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NGO 7000 > Hardcore Catholics > Hardcore Catholics. Franz Jägerstätter.
Jägerstätter
By 15.09.2023 Hardcore Catholics 110 Comments

Hardcore Catholics. Franz Jägerstätter.

Franz Jägerstätter was born in the small village of Sankt Radegund, Upper Austria. He was the illegitimate child of a maidservant, Rosalia Huber, and Franz Bachmeier, a farmer. His father died during World War I, and his mother remarried Franz Jägerstätter when he was ten. Although Franz was a good student and an avid reader, he was also a troublemaker, often involved in fights, and was arrested once. He was even banned from his village for having an illegitimate daughter with Theresia Auer.

Franz was the first to own a bike in Sankt Radegund

When Franz returned from his exile in 1936, he married a devout Catholic girl, Franziska Schwaninger, on Holy Thursday. On their honeymoon, they went to Rome and received a papal blessing from Pope Pius XI. Marriage transformed his life – he had three daughters and started attending Mass. When his younger daughter was born in 1938, the Nazis invaded Austria.

Wedding foto of Franz and Franzishka
Wedding foto of Franz and Franzishka

Catholics rejected the NSDAP for their eugenics and racial theories. Johannes Maria Gföllner was the Bishop of Linz from 1915 to 1941, and he released a letter that was read in every church of his diocese. It stated:

“Nazism is spiritually sick with materialistic racial delusions, un-Christian nationalism, a nationalistic view of religion, with what is quite simply sham Christianity; we, therefore, reject its religious program. All convinced Catholics must reject and condemn it.

For if, as Pope Pius XI has declared, ‘it is impossible to be both a good Catholic and a true Socialist,’ then it is also impossible to be both a good Catholic and a true Nazi.”

As a result of Bishop Gföllner’s firm stance on Nazism, the number of priests who were imprisoned in concentration camps without a trial was particularly high. Forty priests from the Diocese of Linz were sent to concentration camps compared to only nine priests from the Archdiocese of Vienna, which was twice as large.

Johannes Maria Gföllner, Bishop of Linz
Johannes Maria Gföllner, Bishop of Linz

Franz Jägerstätter was proposed by the Nazis to become the mayor of St. Radegund, but he refused. He was deeply concerned with the question whether someone could be a Nazi and a Catholic at the same time. In January 1938, he had a dream in which he saw a fine railway train driving around a mountain. Not only adults but even children were flocking towards this train, and the crowd could hardly be held back, but few adults stayed aside. Suddenly, a voice said to Franz, ‘This train is going to hell,’ and in the next moment, he was shown great suffering in purgatory. Later, Franz understood that the train represented the Nazi Party and the cars symbolized all the organizations that supported them.

Illustration of Franz's dream
Illustration of Franz’s dream

Franz was shocked to witness how Austrian youth flocked to join Hitler Jugend, Catholics and Catholic organizations donated to the Nazi Winterhilfswerk (Winter Relief Organization), and Nazi party members attended communion, although it was officially forbidden by the Church. Later in his letters from prison, he asked not to throw stones at bishops and priests who had surrendered to Nazi ideology:

“Let’s not make it even harder than it already is for them by accusing them. Rather, let us pray for them, that God may lighten the great task that lies ahead of them.”

On April 10, 1938, the Nazis staged a popular vote in Austria to join Germany, although it was just a fig leaf for Nazi annexation. Franz had not intended to take part in the sham, but he was pressured by other villagers and even by his wife, Franziska, to attend, while everyone already feared Nazi persecution. Franz was the only person to vote NO, although it did not matter as the majority voted favorably.

“Holy Thursday for us Austrians was that darkest of days, April 10, 1938. On that day, the Austrian Church let itself be taken prisoner and has been lying in chains ever since, and until that ‘Yes.’”

Voting ballot of the Anschluss referendum with Germany, Austria April 10th, 1938

Hardcore Catholics. Franz Jägerstätter.

