Franz Jägerstätter (1907-1943) at ID photo, circa 1942, https://www.lovecrucified.com/franz-jagerstatter
Bienheureux Franz
Jägerstätter
Martyr du nazisme (+ 1943)
Franz Jägerstätter
(1907-1943), martyr du nazisme, béatifié le 26 octobre 2007 à Linz en Autriche
(la ville de naissance d’Adolf Hitler). Homélie du Card. José Saraiva
Martins à l'occasion de la béatification du serviteur de Dieu Franz
Jägerstätter (26 octobre 2007) [Espagnol, Italien, Portugais]
Franz Jägerstätter,
agriculteur autrichien, s’était opposé à plusieurs reprises à la politique de
Hitler et à la guerre. En 1938, après que les troupes d'Hitler ont pénétré en
Autriche, il est le seul de son village à voter contre l'Anschluss. Il se rend
à une brève période de formation militaire, mais n'adhère à aucune organisation
politique et manifeste ouvertement son opposition au nazisme.
Alors père de trois
filles dont la plus âgée a six ans, il est appelé au service actif en février
1943 ; il refuse de combattre pour le Troisième Reich, et en conséquence est
emprisonné à Linz, puis à Berlin; condamné à mort par un tribunal militaire, il
est décapité le 9 août 1943.
"...le témoignage
silencieux et héroïque de tant de chrétiens qui vivent l’Évangile sans
compromis, en remplissant leur devoir“ est un exemple à suivre... Ce
martyre de la vie ordinaire est un témoignage, ô combien important dans la
société sécularisée de notre époque. C’est la bataille pacifique de l’amour
pour laquelle chaque chrétien doit combattre sans relâche, la course pour
défendre l’Évangile qui nous engage jusqu’à la mort“ (Benoît XVI) - Témoignages
de sainteté - VIS
Site du Vatican -
Biographie [Anglais, Espagnol, Portugais]
Franz Jägerstätter-
biographie- photos- documents- bibliographie... en allemand (diocèse
de Linz en Autriche)
Un internaute nous
signale que 'en Autriche, le pays natal de Franz Jägerstätter, il est vénéré le
21 Mai, jour de son baptême.'
En allemand:
- Ökumenisches
Heiligenlexikon, calendrier oecuménique
- page du diocèse de Linz
entièrement consacrée à Franz Jägerstätter
"Si Dieu ne m'avait
pas accordé sa grâce et la force de mourir, si nécessaire, pour défendre ma
foi, je ferais peut-être simplement ce que fait la majorité des gens. Dieu peut
en effet accorder sa grâce à chacun comme Il le désire. Si d’autres avaient
reçu les nombreuses grâces que j'ai reçu, ils auraient peut-être fait des
choses bien meilleures que moi"
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/12470/Bienheureux-Franz-J%E4gerst%E4tter.html
9 août : Bienheureux Franz Jägerstätter, martyr de la Vérité :
«
Mieux vaut obéir à Dieu qu’aux hommes »
Le Bienheureux Franz Jägerstätter est né le 20 mai 1907 à Sankt Radegund, près de Salzbourg (Oberösterreich), et guillotiné le 9 août 1943 à Berlin. Il était un objecteur de conscience autrichien face au régime national-socialiste. Il vient d'être béatifié (le vendredi 26 octobre 2007) en présence de 27 évêques et plus de 5000 fidèles... Nous sommes invités à suivre son exemple pour ne pas coopérer aux idéologies du Mal parmi les hommes et femmes politique.
