Dr. Wilhelm Alois Josef Zemljak

Wilhelm Zemljak was born in Vienna and attended grammar school there. In 1931, he joins the secondary school fraternity Donaumark Wien and is a member of the youth group of the Heimatschutz. He graduated in physics from the University of Vienna in 1932 and joined the student fraternity Danubia Wien in 1934. In the same year, he became a member of an organization close to the Vaterländische Front and in 1937 a member of the Reichsbund der Österreicher, where he became deputy district chairman of the 'Schwarz-gelben Aktion der Jugend' in Vienna's 2nd district.

On March 12, 1938, Wilhelm Zemljak witnessed the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. The devout Catholic and staunch Austrian refused to accept the occupation of his homeland and became the leader of the legitimist resistance group "Austrian People's Front

This group also maintained contacts with the legitimist Resistance groups Burian [Lieutenant Karl Burian (1896-1944), senior of the monarchist Corps Ottonia] and Hebra [writer Wilhelm Hebra (1885-1944)]. These three groups were soon tracked down and their members arrested by the Gestapo.

Wilhelm Zemljak was arrested on November 9, 1939, initially imprisoned in Vienna Provincial Court, then later transferred to Regensburg via Salzburg and Munich. On July 18, 1944, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for correspondence with a Polish woman. Although the sentence had already been served by the time he was remanded in custody, he was not released, but instead transferred to Dachau concentration camp in September 1944, where he was liberated by the US Army on April 29, 1945.