendorfer herself was briefly arrested by the
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and the surrounding countryside. The group initially comprised fifteen women. Its purpose was to organise and support opposition to the
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375:. One of the arrested men was Ferdinand Pesendorfer, Resi Pesendorfer's husband. Others included Alois Straubinger, Josef Filla and
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Am 22. August 2020 organisierten die GrĂĽnen Bad Ischl eine zeitgeschichtliche
Wanderung zum Versteck der Widerstandsgruppe Willy-Fred
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scope for concealment in the event of an unscheduled visit on behalf of the government. Some indication of the size of "Der Igel" (
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Auf den
Spurender Partisanen im Salzkammergut .... Widerstand im Bezirk Gmunden .... Auf dem Bodenjahr hundertelanger Tra ditionen
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Pesendorfer
Theresia (Resi), geb. Laimer; Hausgehilfin und WiderstandskämpferinGeb. Lauffen, Bad Ischl, 21.6.1902 Gest. 31.10.1989
275:. A critical responsibility was the organisation of a courier service to sustain contacts between illegal communist groups in
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Auf den Spurender Partisanen im Salzkammergut .... Widerstand im Bezirk Gmunden .... SchlĂĽsselrolle in der Widerstandsbewegung
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Pesendorfer was not intimidated by her brief detention. She created or cemented contacts between her women's network in the
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that were a feature of the period. In 1935 Ferdinand and Resi Pesendorfer both became members of the (by this time illegal)
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and the "Democratic Women's League". She also continued to participate actively in the political work of the local
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German victory no longer seemed inevitable and army morale began to crumble. It is impossible to known what effect
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und Alois Straubinger, managed to escape from the prisons where they had been taken. Both went into hiding in the
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898:"Ausseer Land und Bad Ischl: Härteste Bastion des Widerstandes und Schatzkammer der Nazis"
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region. She was involved locally in the strikes and armed street protests involving the
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and was already a local hero of the political left on account of his exploits during the
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Her war-time exploits became better known after 1985 when the Viennese filmmaker-writer
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1075:"Widerstand im Salzkammergut Geschichte und Erinnerung .... Frauen im Widerstand"
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949:. Universalmuseum Joanneum GmbH (Institut für Kunst im öffentlichen Raum), Graz
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in recognition of her meritorious contribution to the liberation of Austria.
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There were also two more Communist detainees who managed to escape from the
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579:. Resi Pesendorfer did not. She led a relatively inconspicuous life in
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431:-based resistance group to help in the escape from the labour camp of
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where the tide was beginning to turn against the hitherto unstoppable
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Christine Kanzler (author); Ilse Korotin (editor-compiler) (2016).
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Resi Laimer became politically engaged at an early age, supporting
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Early in 1941 the first great wave of arrests was launched in the
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Permanent projects .... Florian HĂĽttner: Hideaway (Turtle)
587:. She was nevertheless actively involved in the short-lived
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During 1942 two communist members of the resistance movement,
168:. She organised a highly effective network of women in the
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had on increasing the desertion rate, but experience in the
233:, from which she would continue to suffer for twelve years.
787:. Vol. 3 P-Z. Böhlau Verlag Wien. pp. 2507–2508.
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315:, which marked the integration of Austria into an enlarged
355:. Those targeted included Martin Langeder, organiser of
848:"1945: Die Widerstandsbewegung im oberen Salzkammergut"
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In 1937 she set up an illegal women's group covering
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871:"Zum Widerstand der KPĂ– im Salzkammergut"
134:: 21 June 1902 - 31 October 1989) was an
996:"Nachbericht von der Wanderung zum IGEL"
725:Stephan D. Yada-Mc Neal (13 July 2018).
650:. KPÖ Oberösterreich, Linz. 21 June 2012
193:, a small town in the mountains east of
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329:wegen "besonderer politischer Umstände"
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311:The network remained active after the
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846:Peter Kammerstätter (27 April 2020).
419:and resistance groups in the city of
118:Barbara Wimmer (1871 - 1912) (mother)
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1033:. StudienVerlag. pp. 330–331.
921:"1944: Das RĂĽckgrat der Partisanen"
189:Theresia "Resi" Laimer was born in
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681:"Theresia Pedendorfer (1902-1989)"
648:"Theresia Pesendorfer (1902-1989)"
445:anti-Franco International Brigades
241:The brief and brutally suppressed
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994:Martin Schott (24 August 2020).
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367:were arrested and imprisoned in
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1080:. Zeitgeschichtemuseum Ebensee
571:Several of Resi Pesendorfer's
435:. Plieseis had been born in
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1102:. Hausverein Willy-Fred, Linz
919:Ingrid Moser (1 April 2019).
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166:Pan-German National Socialism
599:. At the end of the 1970s
251:Republican Protection League
245:resonated powerfully in the
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1146:Austrian resistance members
1100:"Warum der Name Willy-Fred"
975:. Art in Public Space, Graz
209:Politicisation and marriage
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923:. KPÖ Oberösterreich, Linz
850:. KPÖ Oberösterreich, Linz
185:Provenance and early years
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115:Michael Laimer (father)
52:Austro-Hungarian Empire
900:. Czernin Verlag, Wien
583:, and later in nearby
301:Soviet Communist Party
231:Pulmonary Tuberculosis
144:abolition of democracy
1151:People from Bad Ischl
577:the fighting was over
433:Josef "Sepp" Plieseis
297:International Red Aid
96:Ferdinand Pesendorfer
945:Wolfgang Quatember.
605:Decoration of Honour
488:resistance organiser
479:The Willy-Fred group
215:the Social Democrats
140:the Social Democrats
77:Resistance organiser
969:"... In the valley"
573:resistance comrades
561:Marianne Feldhammer
443:as a member of the
325:Reichsgau Oberdonau
237:Austrofascist years
203:jeweller's business
151:resistance activist
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539:resistance members
449:concentration camp
385:German war machine
349:OKA energy company
1040:978-3-7065-5757-3
896:Susanne Rolinek.
794:978-3-205-79590-2
738:978-3-7528-2571-8
518:resistance groups
441:Spanish Civil War
377:Raimund Zimpernik
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531:Soviet army
527:German army
357:the party's
70:Farm worker
1130:Categories
626:References
552:Bad Vigaun
533:. After
461:Bad Vigaun
333:the region
273:government
157:and after
74:Home maker
36:1902-06-21
1059:ignored (
1049:cite book
831:ignored (
810:cite book
757:ignored (
747:cite book
581:Bad Ischl
492:Bad Ischl
437:Bad Ischl
405:Gitzoller
219:badly hit
191:Bad Ischl
153:opposing
44:Bad Ischl
510:Plieseis
421:Salzburg
391:region.
255:the army
195:Salzburg
163:opposing
136:Austrian
101:Children
585:Ebensee
557:the war
548:subcamp
490:in the
457:subcamp
455:to the
429:Hallein
409:Gestapo
361:Goisern
289:Ebensee
285:Lauffen
281:Goisern
221:by the
109:Parents
1106:20 May
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