Pottendorfer Straße 121 (laid 2013)
Herbert Hochmann
A comrade‑in‑arms of Karl Flanner
Herbert Hochmann, born 15 September 1921 in Wiener Neustadt, stonemason apprentice.
Arrested and convicted of high treason. Drafted into a penal military unit and killed on 1 January 1943 near Stalingrad.
(© StAWN, IVM photo collection)
In several factories in Wiener Neustadt, small cells of three to five members formed, collecting contributions used to produce illegal newspapers or leaflets, or to support the families of arrested comrades — often also the families of those executed. The first group to organize consisted of former members of the Social Democratic youth organizations, which had been banned in 1934. They formed the Communist Youth Association (KJV) and had considerable combat experience from the years before the “Anschluss.” In 1938, youth leaders Karl Flanner and Johann Schügerl from Wiener Neustadt, Johann Kaiser from Bad Fischau, and Josef Sasso from Winzendorf decided to organize the KJV, establish cells and support points in factories, and print their own youth newspaper and leaflets.
The group’s activities came to an abrupt end when a trusted member turned out to be an informant and provided the Gestapo with information. The leadership of the organization was arrested during the night of 22–23 August 1939, and the printing operation was seized. By early October 1939, a total of 29 people had been arrested. The trial took place in October 1940. The defendants received multi‑year prison sentences for high treason.
Herbert Hochmann was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for producing and distributing a propaganda newspaper with communist content. Afterward, he and four others were drafted into the notorious penal unit 999, which was deployed in various combat zones as a suicide battalion. Herbert Hochmann was killed during their deployment near Stalingrad on 1 January 1943.
Anton Blaha, based on Resistance in the Wiener Neustadt Region 1938–1945 by Karl Flanner and People’s Court records