« Peut-on être en même temps soldat du Christ et soldat pour le
national-socialisme, peut-on combattre pour la victoire du Christ et de son Église et en même temps pour la victoire du national-socialisme ? […] Si Dieu ne m'avait pas
accordé sa grâce et la force de mourir, si nécessaire, pour défendre ma foi, je ferais peut-être
simplement ce que fait la majorité des gens. Dieu peut en effet accorder sa grâce à chacun
comme Il le désire. Si d’autres avaient reçu les nombreuses grâces que j'ai reçu, ils auraient
peut-être fait des choses bien meilleures que moi » (Franz Jägerstätter)
Franz Jägerstätter était
un jeune paysan autrichien, catholique, épousé à Franziska Schwaninger. En
1938, après que les troupes d'Hitler ont pénétré en Autriche, il est le seul de
son village à voter contre l'Anschluss. Il se rend à une brève période de
formation militaire, mais n'adhère à aucune organisation politique et
manifeste ouvertement son opposition au nazisme. Franz Jägerstätter, alors
père de trois petites filles dont la plus âgée a six ans, est appelé au service
actif en février 1943. En union avec les évêques catholiques du Reich, il
refuse de combattre, et en conséquence, est emprisonné à Linz, puis à Berlin. Condamné à mort par un tribunal
militaire pour "obstruction aux principes de la
Wehrmacht", Franz Jägerstätter fut amené de Berlin au
camp de concentration de Brandebourg/Havel (+) le
9 août 1943. À la mi-journée, on lui dit que sa condamnation à mort était
confirmée et aurait lieu le même jour, à 16h. Juste avant son exécution Franz
écrit : « Je suis convaincu qu'il vaut mieux dire la Vérité,
même si je dois payer au prix de ma vie ». Cet après-midi-là, à 16h, Franz
fut décapité à l'âge de 36 ans, un
an jour pour jour après le gazage de Ste Edith Stein. Trois ans
plus tard, ses restes furent ramenés dans sa terre natale et il fut enterré
près de son église paroissiale de Sainte-Radegonde.
SOURCE : http://notredamedesneiges.over-blog.com/article-13357598.html
"Je préfère avoir
les mains liées plutôt que de savoir ma volonté enchaînée!".
Franz naquit le 20 mai
1907 en Autriche, à quelques kilomètres de la frontière avec la Bavière.
Durant son adolescence et
sa jeunesse, il se distingua par sa joie et sa vitalité.
Malgré les tentations
propres à la jeunesse, il demeura toujours fidèle à la prière et à la
fréquentation assidue aux Sacrements.
En 1931, son père,
propriétaire d'une grande ferme, tomba gravement malade et Franz se vit obligé de
le seconder. En 1936, il se maria et eut avec son épouse Franziska trois filles
: Rosalie, Marie et Louise. Les époux étaient profondément religieux et
recevaient chaque jour la Sainte Communion.
Appelé à accomplir son
service militaire en 1943, en plein conflit mondial, Franz déclara que, comme chrétien,
il ne pouvait se mettre au service de l'idéologie nazie et combattre pour une
guerre injuste.
Franz fut jugé pour
insoumission par un tribunal militaire réuni à Berlin, le 6 juillet 1943 et il
fut condamné à mort. Il demeura détenu dans deux prisons : ses compagnons
diront qu'il supportait les épreuves avec une infinie patience et
beaucoup d' héroïsme tout en éprouvant douloureusement le fait d' être séparé
de son épouse et de ses filles.
A son épouse, il
adressera d'émouvantes lettres dans lesquelles, continuellement, il redit sa
tendresse et son amour ferme à sa famille, à l'Église et à Dieu comme sa
demande de pardon pour les souffrances occasionnées par son opposition à la
guerre.
Dans l'une de ses
lettres, Franz écrit : "Je rends Grâce à Dieu notre Sauveur et je me
confie à Sa Miséricorde.
J'espère qu'Il ne m'abandonnera
pas dans ma dernière heure... Bientôt, nous nous reverrons au Ciel!".
Dans son testament, il
écrit encore :
"J'écris avec les
mains liées mais je préfère cette condition à celle de savoir ma volonté
enchaïnée!".
Au prêtre qui venait lui
administrer les derniers sacrements et qui lui demandait s'il avait besoin de quelque
chose, Franz répondit courageusement :
"J'ai tout ce qu'il
me faut, j'ai les Saintes Ecritures, je n' ai besoin de rien d' autre!".
Franz fut guillotiné le 9
août 1943 : il avait 36 ans.
