We are honoured to welcome historian Robert Lackner to the Austrian Cultural Forum for a captivating evening shedding light on a little-known chapter of British-Austrian relations:
the stories of Jewish and political refugees from Austria who escaped the Nazi regime, finding shelter in the United Kingdom. There, many went on to join the British Army, including elite units that operated behind enemy lines.
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, this event honours the remarkable contributions of these exiled Austrians. Their stories, only now coming to light through recently declassified documents, offer a unique perspective on courage, resistance, and survival.
Join us for a fascinating and in-depth insight into recent historical research!
The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session moderated by Tim Schmalz.
About the research project:
Short digital biographies and data base on refugees from Austria in Nr. 3 Troop, No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando during Word War II
Great Britain was one of the most important places of refuge for Austrians who were forced into exile by the National Socialist terror regime. For various reasons, many of them wanted to contribute to Britain's war effort against Hitler's Germany during the Second World War. However, as so-called “enemy aliens,” they were not particularly trusted by their host country and initially only allowed to serve in the Pioneer Corps. It was not until 1943 that - male - refugees were able to join almost all units of the British army.
A small number of Austrian emigrants, however, had taken a special route to fight against the Nazis. With the No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando, the British set up a unit around 1,000 men, to give exiles from various countries the opportunity to take part in raids and special operations. The No. 3 (Miscellanoeaous) Troop was made up of almost exclusively Germans and Austrians. Their origins were concealed, so that their members were given aliases and fake family histories, which often caused confusion among other British soldiers they encountered (due to their often strong accents).
As part of this research project, all the names and basic biographical data of the approximately 40 Austrian commando soldiers, some of whom carried out spectacular missions, were researched and documented in a database. In addition, short biographies and a contextualizing essay on emigration, recruitment, and wartime service of the individuals concerned were compiled.
The research results are accessible here.
Robert Lackner is a postdoc researcher at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on Consequences of War in Graz, Austria. His main fields of interest include the World Wars, migration, as well as intelligence services. He is also a novelist and has published his first thriller in September 2025.
Tim Schmalz is Head of History at Radley College in Oxfordshire. He is an expert on Austria in the 1930s, having completed his PhD at Cambridge on Austrian-British diplomacy during the Dollfuß-Schuschnigg regime.