In June 1940, Franz was conscripted into the German Armed Forces. On July 10, 1940, Father Josef Karobath of St. Radegund was arrested for preaching a sermon against the Nazi regime. Franziska fell ill, and the Mayor arranged for Franz to come home, but he was conscripted for the second time in October, and again the authorities at St. Radegund pushed for Franz’s exemption on the grounds of his “reserved civilian occupation” as a farmer. During his time in the army, he witnessed the Nazi euthanasia program:

“Ybbs is a very beautiful town on the Danube; there’s quite a large mental asylum here, which used to be full of patients, but now probably even the mad have become sane, because there are no longer very many of them in the asylum. As one farmer told us here where we’re quartered, it seems that some very sad things have already happened here.”

Психіатричний шпиталь в Іббсі на Дунаї. 2282 пацієнтів було вивезено і вбито у газових камерах Гартгаймського замку.
Ybbs Psychiatric Hospital. 2282 patients were moved to Hartheim killing center and killed there.
Franz_Jagerstatter in the army

During his military service, Franz took care of horses. When his superior found out that Franz wanted to attend Mass, he assigned him to guard the horses on Sunday mornings. One day before Jägerstätter’s regiment was moved from Enns, he was ceremoniously vested as a novice of the Third Order of St. Francis, together with the soldier Rudolf Mayer.

After returning from military service in April 1941, Vicar Ferdinand Fürthauer invited Franz to become a sacristan. Jägerstätter attended Mass daily, combining the church service with farm work.

Franz contemplated further on the question of whether a Christian could be obedient to the Nazi regime. He wrote to his brother in the Third Order, Rudolf Mayer. He even went to meet the new bishop, Fliesser, who replaced the deceased Bishop Gföllner in 1941 in Linz. He asked uncomfortable questions:

When did church leaders decide to obey anything that the Nazi Party or government orders? Can German soldiers who have lost their lives fighting for the victory of Nazism be declared heroes and saints? Why should whatever the crowd is shouting and doing now be regarded as righteous and good?

Of course, Bishop Fliesser was very cautious. The arrests of priests in the Linz diocese were high, and Nazi spies were monitoring his sermons and correspondence. So Franz was very sad after the meeting, not hearing any decisive answers. The only thing the bishop advised him was to make the care for his family the prime goal.

Second Draft to Wehrmacht and Death

Franz Jägerstätter received his conscription papers for the German Armed Forces on February 23, 1943. On Sunday, February 28th, at about 6:15 a.m., Franz Jägerstätter arrived in Enns. On the morning of March 2nd, he reported there again and stated his refusal to serve; on the same day, he was arrested. On May 4th, he was transferred from there to Berlin-Tegel. On July 6th, Franz Jägerstätter was sentenced to death by the Second Senate of the Reich Court-Martial in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The sentence was confirmed on July 14th. On August 9th, 1943, Franz Jägerstätter was taken to Brandenburg/Havel, where at about 4 p.m., he was beheaded.

The reason for his sentence was as follows:

“He stated that he would be acting against his religious conscience were he to fight for the National Socialist (Nazi) State. He likewise adopted this stance of refusal under questioning by the Head of Investigation of the Court of Division No. 487 in Linz. However, he stated that he was willing to serve as a military paramedic out of Christian brotherly love.”

While in Berlin, Father Ferdinand Fürthauer tried to convince Franz to enlist in the military, but it was in vain. Franz would not compromise his faith, saying,

“I have such great faith in God’s loving mercy, that my beloved Savior, who’s never forsaken me till now, won’t forsake me in the final hour, nor our beloved Mother in Heaven.”

Фото надіслане Францу до в'язниці. Доньки тримають плакат з написом "Дорогий тату повертайся швидше!"
Foto sent to Franz in prison. His daughters hold a placard – “Dear father return home!”

Prison chaplain Kreutzberg spent long hours discussing the moral aspect of Franz’s choice. One day, he told him about a priest, Franz Reinisch, who was executed for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to Hitler. This provided Jägerstätter with much consolation. Franz Jägerstätter was beheaded in Brandenburg at about 4 p.m. on August 9th. In his last letter, he wrote,

“May God accept my life as a sacrifice of atonement, not just for my sins, but also for those of others.”

After his death, Franziska was denied any child aid and had to work hard on the farm to survive.

In June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued an apostolic exhortation declaring Jägerstätter a martyr. On October 26, 2007, he was beatified in a ceremony held by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Linz. His feast day is celebrated on the day of his baptism, May 21st.

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