Il fut béatifié en
Autriche, le 26 octobre 2007, par le représentant du Pape Benoit XVI, le
Cardinal
Joséc Saraiva Martins
qui, dans son homélie, rappela que "dans un temps comme le nôtre, dans lequel
ne manquent pas les conditionnements et la manipulation des consciences et des
intelligences, le témoignage du Bienheureux Franz est un exemple important de
courage et de cohérence".
Bienheureux Franz
Jagerstatter, prie pour nous et donne-nous, là où le Seigneur nous a placés, de
témoigner envers Lui un très grand Amour et un indéfectible attachement, fut-ce
au détriment de notre réputation et même de notre vie!
Amen.
SOURCE : http://bidart-guethary.over-blog.com/article-9-aout-bienheureux-franz-jagerstatter-108902381.html
Face au nazisme, les
martyrs de l’ombre
Guillaume Desvignes - publié
le 11/12/19
En portant à l’écran
l’histoire de Franz Jägerstätter, exécuté par les nazis pour avoir refusé de
servir dans les armées d’Hitler et béatifié en 2007, Terrence Malick révèle
l’enfouissement et l’anonymat qui firent la spécificité de la résistance
catholique austro-allemande. Et son héroïsme singulier.
En portant à l’écran
l’histoire de Franz Jägerstätter, exécuté par les nazis pour avoir refusé de
servir dans les armées d’Hitler et béatifié en 2007, Terrence Malick révèle
l’enfouissement et l’anonymat qui firent la spécificité de la résistance
catholique austro-allemande. Et son héroïsme singulier.
Il aura fallu attendre
1964 et la publication du livre du sociologue américain Gordon Zahn, In
solitary witness : the life and death of Franz Jägerstätter, pour
qu’émerge de l’oubli le nom de ce paysan catholique autrichien, décapité en
1943 dans la prison de Brandebourg, pour avoir refusé de servir par les armes
le projet criminel du national-socialisme. C’est cette dimension solitaire que
Terrence Malick a voulu souligner dans Une vie cachée, dont le titre est
extrait de Middlemarch, l’un des chefs d’œuvre de la romancière
britannique George Eliot : « Car le bien croissant du monde dépend en partie
d’actes non historiques ; et si les choses ne vont pour vous et moi aussi mal
qu’elles auraient pu aller, nous en sommes redevables en partie à ceux qui ont
vécu fidèlement une vie cachée et qui reposent dans des tombes
délaissées ».
Guillotinés ou pendus à
la hâte dans des prisons sordides, gazés dans les centres d’euthanasie du
Reich, rongés par le typhus et la famine dans les camps de concentration, les
catholiques allemands qui s’opposèrent à Hitler au nom de leur attachement à
l’évangile furent bien souvent considérés comme des traîtres à leur patrie,
voire des lâches, et mis à mort dans la solitude, loin de toute place publique
où leurs sacrifices auraient été vus de tous pour porter un fruit plus
immédiat. Franz Jägerstätter « savait qu’au-delà de sa famille et de sa
communauté, sa mort passerait presque inaperçue, n’aurait aucun impact sur le
parti nazi et ne précipiterait pas la fin de la guerre » a ainsi pu écrire
l’auteur américain Jim Forest dans l’introduction de Franz Jägerstätter.
Letters and writings from prison. C’est d’ailleurs ce scandale aux yeux du
monde – l’apparente absence d’utilité immédiate de son geste – qui tisse
la trame du film de Malick et en fait la puissance.
