36. The Inmates Arm Themselves and Ally With the German Army
In the meantime, back at Itter Castle, the German commandant and guards had abandoned the prison. The inmates seized the castle, and armed themselves with weapons that the absconding guards had left behind. Not knowing what had become of Cuckovic, the inmates sent another prisoner to nearby Worgl. There, he made contact with the Austrian resistance, led by a German Army Major Josef “Sepp” Gangl, who had joined the resistance in the war’s last days, along with some of his soldiers.
Gangl and the Austrian resistance were trying to protect Worgl’s townspeople from reprisals by the SS. Nazi diehards were firing at any building displaying a white flag or Austrian banner, and summarily executing males in civilian uniform, on suspicion that they were deserters. When it seemed to Major Gangl that advancing American troops were taking too long to reach them, he set out to find and hurry them along.
