Theater play remembers

Theater remembers “Anna” in the resistance

All was still right with the world back then: Maria Peskoller picking blackberries in the Görtschach meadows in East Tyrol in 1936.

(Bild: Helga Emperger)

Maria Peskoller, who paid for her fight for freedom with her life, is the focus of a play in East Tyrol. 80 years after the end of the Second World War, her story has been brought to life for the stage.

"My dear husband and children! ... We must part forever... Become decent people, as I was... Now the letter is coming to an end, my life too... Many 1000 kissies" were some of the last words that Maria Peskoller wrote to her family on December 23, 1944, the day of her execution in Graz Provincial Court.

She was born Maria Greil on December 5, 1902 in Dölsach and last lived in Villach, where a path was named after her in the St. Ruprecht district in 2020.

(Bild: Helga Emperger)

What had happened in the 42 years before? Born Maria Greil on December 5, 1902 in Görtschach near Dölsach in East Tyrol, she grew up in a conservative and religious farming family, married railroad worker Josef Peskoller in 1928, gave birth to daughters Helga and Roswitha and moved to Villach with her family in 1932. Politically, Maria was a blank slate.

Persecution after Austrofascism
When Engelbert Dollfuss eliminated parliament in 1934, the family was persecuted because Josef Peskoller was a member of the Social Democratic Party. He was put into "temporary retirement"; Josef then joined the Communist Party, which was illegal and punished with eight months in prison. Maria kept her family afloat during his imprisonment by doing housework and tailoring.

"Anna" was a member of the Treffner partisans
Josef was arrested by the Nazis in Villach in 1940. Maria became active in the resistance. Under the code name "Anna", she had contacts with partisans in Leoben-Donawitz, partisans in Carinthia, escaped forced laborers, Wehrmacht deserters... Their task was to pass on political news and distribute leaflets. In 1944, Peskoller took in Erich Ranacher, a wounded deserter from Lienz, and nursed him back to health.

On November 11, 1944, Maria and her two daughters were arrested. Maria's life was ended the day before Christmas Eve. By the guillotine. 

80 years later, a play about "Anna" is created
80 years after the end of the Second World War, the Theaterwerkstatt Dölsach is bringing this life story to the stage. 

'Anna and the Partisans' tells the story of how, in the hysteria of an end time with human sacrifice, the hope is to save a system whose demise has long since been sealed.

Ekkehard Schönwiese, Theaterwissenschafter, Volkskundler, Autor, Regisseur

"The memory of these resistance movements should not paint a one-sided picture in a whitewashed and glorifying way," says chairman Wolfgang Michor. From a distance and after extensive research, theater scholar and folklorist Ekkehard Schönwiese has written a play that he is staging for the premiere on May 10 at the Tirolerhof in Dölsach: "Anna and the Partisans".

"Anna and the partisans"

Theater in the Kultursaal Tirolerhof in Dölsach in East Tyrol. World premiere on May 10.

Further performances on May 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25, all at 8 pm.

Erna Inwinkl is directing the Theaterwerkstatt project. There will be 16 actors on stage in the setting created by sculptor Lois Fasching.