Lire aussi :
Ces
chrétiens qui ont résisté au nazisme
Mais la poignée de
catholiques allemands qui se sont engagés dans une résistance pacifique
étaient-ils si persuadés de l’inutilité de leur geste ? L’historien
Xavier de Montclos, dans son étude sur Les chrétiens face au nazisme et au
stalinisme, estime pour sa part que ces hommes et ses femmes savaient que « la
seule valeur (de leurs faits de résistance) étaient le témoignage, et l’issue
la plus probable, la mort ». Ce n’est pas par fanatisme ou exaltation
qu’ils ont agi. Consciemment ou non, même à la barre de tribunaux iniques,
derrière les barbelés de Dachau ou du fonds de leurs cachots, ils ont sauvé une
certaine vision de l’homme et de sa dignité. « La vraie grandeur est sans
doute dans cet obscur combat où, privés de l’enthousiasme des foules, quelques
individus mettent leur vie en jeu, défendent, absolument seuls, une cause
autour d’eux méprisée », écrit ainsi dans La Rose Blanche Inge
Scholl, la sœur d’Hans et Sophie Scholl, 24 et 21 ans, jeunes protestants
influencés par saint Augustin, guillotinés le 22 février 1943 dans la prison de
Stadelheim, près de Munich, pour avoir distribué dans leur université des
tracts antinazis imprégnés de références chrétiennes.
Alors quel fut le fruit
du sacrifice de ces sacrifices ? De celui du journaliste Fritz Gerlich
assassiné dès le 30 juin 1934 à Dachau ? Du directeur de l’Action Catholique
Erich Klausener, assassiné le même jour à Berlin par les tueurs d’Heydrich
? Des 94 prêtres allemands et autrichiens morts à Dachau, dont beaucoup avaient
relayé les sermons de Mgr
von Galen, l’évêque de Münster ? Des pères Franz Reinisch, Bernhard
Schwentner, Max Josef Metzger, Joseph Müller, Bruno Binnebesel, exécutés à la
prison de Brandebourg comme Frantz Jägerstätter ? De l’objecteur de
conscience tyrolien Josef
Mayr-Nusser, mort dans un wagon à bestiaux le 24 février 1945 et béatifié
en 2017 ? Et de tant d’autres ?
Lire aussi :
Avec
« Une vie cachée », Terrence Malick transcende le cinéma
« Notre conduite
prouvera que la liberté des hommes subsiste. Il s’agit de sauvegarder la valeur
humaine pour qu’un jour elle puisse triompher », disait Christoph Probst,
l’un des conjurés de la Rose Blanche, décapité avec Hans et Sophie Scholl après
avoir demandé à recevoir le baptême. Dans une Allemagne asservie par le
totalitarisme brun, ces témoins ont incontestablement préservé dans l’obscurité
une haute vision de l’humanité sur laquelle l’Allemagne pourra se fonder à
l’heure de la reconstruction. Mais surtout, leur humble sacrifice sonne comma
la réactualisation brûlante de la
phrase de saint Paul : « J’accepte de grand cœur pour le Christ les
faiblesses, les insultes, les contraintes, les persécutions et les situations
angoissantes. Car, lorsque je suis faible, c’est alors que je suis fort ».
C’est bien la force de ces martyrs de l’ombre, dont la foi fut la source
première, qui permet d’affirmer que par leur sacrifice ils avaient vaincu
d’avance ceux qui les asservissaient.
Tags:
CinémaFranz JägerstätterMartyrsNazismeresistance
SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/2019/12/11/face-au-nazisme-les-martyrs-de-lombre
Franz Jägerstätter, le
courage d’un martyr autrichien face au nazisme
Béatifié en 2007 par
Benoît XVI, Franz Jägerstätter, jeune père de famille et paysan
autrichien, a été condamné en 1943 par un tribunal militaire du IIIe Reich à la
peine capitale pour s’être élevé contre le nazisme.
À Sankt-Radegund, dans
son diocèse natal, le mouvement catholique Pax Christi organise jeudi 9
aout la commémoration du 75e anniversaire de sa mort.
Madeleine
Banvillet,
le 09/08/2018 à
11:57
La Cathédrale de
Westminster, le 15 décembre 2012, où aura lieu la commémoration du 75e anniversaire
de la mort de Franz Jägerstätter.Gerard Farrell / AP
Février 1938, les troupes
d’Hitler viennent de percer la frontière autrichienne. Dans la petite commune
de Sank – Radegund, en Haute-Autriche, un unique vote s’élève contre l’annexion
du pays par l’Allemagne nazie. C’est celui de Franz Jägerstätter, père de trois
filles, qui ne redoute pas d’être le seul de son village à voter contre l’«
Anschluss ».
