In 1936 Rosa Hofmann began to engage with a socialist youth group at which had been set up as an abstinence society in order to disguise its political nature from the authorities. The group organised meetings that featured "political lectures". Other leading participants were Anna Reindl, Maria Langwieser and Emelie Schrempf. Following the integration of Austria into Nazi Germany and the outbreak of another war, during the summer or autumn/fall of 1940, through her friend the carpenter , Rosa Hofmann came into contact with the (illegal) &lt;a href="Communist%20Youth%20of%20Austria"&gt;Young Communists ("Kommunistischen Jugendverbands" / KJV)&lt;/a&gt;. With Anna Reindl she set up a new "women's cell" in the organisation. In September 1941, after had been conscripted into the army, Hofmann, still without a "proper job", took over the leadership of the KJV in Salzburg.