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with God Franz Jägerstätter What can I write about Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer who was beheaded by the Nazis on August 9, 1943? Many so-called facts are now known but, as Bishop Thomas Gumbleton points out, they can be interpreted in various ways, never, however, approaching the truth itself of the man. One sees, for example, in the accounts left by John Dear, a certain literary license intrudes. Again, the believer poses the question to himself: What is the truth of Jägerstätter? One can immediately see from the Jägerstätter documents published by Gordon Zahn in his remarkable book, In Solitary Witness, Jägerstätter thought coherently and clearly. The first document is titled: “On the Question of Our day: Catholic or Nazi?” Jägerstätter points out that “There are only two alternatives possible: participation in the National Socialist Folk Community . . .” or to gain salvation as a Catholic. He says
Jägerstätter placed a lot of importance on the Anschluss of March 13, 1938, and the plebiscite in which 99.75% of the people of Austria voted in favor of union with Germany. In the referendum of April 10, 1938 Jägerstätter voted NO! Over and over Jägerstätter’s perception and logic are admirable. For example, he wrote:
Jägerstätter also wrote these words in what Gordon Zahn calls “The Prison Statement.”
Jägerstätter speaks also of the pain inflicted on his family
And then there are the facts . . . On May 20, 1907, Franz was born to an unmarried farmer’s maid, Rosalia Huber. She and the child’s father, who was killed in World War I, were too poor to get married. Later, his mother married Heinrich Jägerstätter, who adopted the child and whose name henceforth was Jägerstätter. At the parish church of St. Radegund, a place with about 500 persons in the diocese of Linz, Austria, Franz Jägerstätter was baptized; here he married, and here his three children, Maria, Aloisia and Rosalia were also christened. In his wife, Franziska—they were married in 1936—he had an understanding companion; their strong mutual relationship and love were a crucial human support in the crises before and during his imprisonment. Bishop Gumbleton writes:
Only in the Linz prison did Jägerstätter learn that others, too, had refused military service. He also learned that an Austrian priest, Franz Reinisch, had been a conscientious objector on the same grounds as Jägerstätter. He was in the prison at Linz in March and April of 1943. At the beginning of May he was transferred to Berlin-Tegel. His main trial occurred on July 6, 1943. On August 9, 1943, he was taken from Berlin to Brandenburg-Havel, and was beheaded at 4 in the afternoon. Bishop Gumbleton has said:
Before the execution, Fr. Jochmann, the chaplain from Brandenburg, spent considerable time with Jägerstätter and was very impressed by the condemned man’s calmness and composure. For example, when offered a New Testament, Jägerstätter refused, and is reported as saying, “I am completely bound in inner union with the Lord.” That evening the chaplain told some Austrian nuns that Jagerstätter was the only saint he had met in his life. He is survived by his wife and three daughters, the eldest of whom was six at the time of her father’s execution. On May 7, 1997, the district court of Berlin reversed the death sentence against Jägerstätter. Various books, articles and at least one documentary movie have appeared. But Gordon Zahn, with his book, In Solitary Witness, published in 1964, over twenty years after the execution of Jägerstätter is, perhaps, the news that generated subsequent interest in Jägerstätter. Jagerstätter received a photo in his Berlin prison of his three daughters. They are holding up a large sign. It says: Lieber Vater komm bild! (Dear father, come soon!) Lee Hoinacki |
