Austria's Involvement In World War Ii Explained

Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany on March 12, 1938, in an event known as the Anschluss. The annexation was the result of a conspiracy by Austrian Nazis to seize the Austrian government and unite the nation with Germany. The Anschluss was the first act of territorial aggression and expansion by Nazi Germany, and it was widely popular in both Germany and Austria. Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg attempted to resist, but ultimately gave in to pressure from Hitler and resigned on March 11. The annexation was met with little resistance, and Hitler entered Austria with German troops the next day, where they were greeted by enthusiastic crowds. The Anschluss was retroactively approved in a plebiscite in April 1938, with a manipulated result of about 99% in favour. During World War II, hundreds of thousands of Austrians fought as German soldiers, and many others participated in the Nazi administration. After the war, Allied-occupied Austria declared independence from Nazi Germany on April 27, 1945.

Austria was part of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945

Austria was part of Nazi Germany from 13 March 1938 until 27 April 1945, when Allied-occupied Austria declared independence from Nazi Germany. This period is known as the Anschluss, which means "joining" or "connection" in German.

The Anschluss was the Nazi German regime's first act of territorial aggression and expansion. The idea of a united Austria and Germany that would form a "Greater Germany" had been proposed after the 1871 unification of Germany excluded Austria. The proposal gained support after World War I, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell and Austria was stripped of its imperial land. Many believed that Austria, without its imperial land, was not economically viable.

The annexation of Austria was widely popular in both Germany and Austria. In Austria, the Nazi Party received the enthusiastic support of most of the population. However, the Social Democratic Party of Austria and the Communist Party of Austria opposed the union.

During World War II, 950,000 Austrians fought for the Nazi German armed forces, and many others participated in the Nazi administration, from death camp personnel to senior Nazi leadership. The majority of the bureaucrats who implemented the Final Solution were Austrian.

After World War II, many Austrians sought comfort in the myth of Austria as the first victim of the Nazis. This "victim theory" played a significant role in Austrian politics and society, and it was not until the 1980s and 1990s that Austrians began to confront their mixed past on a large scale.

The Anschluss: Austria's annexation by Nazi Germany

The Anschluss, or the annexation of Austria, was a significant event in the lead-up to World War II. The idea of a union between Austria and Germany was not new and had gained support after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. However, the Treaty of Saint-Germain and the Treaty of Versailles, signed after World War I, expressly forbade such a union and stripped Austria of some of its territories.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the idea of unification was supported by many Austrian citizens, particularly those on the political left and centre, as well as the Austrian Social Democrats. However, support for unification began to wane over time, and by the time Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany in 1933, the desire for unification was largely associated with the Nazis.

Hitler, himself an Austrian, had expressed his desire for a union between Austria and Germany in his earliest writings and speeches. He saw the unification of all Germans as a key part of his ideology. In the mid-1930s, Austrian Nazis attempted a coup, but it was unsuccessful, and an authoritarian right-wing government took power in Austria. Despite this, Austrian Nazis continued to operate illegally in the country and received support and funding from Germany.

In February 1938, Hitler invited the Austrian chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, to Germany and forced him to agree to give Austrian Nazis a free hand. Schuschnigg later tried to reassert Austrian independence by announcing a plebiscite on the issue. However, he was bullied into cancelling the plebiscite and resigning. On March 12, 1938, German troops crossed the border into Austria, unopposed by the Austrian military. The annexation of Austria, or the Anschluss, was proclaimed on March 13, 1938.

A plebiscite was held on April 10, 1938, to ratify the annexation, but it was neither free nor secret. The ballot was not secret, and threats and coercion were used to manipulate the vote, resulting in 99.7% approval for the Anschluss. While the true opinions of the population are unknown, it is estimated that about 70% of Austrians would have voted to preserve Austrian independence.

The Anschluss was the first act of territorial aggression and expansion by Nazi Germany and was widely popular in both Germany and Austria. It transformed Austria overnight, as Austrian and German Nazis worked to nazify all aspects of Austrian life. The annexation also resulted in an outburst of public violence against Austria's Jewish population, and many Austrians participated in the persecution of the country's Jews.

The annexation of Austria demonstrated Hitler's aggressive territorial ambitions and the failure of the British and French to take action against him for violating the Versailles Treaty. This set the stage for further aggression, including the invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland, which ultimately led to the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

Austrians' enthusiastic support for the Nazis

The annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany, known as the Anschluss, was met with enthusiasm by most Austrians. On March 12, 1938, German troops crossed the Austrian border and were greeted by cheering Austrians with Nazi salutes, Nazi flags, and flowers. The "invasion" without shots fired was dubbed the Blumenkrieg ("Flower War").