Ce paysan trentenaire,
qui n’adhère d’ailleurs à aucune organisation politique, manifeste ouvertement,
depuis plusieurs mois déjà, son opposition au nazisme. Si bien qu’en 1943, il
refuse même catégoriquement de se battre dans les rangs des soldats du IIIe Reich.
Un signe de rébellion qui lui vaudra d’être emprisonné et condamné à mort, la
même année, par un tribunal militaire. « Je suis convaincu qu’il vaut
mieux dire la vérité, même si je dois le payer au prix de ma vie », plaide-t-il
alors une dernière fois, avant d’être décapité le 9 août.
Refus du service
militaire
« En raison de sa
croyance religieuse, il refuse le service militaire, car il agirait contre sa
conscience religieuse s’il combattait pour l’État national-socialiste », peut-on
lire dans le procès-verbal de sa condamnation, qui rapportait ses propres
déclarations : « Il y a des moments où il vaut mieux obéir à Dieu qu’aux
hommes ; au nom du commandement “tu aimeras ton prochain comme toi-même”,
[je ne peux] prendre les armes. »
C’est au nom de cette
intégrité exemplaire que l’ancien pape Benoît XVI avait décidé, en 2007, de
le béatifier. « Il a donné sa vie, la conscience honnête, en fidélité à
l’Évangile et pour le respect de la personne humaine », soulignait le
cardinal José Saraiva Martins, préfet de la Congrégation des causes des saints,
qui présidait la célébration à la cathédrale de Linz devant 5 000 fidèles, dont
la veuve du bienheureux, toute de rouge vêtue, en ce jour de fête nationale
autrichienne.
« Dans un temps comme le
nôtre, marqué par de nombreuses tentatives de conditionnement et de manipulation
des consciences, parfois sous des formes sournoises qui s’appuient sur des
technologies modernes, le témoignage du bienheureux Franz, son courage indompté
et sa cohérence ferme, est un exemple important », expliquait encore le
cardinal.
Regain d’intérêt pour ce
martyr
Le choix de Franz
Jägerstätter est resté longtemps incompris dans son Église. À la fin de la
guerre, son épouse, Franziska Jägerstätter, est même invitée à ne pas
mentionner son nom. Seuls les anciens combattants, les prisonniers de guerre
qui retournent dans leur pays sont accueillis comme des héros « ayant
accompli leur devoir »… Ce qui n’est pas le cas de Franz. « Jägerstätter
n’était pas un martyr de l'Église catholique, mais la victime déplorable de sa
conscience erronée », affirmait encore le père Siegfried Lochner, aumônier
militaire à Vienne, au moment de sa béatification en 2007.
Une affirmation réfutée
autant par le cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archevêque de Vienne, que par Mgr
Walter Mixa, évêque allemand aux armées, qui ont plaidé pour sa
reconnaissance. « Au fond, tous les chrétiens auraient dû refuser de
servir, affirme ce dernier. Ainsi, le régime serait devenu impuissant », assenait
l’évêque aux armées.
Un nouveau biopic
Bien qu’il soit encore
méconnu, le bienheureux Franz Jägerstäetter est commémoré ce 9 août 2018, comme
chaque année depuis sa béatification, à Linz. C’est le mouvement catholique
international pour la paix, Pax Christi, qui pilote les célébrations.
Par ailleurs, le
réalisateur Terrence Malick a annoncé pour fin 2018 la sortie d’un film
biographique sur le martyr autrichien. Le héros de son nouveau biopic,
baptisé Radegund, sera incarné par l’acteur August Diehl, l’un des visages
connus du célèbre Inglourious Basterds.
Une traduction
cinématographique qui témoigne du regain d’intérêt manifeste pour la figure de
Franz Jägerstätter et de son combat personnel contre le nazisme.
