Agnes Primocic (* January 30, 1905 in Hallein; † April 14, 2007 in Hallein) was a resistance fighter, a long-time Communist Party (KPÖ) municipal councilor in Hallein, and an honorary citizen of the city of Hallein.

The former honorary chairwoman of the Salzburg Concentration Camp Association only received the recognition she deserved from official authorities more than fifty years later for her resistance during the Nazi era.

Childhood, Work Experience, and First Political Involvement
Primocic was born the third of six children to Johann Reinthaler and Franziska, née Vöterl, in Hallein, the district capital of the Tennengau region. She grew up in the humble circumstances of a working-class family and began working at the Hallein cigar and tobacco factory at the age of 16. The factory's female workers, known far beyond the region as "Tschikweiber," earned the highest wages in the salt-mining town at the time, even earning more than their male colleagues in the cellulose factory. However, she soon learned about the dark side of this profession in the cigar and tobacco factory, where women were only able to cope with the often inhumane working conditions through solidarity with one another. When she perceived injustice, she vehemently advocated for her female colleagues and, from the age of 25, fought for fair working conditions in the factory as a union member and works council member.

As a member of the Communist Party of Austria, Primocic participated in the "Red Aid" program for families of politically persecuted people in need and, from a very early stage, actively resisted the onset of Austrofascism. During this time, as a works council member, she organized a strike at the tobacco factory and was subsequently dismissed. Because of the possession of a few communist books she had brought back from Russia, a leaflet campaign organized by her then twelve-year-old son, and her brother's political activities, Primocic was imprisoned several times in the period before the Anschluss, spending a total of almost a year in prison.

Resistance to National Socialism
After the German invasion of Austria in 1938, she was repeatedly interrogated by the Gestapo for her political activism and imprisoned three more times until 1945. When her husband, Fortunato Promocic, and their eldest son were drafted into the army at the beginning of World War II, she was forced to promise her husband that she would "maintain political silence." However, Primocic remained active, supporting resistance groups and raising money for the families of those politically persecuted. Although she had to provide for her two other children, she helped the Upper Austrian resistance fighter Josef Plieseis and other prisoners escape from a concentration camp. Years later, she justified her resistance to the National Socialists by saying that she would have been unable to maintain a clear conscience for the rest of her life if she had simply turned a blind eye when people in need asked for her help. "You have to start when injustice occurs, because after injustice comes violence."

Shortly before the end of the Second World War, she risked her own life when, together with her friend Mali Ziegenleder, she put pressure on the commandant of a subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp near Hallein with the impending invasion of American troops. With her courage, she saved more than 17 prisoners who had already been sentenced to death, including the later Hallein police chief Georg "Schani" Staffenberger, from being ordered to be executed.

Her Work After the War
After 1945, Agnes Primocic continued to be politically active, including as state secretary of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) in the city of Salzburg. As a Hallein city councilor for welfare, she was particularly committed to the establishment of kindergartens and the social rights of the working population.

In the early 1980s, already over 75 years old, she visited public schools as part of a project initiated by then-Minister of Education Fred Sinowatz to have resistance fighters talk about their lives in schools, to raise political awareness among young people, and to keep the memory alive.

Media Coverage of Agnes Primocic's Life
In the 1984 documentary film "Kitchen Conversations with Rebels" (directed by Karin Berger, Elisabeth Holzinger, Lotte Podgornik, and Lisbeth N. Trallori), Agnes Primocic was one of the protagonists who spoke about her resistance activities against National Socialism. In 2005, Christine Pramhas and Uli Ramsauer released the film "More Than Life," which chronicles the life of Agnes Primocic. The film documentary "Don't Keep Still When Injustice Happens" (2002) by Uwe Bolius and Robert Angst also focuses on Agnes Primocic, a cigar worker, works council member, and resistance fighter. Director Uwe Bolius, who had previously portrayed Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky in "Memories from the Resistance," attempted to "capture even the strongest emotional impressions in image and sound in such a way that no emotional maudlinness or consternation arises, and to convey that Agnes Primocic's behavior can be traced back to simple motives."

