🚶🏽‍♂️ Silvester Heider Memorial

Uphill hike through a pine forest, somewhat steep in the beginning. Start from the Pass Hiaslegg (altitude: ~1154m) and finish at the Silvester Heider Memorial (altitude: ~1405m).

Silvester Heider? Imagine the year 1943, WWII, Third Reich, mountains of the so called "Ostmark" (no Austria anymore!). During these dark times one of the few organized resistance groups on the Austrian soil was active in what is nowadays the Upper Styria region - the heart of iron ore and steel industry and - during the WWII - also the weaponry components industry. After a number of successful actions which disrupted the industrial logistic chains, several resistance members - Silvester Heider among them - lost their lives on 1944-06-22 for the ideals in which they believed. That happened at the place where this video ends. The inscription on the memorial says: "An dieser Stelle ist am 22.6.1944 Silvester Heider geb. 9.12.1905 als österr. Freiheitskämpfer gefallen".

Although regarded as traitors of the fatherland for much too long and much too oft, the resistance members actually wrote bright moments of the Austrian history. More about Austrian resistance in Wikipedia (in German). This video was taken in June 2022, just before the memorial hike, which takes place every year.

More of my videos: Playlist about the Leoben region (central Austria, EU).