The "Barackenlager-Eichat" Affair: Convicted for Listening to Foreign Radio Stations

In the autumn of 1939, immediately after the outbreak of World War II, three men in the Absam area near Hall in Tirol fell victim to Nazi justice. Their crime: listening to foreign radio broadcasts.
Adolf Frena (b. 1900), Hubert Anselm (b. 1903), and Alois Schilcher (b. 1884) were employed by the Army Construction Office (Heeresbauamt) in Absam-Eichat and housed in a barracks. In early September 1939, a fellow lodger, a labourer named Petterer, brought a radio. Although he made it available, he explicitly pointed out the strict prohibition against listening to foreign stations.
Despite this warning, the men repeatedly listened to news and music from stations such as Beromünster (Switzerland), Toulouse, Strasbourg, and the "Austrian Freedom Station" (österreichischer Freiheitssender) from Paris. Alois Schilcher was identified as the one who often operated the set and drew his comrades' attention to the broadcasts. These illegal listening sessions took place approximately twice a week in September 1939. While Schilcher also listened to foreign stations alone, Hubert Anselm admitted to consciously listening in on these broadcasts at least two or three times.
Although they were aware of the ban, they defied the Nazi ordinance, presumably to access uncensored information. This had severe consequences. The Nazi regime pursued the "crime of radio listening" (Rundfunkverbrechen) with extreme severity, as it was seen as a threat to its total control over public information.
Adolf Frena, a mechanic and single, residing in the "Via Nova barracks" in Eichat, was sentenced for these actions on 20 January 1940 by the Special Court (Sondergericht) in Innsbruck for "radio crime" to one year and five months in prison. The sentences for Anselm and Schilcher are not known from the information provided but nonetheless illustrate the brutal arbitrary justice of the regime against seemingly "minor" offences.
Their case is a prime example of resistance from below – the courageous but often fateful attempt by many ordinary people in Nazi Germany and Austria not to be completely absorbed by propaganda.