From Soldier to Resistance Fighter: The Story of Hermes Massimo

Early Life and Opposition

Dr. Hermes Massimo was born on January 14, 1915, in Innsbruck. He attended the Franciscan Gymnasium (high school) in Hall in Tirol. As a Jesuit frater, he was actively involved with the parish youth group in Arzl near Innsbruck and was known as an opponent of National Socialism. On June 28, 1939, the local Nazi party leader in Arzl reported him to the Innsbruck district leadership.
In September 1939, he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht. The mountain infantry company he was assigned to was sent to Norway, from Traufors (central Norway) to Kautokeino, deep into the tundras of Northern Norway, in Lapland. His comrades knew he was not a National Socialist and rejected the ideology. While there were no open political debates among the soldiers, even though some holders of the "Blood Order" (a high Nazi award) were serving as non-commissioned officers in the company, Hermes was subjected to taunts from his comrades, who called him an "ideological failure." He did not believe his comrades who warned him that a group of SA and SS men within the company were planning to bring him before a court-martial.

Court-Martial and Conviction

Nevertheless, on March 30, 1941, he was brought before a court-martial in Dalberg. The Nazi authorities had thoroughly researched Massimo Hermes's background. During the trial, they presented him with photographs showing him with the parish youth group in Innsbruck-Arzl, where he had worked before being drafted. They also held against him that his older brother had been a sergeant in the Austrian army before 1938, had refused to swear the oath of allegiance to the Führer after the Anschluss, and had consequently been court-martialed. Furthermore, his mother had refused to sell pictures of Hitler and postcards with Nazi themes in her stationery shop on Anichstraße in Innsbruck, for which she was arrested by the Gestapo, and the shop was rented out to a National Socialist.

The charges against Massimo in Norway were:

1. He had claimed that war would break out between Germany and Russia.
2. He had stated that the National Socialists had murdered [Engelbert] Dollfuß.
3. He had influenced Norwegian women by warning them about German soldiers, advising them to avoid and reject them.
4. He had given 1 kg of chocolate to a Norwegian instead of sharing it with his comrades.
5. He had misused his official travels to advise employees of the Norwegian fur monopoly to significantly increase the prices for silver foxes.
6. In the Kautokeino area, he had caused the price of hand-knitted woolen goods (gloves, sweaters) to increase.
7. He had advised the Sami people to charge higher prices for transports with reindeer sleds and boats.
8. He had also recommended that they not sell reindeer for slaughter.

​Hermes Massimo was sentenced to four years in prison for "undermining military morale" and "serious breach of comradeship."

Secret Resistance Work

What the court-martial did not know was that Massimo Hermes had joined a resistance group consisting of officers and NCOs in Wörgl as early as September 1939, while he was a recruit. In Norway, he had made contact with the resistance group of the Royal Guard via the then-Bishop of Trondheim and a student named Kosmo. Had this been discovered, it would have meant a death sentence for him.
After serving six months of his prison sentence, he was assigned to a penal company. Following combat deployments on the front lines in Norway and Russia, he returned to Tyrol severely wounded.

Post-War Life

During a hospital stay in Innsbruck in 1944/45, he joined the Austrian resistance movement and participated in preparations for the liberation of Innsbruck. This group included Lieutenant Steiner, Major Schneeberger, and Dr. Karl Gruber. His brother, Pius Massimo, also fought for Austria's freedom and was used as a liaison for recruiting troops in the Landeck barracks.
After the war ended, following extended hospital treatments, he began studying philosophy at the University of Innsbruck. He earned his doctorate (Dr. phil.) in 1949 with a dissertation titled "Der Begriff des Wagnisses bei Sören Kierkegaard" ("The Concept of Risk in Søren Kierkegaard"). He worked as a librarian at the Austrian Patent Office.