The network remained active after the annexation of March 1938, which marked the integration of Austria into an enlarged German state under Hitler. The persecution to which illegal communist cells were subjected by government agencies became more brutish than hitherto. In 1938 Pesendorfer escaped permanent arrest by state authorities in the newly established "Reichsgau Oberdonau" region through what sources term "special political circumstances" (" wegen "besonderer politischer Umstände""). The need for a courier network between the communist and resistance cells in the region became greater than before. Pesendorfer became a focal point for it. Increasingly, over the following few years, it was not just messages that needed to be delivered to secret locations, but also supplies of food, medication, explosives and weapons.