.mw-parser-output .hidden-begin{box-sizing:border-box;width:100%;padding:5px;border:none;font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .hidden-title{font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .hidden-content{text-align:left}You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (December 2009) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 9,027 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Sepp Plieseis]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template ((Translated|de|Sepp Plieseis)) to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Josef "Sepp" Plieseis (20 December 1913 – 21 October 1966) was an Austrian resistance fighter against the Nazi regime.

Biography

Plieseis was born in Bad Ischl and became a young member of the Socialist movement. He joined the Kinderfreunde Österreich , an organization for children and their families close to the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), then joined the Socialist Workers' Youth (Sozialistische Arbeiter-Jugend). After the Austrian Civil War of 1934 , in which Plieseis took part in Ebensee alongside members of the Republikanischer Schutzbund, he broke away from Austrian social democracy and joined the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ).[1]

He volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War as a member of the International Brigades, where he was wounded twice. After the defeat of the Republican forces, he fled to France where was arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps in Gurs, St. Cyprienne, und Argiles before returning to his home in Salzkammergut. He was arrested at the border by the Nazi authorities. Because of his refusal of conscription in the Wehrmacht he was again arrested and sent to Linz, then Dachau, and finally to Dachau's annex in Hallein.[2]

He managed to escape from this camp and hid in the forests and mountains of his native area. Although an SS training camp was located in the same place, bringing together 1500 to 2000 men, he managed, with the help of female agricultural workers, to flee through the mountains on October 23, 1943 and to hide in the upper Salzkammergut. It was there that he organized a resistance group against National Socialism whose priority objective was to hide deserters from the region in the mountains.[1]

With the arrival of American troops in the region in May 1945, the group stopped their activities and Sepp Plieseis became advisor to the Americans on security issues in Bad Ischl and its surroundings and served as a municipal official.

After the war, he served in various political appointments in his home area and remained a member of the Communist Party of Austria.

He was married to Maria Wagner, who was also a resistance fighter.

Sepp Plieseis wrote and published his memoirs me with the help of Rudolf H. Daumann. After his death in 1966, he was buried at the Bad Ischl Friedhof.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Sepp Plieseis (1913-1966)". ooe.kpoe.at (in German). Retrieved 2024-01-04.
  2. ^ a b "Sepp Plieseis, Friedhof Bad Ischl". Friedhofsführer, Rundgänge (in German). Retrieved 2024-01-04.