Österreichische Freiheitsfront The Österreichische Freiheitsfront ( ) was an antifascist organization created by Austrian and German communist refugees in Brussels during the Second World War occupation of Belgium by Nazi Germany . It took an active part in the Belgian Resistance . History . Allied to the Front de l ' Indépendance , a resistance network with a strong communist component , the main mission of the " Österreichische Freiheitsfront " was publishing and spreading leaflet s in German . Among these was the periodical " Die Wahrheit " ( The Truth ) , which contained messages from the British and Free Polish radios , inciting the German soldiers to desert . A member of the organization , Régine Krochmal , explained that the approaching technique was to ask a soldier for time in German , then begin to chat with him . If he was found open to criticism of the Nazi régime , an appointment was fixed in order to give him leaflets to spread . Such an act could lead to the death penalty for those caught . According to another survivor , Jakob Zanger , the weekly circulation of " Die Wahrheit " , " Österreichische Freiheitsfront " , and from 1943 " Freies Österreich " surpassed 12 , 000 , of which 9 , 000 were distributed outside Brussels . Copies were left in airports , movie theaters and other places frequented by German soldiers , to ensure a maximal circulation . The newspaper of the Austrian Communist Party , " Rote Fahne " ( Red Flag ) , was clandestinely printed in Belgium on cigarette paper and transported to Austria . Among the members of the " Österreichische Freiheitsfront " was Jean Améry ( pseudonym of Hans Mayer , 1912 – 1978 ) , an Austrian Catholic writer of Jewish origin . He was arrested in 1943 and deported to Auschwitz - Monowitz . Toward the end of 1943 or beginning of 1944 , a company of Austrian partisans was created , under the aegis of which Erich Ungar , a teacher and physical chemist , made bombs and explosives . Arms and munitions were obtained by attacking German soldiers , since , according to Zanger , the British only armed " white " partisans , who in practice hardly fought at all , and not " red " ( communist ) partisans . In 1944 , the " Österreichische Freiheitsfront " counted 750 members , and the president of the executive committee was Karl Przibram ( b . 21 December 1878 , Vienna , d . 10 August 1973 , Vienna ) , who had arrived in Belgium with his wife at the beginning of 1939 with the intention of emigrating to England but was prevented by the German invasion of 1940 . After the liberation , Przibram ' s prestige was so great that he performed the duties of " chargé d ' affaires " for Austrian citizens in anticipation of reestablishment of consular and diplomatic authorities . Irma Schwager , an Austrian antifascist militant from France , writes that she returned to Belgium after the liberation of Paris to help the Austrian antifascist raise the " Österreichische Freiheitsfront " , whose leadership derived from diverse affiliations : social democrats , communists , monarchists and apolitical s . After the liberation of Belgium , some of the Austrian resistance fighters joined their comrades who had fought in France and who had fled to Switzerland to form a battalion of Austrian partisans in Yugoslavia under the leadership of Max Bair . Four other battalions of partisans were subsequently formed , recruited from among prisoners of war and the " Strafdivision 999 " under the leadership of Fürnberg and Honner .