Hitler's journey through Austria became a triumphal tour that climaxed in Vienna on March 15, 1938, when around 200,000 cheering German Austrians gathered around the Heldenplatz (Square of Heroes) to hear Hitler announce the completion of the annexation of Austria to form a Greater German Reich.

The Anschluss was widely popular in both Germany and Austria. The idea of a united Austria and Germany that would form a "Greater Germany" had gained support after World War I, particularly among Austrian citizens of the political left and center. The Social Democratic Party of Austria (SDAP), Christian Social Party (CS), and the nationalist Great German Union (Großdeutsche Vereinigung) all favoured a union of German Austria with the German state.

The enthusiasm for the Anschluss was also reflected in the referendum held on April 10, 1938, which recorded a vote of more than 99% in favor of Hitler. However, it is important to note that the referendum was not secret, and threats and coercion were employed to manipulate the vote. Additionally, about 8% of the Austrian voters, including Jews and political opponents, were excluded from the referendum.

The majority of Austrians were not Nazis, but popular support for Germany's wartime policies remained strong until the later phases of World War II. During the course of the war, hundreds of thousands of Austrians fought as German soldiers, and a substantial number served in the SS, the elite military corps of the Nazi Party.

The Austrian resistance was small but not negligible. Left-wing resistance groups (mostly communists) and conservative resisters (mainly Christian Socialists and monarchists) were active. Tens of thousands of Austrians were arrested for political reasons during the war, and many died in concentration camps or prisons.

While the great majority of Austrians were not Nazis, the country's enthusiastic support for the Anschluss and the significant participation of Austrians in the Nazi regime and its war efforts highlight a complex and troubling chapter in Austria's history.

The Austrian resistance

Austria was part of Nazi Germany from 13 March 1938 until 27 April 1945, when Allied-occupied Austria declared independence from Nazi Germany. During this time, most Austrians supported the Nazi regime, with 950,000 Austrians fighting for the Nazi German armed forces. However, a small minority of Austrians actively participated in the resistance against Nazism. It is estimated that around 100,000 Austrians opposed the regime and were subsequently imprisoned or executed for their anti-Nazi activities.

One of the most notable Austrian resistance groups was led by the priest Heinrich Maier. This group sought to reestablish a Habsburg monarchy after the war and played a crucial role in providing the Allies with information on the production sites of weapons and aircraft. They also maintained contact with Allen Dulles, head of the U.S. OSS in Switzerland, and their intelligence contributed to key operations. Additionally, the Maier group was one of the earliest to report the mass murder of Jews, utilising contacts at the Semperit factory near Auschwitz.

Other notable Austrian resistance groups included the Carinthian Slovenes, who formed a nucleus of the resistance after targeted deportations and forced Germanisation by the Nazi regime; the Austrian Freedom Front, a partisan group led by Communist leader Franz Honner and supported by the USSR; and the group around Major Carl Szokoll within the Wehrmacht, which planned "Operation Radetzky" to assist the Red Army in liberating Vienna and prevent major destruction.

The Mauthausen concentration camp

The camp was founded by the National Socialist Gauleiter (regional head) of Upper Austria, August Eigruber, who announced that his district would have the "distinction" of building a concentration camp. The first prisoners, all German and Austrian men, were transferred from the Dachau concentration camp in August 1938. They were forced to build their own camp and set up operations in the quarry, enduring hunger, arbitrary treatment, and violence in their daily lives.

Mauthausen was a labour camp, where prisoners were subjected to harsh conditions and forced to work in the quarries, carrying roughly-hewn blocks of stone weighing up to 50 kilograms up 186 stairs. This brutal labour led to exceptionally high mortality rates. The camp also served as a site for pseudo-scientific experiments conducted by doctors like Sigbert Ramsauer, Karl Josef Gross, Eduard Krebsbach, and Aribert Heim, who was dubbed "Doctor Death" by the inmates.

In December 1939, the SS ordered the construction of a second concentration camp, Gusen, a few kilometres from Mauthausen. Over time, the Mauthausen-Gusen complex expanded to include nearly 100 subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany. Mauthausen and its subcamps were used for slave labour, with inmates forced to work in quarries, munitions factories, mines, arms factories, and aircraft assembly plants.

During World War II, the number of prisoners in the camp increased dramatically, and people from across Europe were deported to Mauthausen. The camp held a diverse range of inmates, including political opponents, religious conscientious objectors, and people from virtually every German-occupied country. The SS also transported prisoners to Mauthausen specifically to be murdered, with thousands killed through methods such as gassing, shooting, hanging, and harsh living conditions.

The liberation of the camp came in May 1945, when the US Army reached Gusen and Mauthausen. By this time, tens of thousands of prisoners had perished, with at least 90,000 deaths out of approximately 190,000 people imprisoned in the camp and its subcamps over seven years.

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