Franz Jägerstätter
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Franz Jägerstätter (May 20, 1907 — August 9, 1943) was an Austrian conscientious objector.
Franz Jägerstätter was born in St. Radegund, Austria, a small village near Salzburg and Braunau am Inn.
His natural father was killed in World War I when he was still a child, and when his mother married, her child was adopted by her husband.
In his youth, Franz had gained a reputation for being a wild fellow, but, in general, his daily life was like that of most Austrian peasants.
In 1936, he married a girl from a nearby village, and they went to Rome on their honeymoon. A Catholic by birth, he experienced a religious Awakening - apparently about the time of his marriage –and later served as sexton of his parish church.
When Hitler´s troops moved into Austria in 1938, Jägerstätter was the only person in the village to vote against the Anschluss. Although he was not involved with any political organization, and did undergo one brief period of military training, he remained openly anti-Nazi, and publicly declared he would not fight in Hitler's war.
After many delays, Jägerstätter was called to active duty in February, 1943 by this time he had three daughters, the eldest not quite six. He maintained his position against fighting for the Third Reich, and was imprisoned, first at Linz, then at Berlin. After a military trial, he was beheaded on August 9, 1943.
[edit] Literature
- Gordon Zahn, In Solitary Witness. The life and death of Franz Jägerstätter. Templegate Publishers, Springfield, Illinois 1964, ISBN 087243141X
- Andreas Maislinger, Franz Jägerstätter. In: Conquering the Past. Austrian Nazism Yesterday & Today. Edited by Fred Parkinson. Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1989.
- Andreas Maislinger, Franz Jägerstätter and Leopold Engleitner. In: Bernhard Rammerstorfer, Unbroken Will. The Extraordinary Courage of an Ordinary Man. The Story of Leopold Engleitner. Grammaton Press. New Orleans 2004. ISBN 0967936640
