Oberleutnant Rudolf Alois Raschke

Photo von Oberleutnant Rudolf Raschke — Oberleutnant Rudolf Raschke (ÖStA)

Personalia

Born:

June 21, 1923, Penk

Died:

April 8, 1945, Vienna

Profession:

Soldier and tax official

Persecution:

Detention 06.04.1945 - 08.04.1945,
Murdered on 08.04.1945

Memberships

Operation Radetzky

Curriculum Vitae

Rudolf Alois Raschke was born in Penk in Carinthia, the legitimate son of railroad official Karl Raschke and Maria, née Glawar. After his father became a railroad official, the Raschke family moved into a staff apartment at Bleiburg station. After elementary school in Bleiburg, Rudolf Raschke attended secondary school in Klagenfurt. In 1937, he transferred to the commercial academy.

On March 12, 1938, pupil Rudolf Raschke witnessed the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. In September 1939, he transferred to the Reich Finance School in Leitmeritz [today: Litoměřice in the Czech Republic]. He graduated there in March 1940 and was offered a job as a finance officer.

[...] The experience on the Western Front, the monstrous loss of material, the great losses of the Wehrmacht, the disorganization of the troops in which even the Leibstandarte had left the front in a hurry and the Western Wall was overrun in two days, shook his confidence in the Wehrmacht. His patriotism towards Austria came to the fore and he wanted to save his homeland Austria from unnecessary sacrifices by participating in the freedom movement. [...]

Military Science Department of the BMfLV 1982

On January 15, 1945, Rudolf Raschke, who had meanwhile been appointed first lieutenant, had to return to the military hospital due to his injury. On February 8, 1945, he was again assigned to the Vienna General Command (Wehrkreiskommandos XVII) due to his injury, this time to the department of Major Carl Szokoll.

Major Carl Szokoll leads a resistance group of Austrians within the Army District Command XVII. In the spring of 1945, this group plans the 'Operation Radetzky', the aim of which is to support the Red Army in the liberation of Vienna and thus prevent major destruction.

However, the 'Operation Radetzky' planned for 6 April 1945 is betrayed. Lieutenant Rudolf Raschke is arrested on April 6, 1945 in the building of the Vienna Wehrkreiskommando XVII at Universitätsstraße 7, but is acquitted at the subsequent stand trial against Karl Biedermann together with Alfred Huth. However, on the orders of Reichsverteidigungskommissar Generaloberst der Waffen-SS Sepp Dietrich, Rudolf Raschke and Alfred Huth were brought before an SS and police court and sentenced to death on April 8, 1945.

On the same day, he was publicly hanged with Captain Alfred Huth and Major Karl Biedermann at the Floridsdorfer Spitz in Vienna. Rudolf Mildner, head of the Vienna Security Police and SD, personally took command of the execution site. The Viennese Gestapo officer and SS-Obersturmführer Franz Kleedorfer carries out the execution. A plaque with the inscription: "I have made a pact with the Bolsheviks!" is affixed to Rudolf Raschke's chest.