In the initial phase, when DÖW staff felt constrained to provide proof of the historical contribution of Austrian resistance in the face of spiteful and hostile attacks, the most important task consisted in preparing documents and historical texts as the basis of historical research.

Resistance and Persecution in the Austrian Federal States

was the first large project of the DÖW whereby the historical texts and documents were (and still are) expanded on a massive scale. The annotated DÖW publications of sources contain an impressive range of the collected documents and create the foundations for further research on a local/regional level.At the present time a total of 13 volumes have appeared (Vienna, Burgenland, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg and Tyrol; with a further 3 volumes on Styria in process).

In addition to these source publications, an oral history project was completed containing over 2,700 tapes, more than 900 interviews and four volumes of memoirs documenting the resistance and persecution of the labour movement, the Catholic-conservatives, the Jews and the Carinthian Slovenians.

In 2003 DÖW started investigating the fate of all Austrians who fell victim to political persecution from 1938 to 1945.

Memorials and Remembrance

In conjunction with this project memorials and memorial sites in the Austrian States encompassing the area of resistance and persecution from 1934–1945 as well as exile and liberation are documented and recorded. The first volume was published in 1998 and encompassed the memorial landscape in Vienna. An additional volume followed in 2001. By utilising the experince of these first volumes, another three States’ memorials - Lower Austria (published in 2011), Burgenland and Styria -  were recorded and documented.

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