Zillingdorf‑Bergwerk, Hauptstraße 2 / Kindergarten (laid 2025)
Alois Czipek
Building a resistance group
Alois Czipek was born on 8 September 1914 in Meerbeck, Germany. He grew up in Zillingdorf‑Bergwerk No. 503. At the age of 19, the welding assistant joined the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ). From 1940 onward, he supported the communist resistance in the Rax works as well as in the aircraft factories of Wiener Neustadt. He built a resistance network whose activities extended from Wiener Neustadt to Burgenland. He collected funds to support the families of imprisoned communists and wrote and distributed leaflets calling for resistance against the Nazi regime. At the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942, he painted slogans on streets and buildings in Ebenfurth calling for resistance against Hitler’s war.
(© StAWN, Fotobestand IVM)
He was arrested by the Gestapo in Wiener Neustadt on 9 November 1942 and sentenced to death on 2 June 1943 along with his comrades Josef Blazek, Franz Winkelmann, Karl Bauer, and Gustav Trimmel for “preparation for high treason.”
While Karl Bauer and Gustav Trimmel were later pardoned and received long prison sentences, Alois Czipek was executed on 8 October 1943 at the Vienna Regional Court together with Franz Winkelmann and Josef Blazek. Their graves are located in Group 40 at Vienna Central Cemetery, in the national memorial for resistance fighters against the SS regime.
Gabriele Schlief
(Sources: Karl Flanner, Freiheitskampf; Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance)