Hilde Zimmermann

In 1999, Hilde Zimmermann participated in a lengthy series of interviews with Brigitte Halbmayr for the Ravensbrück Video Archive of the Institute for Conflict Research. The project was entitled, Vom Leben und Überleben–Wege nach Ravensbrück (From Life and Survival-Paths to Ravensbrück). Tina Leisch then led a team of filmmakers in creating a documentary from that interview footage, Dagegen Muss Ich Etwas Tun: Portrait Der Widerstandskämpferin Hilde Zimmermann (I have to do something about that: Portrait of Resistance Fighter Hilde Zimmermann), which was released in 2009.

Meanwhile, she became an even more active member of the Austrian Resistance. By 1944, she was involved with a cell which was partnering with Russian paratroopers who had been sent from Moscow to help expand local anti-Nazi efforts, including hiding and transporting other members of the resistance. That same year, while she and her friend Pauline ("Pauli") Hochmeister were helping to hide Sepp Zettler, a member of the communist resistance, she was betrayed by someone in the community, and arrested, along with her friend and their respective mothers, Anna Wundsam and Gisela Hochmeister. The four were then deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Her brother, Othmar, who had been home on leave from the military, was separated from his family, and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp.

In addition, she co-founded the Österreichische Lagergemeinschaft Ravensbrück & FreundInnen (Austrian Camp Community Ravensbrück & Friends), and spoke regularly to school and community groups about her war-time experiences in order to help youth and adults better understand the economic and social climate which developed in Austria during the 1930s and 1940s.

Hilde (Wundsam) Zimmermann (September 12, 1920 – March 25, 2002), was a member of the Austrian Resistance. Arrested for her efforts to fight fascism, she was deported with her mother and childhood friend by Nazi officials to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany; she then went on to survive both her imprisonment there and a death march.

Born in Vienna, Austria on September 12, 1920, Hilde Wundsam was a daughter of Anna Wundsam. During her formative years, she was raised with her brother, Othmar ("Otti"), in the Kagran section of the city. The city itself was often referred to as "Roten Wien" ("Red Vienna") during this era because the Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria consistently won the majority of elections until 1934 when the Fatherland Front (Austria) took power following the arrest of Mayor Karl Seitz. Her parents were also both arrested that same year. As a result, she and her brother became increasingly involved in anti-fascist activities.