Following the abolition of democracy in 1933/34 and the crushing of the labor movement in February 1934, particularly leading officials of the Social Democrats, the Communists, the outlawed union- and youth organizations as well as those activists and members of the Republikanischer Schutzbund (Republican Defense League), who had actively participated in the February fights, had to escape. Mostly they sought refuge in Czechoslovakia, where the foreign headquarters of the Social Democrats and the Communists had been established, and in the Soviet Union. There disillusionment of the refugees soon followed suit. Hundreds of people, children among them, fell victim to Stalinist cleansing.
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Members of the Austrian Schutzbund (Defense Corps), who had sought refuge in Czechoslovakia, during an excursion.
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After February 1934, Gustav Deutsch, son of the former Austrian Defense Minister and Defense Corps leader Julius Deutsch, escaped via Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Union.
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