Individual Fate: Johann Oberleitner – A Man from Solbad Hall Who Paid for Resistance with His Freedom

During the years of the Nazi dictatorship, even seemingly small acts of resistance were courageous. The fate of Johann Oberleitner from Solbad Hall is an example of this.
Johann Oberleitner, a retired pensioner of the Reichsbahn (German National Railway), lived at Schmiedgasse No. 30. He was a convinced communist and a member of the Old Catholic Church – both convictions that placed him in sharp opposition to Nazi ideology.
His crime in the eyes of the regime: listening to so-called "enemy broadcasts". During World War II, listening to foreign radio stations, such as the BBC, was strictly forbidden. The Nazi regime feared nothing more than the truth and the spread of uncensored news. Anyone caught risked draconian punishments.
Oberleitner was denounced and brought to trial. On October 10, 1939, he was convicted of "high treason" by the Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) in Vienna. The charges were severe, and the judiciary was a compliant tool of Nazi rule. The sentence was two years and eight months in a penitentiary (Zuchthaus).
This prison sentence meant not only the loss of freedom but also hard labor and degrading treatment under inhumane conditions. His case is representative of thousands of Austrians and Germans who, out of political conviction or simply a desire for information, risked their lives and were brutally punished for it.
Johann Oberleitner's story reminds us that the value of press and information freedom and the right to one's own opinion are never a given. They were and are fought for and defended by courageous people like him.

​We remember Johann Oberleitner and all victims of Nazi unjust justice.