John Murray PP tells the story of the Austrian farmer, Franz Jägerstätter, who rejected arguments of obedience and his own safety and refused to enlist in the Nazi army: he felt in his conscience what they were doing was evil and he would have no part in it.
No account of the martyrs of the Nazi era can leave out the remarkable story of the Austrian Franz Jägerstätter. His story is both simple and complex. He was born to an unmarried farmer’s maid in 1907 in a village called St Radegund in western Austria. His mother later married Herr Jägerstätter who adopted the young boy.
Conversion
As a teenager Franz gained a reputation as a rather wild young man. He always showed a streak of courage – in the end it cost him his life. But in those early days he would have fought with the village gang against rivals from other villages. He was indeed a drinker, a brawler and a bit of a womanizer.
Yet when he was twenty, he left the village to work in the salt mines some distance away and when he returned about three years later, he had acquired two things – a motor cycle, the first in the village – and a religious faith that made him as pious as before he was wild.
The villagers could scarcely believe it was the same person. He even thought of becoming a priest but the parish priest advised against this, saying that his parents needed him to take over the farm. And this is what he did.
In 1936 he married Francesca, a girl also of deep religious faith, and the pair honeymooned in Rome where they received a blessing from the Pope at a general audience. On his return, Franz settled down to a typical peasant life. He rose very early and worked on the farm, often being heard singing to the cows as he milked them and saying the rosary as he ploughed.
Often he would forego even his breakfast in order to be able to receive Holy Communion, the regular reception of which was not a practice at this time. In addition to his farm and household duties he became sexton of the local parish church and became known for his diligent service.
Opponent of the Nazis
However Franz did not close his eyes to what was happening in the world outside the farm. He believed the Nazis were evil and their wars were unjust. He became known for his opposition to the Nazi regime, casting the only local vote out of over 500 against the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938).
Around that year, he wrote to a friend, ‘Since the death of Christ, almost every century has seen the persecution of Christians; there have always been heroes and martyrs who gave their lives for Christ and their faith. We too, must become heroes of the faith.’
In the meantime, he went about his business, much like others, but with important differences. He had three children and a farm to run, but Franz did not use family needs as an excuse to deviate in the slightest from what was right. He stopped going to taverns, not because he was a teetotaler, but because he got into fights over Nazism.
At the same time, he practised charity to the poor in the village, though he was only a little better than poor himself. The usual custom in the village was to give a donation to the church sexton for his help in arranging funerals and prayer services. Franz refused this, preferring to join with the faithful rather than act as a paid official. The period of self-discipline prepared him for much more demanding sacrifices.
Moment of truth
As the Nazis organised Austria, Jägerstätter had to decide whether to allow himself to be drafted by the German army and thus collaborate with Nazism. When Franz was called to active duty in the military, he sought advice from at least three priests and a bishop. Each appealed to his conscience to assure him that this service was consistent with his Christianity.
First, he was told, he had to consider his family. The other argument was that he had a responsibility to obey legitimate authorities. The political authorities were the ones liable to judgment for their decisions, not ordinary citizens. Franz rejected both arguments. To the core, Franz recoiled at any sense of lies, and so he refused to serve. The consequences of Jägerstätter’s position were obvious: ‘Everyone tells me, of course, that I should not do what I am doing because of the danger of death. I believe it is better to sacrifice one’s life right away than to place oneself in the grave danger of committing sin and then dying.’ Franz was clear he could change nothing in world affairs but he wished `to be at least a sign that not everyone let themselves be carried away with the tide. Francesca, his wife, initially objected to his stance but in the end supported him. ‘If I had not stood by him, he would have had no one,’ she said.
Execution
Jägerstätter was sent to the prison in Linz, where Hitler and Eichmann had lived as children. His Way of the Cross would not be long. In May, he was transferred to a prison in Berlin. On 9 August, 1943, he accepted execution, even though he knew it would make no earthly difference to the Nazi death machine. He and fifteen others were guillotined and forced to lie face-up without a blindfold to watch the blade come down.
Some three years later his ashes were taken back to his village and buried by the church wall in St Radegund where his wife was sacristan for many years after him. A Father Jochmann was the prison chaplain in Berlin and spent some time with Jägerstätter that day. He reports that the prisoner was calm and uncomplaining. He refused any religious material, even a New Testament, because, he said, ‘I am completely bound in inner union with the Lord, and any reading would only interrupt my communication with my God’. Father Jochmann later said of him, ‘I can say with certainty that this simple man is the only saint I have ever met in my lifetime.’
On 1 June 2007 Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree recognising Franz Jägerstätter as a martyr. This means that his beatification process will begin immediately and we should see him declared a Blessed in the not too distant future.
This article first appeared in The Messenger (September 2007), a publication of the Irish Jesuits.