The film begins with a recording from the Hallein municipal council in 2001, when Gerhard Cirlea, a member of the Freedom Party of Austria (now a former member of parliament), openly accused the honorary citizen of falsifying history with the statement "There was no concentration camp in Hallein."

In 2004, Michaela Zehentner published "Don't Keep Still When Injustice Happens. The Memoirs of Agnes Primocic" on behalf of Akzente Salzburg and the Berchtesgadener Land Municipal Youth Work. The book describes the individual stages of her life and includes all the interview material from the 2002 documentary film. The television station ORF broadcast a documentary of the same name about the resistance fighter in 2005.

Honors
The city of Hallein honored Agnes Primocic on June 28, 2000, for her political and social commitment by making her an honorary citizen. In 2000, she was awarded the Troll-Borostyáni Prize and the Cultural Prize for Human Rights and Integration. The state of Salzburg honored her for her efforts against National Socialism with the State's Golden Decoration of Merit, which was presented to her by Governor Gabriele Burgstaller at a ceremony on August 10, 2005.[1] The former tobacco worker lived in a nursing home in her hometown of Hallein until her death.

Featured in the Salzburger Nachrichten
Life

Throughout her life, Agnes Primocic stood up against injustice, injustice, and exclusion. Even as a worker in the former Hallein tobacco factory, she was active in trade union activities.

As one of the now legendary "Tschikweiber" (women in the twenties), she was at the forefront of the fight against social injustice before the Nazi regime and before World War II. As a 16-year-old, she campaigned for fair working conditions in the factory, and from 1933/1934, she participated in the "Red Aid" organization for families of politically persecuted people. She became a member of the Communist Party and actively resisted Austrofascism and then National Socialism.

Her personal memories of this period are reflected in the play "Die Tschikweiber" (The Women in the twenties), staged by the theater group "bodi end sole."

Primocic was imprisoned four times for her "left-wing" activities before the Anschluss to Hitler's Germany. The Nazi regime also persecuted and imprisoned the mother of three children (an illegitimate son born in 1922, two daughters born in 1936 and 1940).

Her rescue of 17 prisoners sentenced to death from the Hallein concentration camp subcamp in the last days of April 1945 became legendary. After the Second World War, Agnes Primocic was active for many years as a Communist Party (KPÖ) councilor in the local politics of the salt-mining town of Hallein.

Her fame as a resistance fighter grew throughout Austria in the 1980s. Following a call from the then Minister of Education, Fred Sinowatz, she spoke in schools about her resistance and her political and personal career. Even as a retired woman, she never tired of raising political awareness among young people and keeping memories of fascism alive as a contemporary witness.

"If I hadn't stood up for the 17 back then, and they had actually been shot, I would never have been happy in my life," she said of the rescue of the persecuted prisoners.

The life and work of this energetic woman have been the subject of television documentaries, films, theater productions, and books.

Original sound
Fighting against injustice always makes sense
Even as a centenarian, she commented on her resistance against the Nazi regime as follows: It is my firm conviction that we must not lose sight of this period, must not forget it. As soon as this period is no longer considered so dangerous for the country, the beginning of a comeback will begin.
Literature
Michaela Zehentner (ed.): Don't stand still when injustice occurs. The memoirs of Agnes Primocic; Akzente Salzburg 2004, ISBN 3-902294-00-0
Karin Berger (ed.): The sky is blue, perhaps. Women in the Resistance, Austria 1938-1945, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-900478058 (with an article about Agnes Primocic)
Ingrid Bauer: "Tschikweiber haums uns g'nennt..." The Cigar Factory Workers of Hallein. Women. Work. History; Berlin: Die Buchmacherei 2015, ISBN 987-3-00-049940-1 (expanded new edition). The book includes a DVD of the film documentary "Don't Keep Still When Injustice Happens" by Uwe Bolius (writer/director) and Robert Angst (production/camera/editing), Austria 2002.

Sources: 

Salzburger Nachrichten (Bernhard Strobl)
Michaela Zehentner (ed.): Don't Stand Still When Injustice Occurs. The Memoirs of Agnes Primocic; Akzente Salzburg 2004, ISBN 3-902294-00-0