Stift
Heiligenkreuz
Monument
aux morts
20/09/2007
Le bienheureux Franz
Jägerstätter, Autrichien et antinazi
"Ma vision
catholique du monde est incompatible avec le national-socialisme", disait
ce paysan de l'Oberösterreich :
Franz Jägerstätter, le
paysan autrichien antinazi reconnu martyr par Benoît XVI le 1er juin, sera
béatifié le 26 octobre à Linz. La cérémonie sera présidée au nom du pape*
par le cardinal portugais José Saraiva Martins, préfet de la Congrégation pour
les causes des Saints. Franz Jägerstätter, 36 ans, père de trois enfants, fut
exécuté le 9 août 1943 pour « subversion de la force armée » et
opposition à Hitler au nom de la foi. Cet antinazi de toujours avait voté
contre l’Anschluss en 1938 : « Ma Welt-anschauung** catholique
est incompatible avec le national-socialisme », déclarait-il.
En union avec les évêques catholiques du Reich, il avait pris parti
contre le programme nazi d’élimination des handicapés. Mobilisé en 1943 dans la
Wehrmacht, il se déclara objecteur de conscience en citant la parole de saint
Pierre : « Mieux vaut obéir à Dieu qu’aux hommes. » Condamné
à mort par le tribunal militaire de Berlin-Charlottenburg,
Franz Jägerstätter déclara dans son testament : « J’écris avec les mains
liées, mais plutôt les mains que la volonté ». (« Besser die Hände
gefesselt als der Wille »). Après quoi on le guillotina dans la
prison de Brandeburg-an-der-Havel. Il était tertiaire franciscain.
(*) Benoît XVI
décentralise et délègue désormais les béatifications.
(**) Vision du monde.
00:00 Publié dans Histoire | Lien
permanent | Commentaires
(4) | Tags : Franz
Jägerstätter, Benoit
XVI, Autriche, nazisme, catholicisme, eugénisme, P.
Blet
Commentaires
MARTYRS
Un nouveau martyr
catholique du nazisme, tué en raison de sa foi. Cela devrait empêcher les
obstinés de dire, soit que le catholicisme avait partie liée avec cette
idéologie (et que les chrétiens résistant à ce régime le faisaient
"malgré" leur appartenance religieuse), refrain de la gauche
ultralaïque, soit que "ras-le-bol avec le nazisme alors qu'il y a eu
des millions de morts du communisme", comptabilité obscène qui a été
longtemps dite par une droite au front bas.
Écrit par : Martin
Petursson | 20/09/2007
EINE SCHÖNE SPRACHE
Que l'allemand est une
belle langue ! La construction des phrases est telle, qu'il ne peut y avoir
aucune ambigüité quant à ce qu'on a l'intention de dire, de créer. Parler,
c'est dès lors, s'afficher et se condamner. Mais la phrase construite survit au
martyr et rend fou le prince de ce monde sans vision du monde.
Écrit par : Maximilien FRICHE | 20/09/2007
LE P. BLET
Cela m'invite à
transmettre l'information suivante que j'ai reçue par mail il y a quelques
jours...
Conférence ce soir à
20h45 à Maisons-Laffitte :
"Pie XII et la
Seconde Guerre mondiale" par le père Pierre BLET
Église Saint-Nicolas
Rue du fossé
78600 MAISONS-LAFFITTE
RER A ou train au départ
de Saint-Lazare
(à 5mn de la gare)
Quelques informations
complémentaires :
« Le plus grand
spécialiste de la question. » (Jean-Paul II). Il fut nommé par Paul VI
lui-même, au début des années 60', pour étudier pendant 20 ans toutes les
archives sur Pie XII !
Auteur de l'ouvrage de
référence : 'Pie XII et la Seconde Guerre mondiale d'après les archives du
Vatican' (Perrin).
Le père Pierre Blet
dédicacera son ouvrage à l'issue de la conférence.
La conférence se
déroulera sous le mode d'un échange avec M. Pierre Gelin.
Conférence organisée par
les AFC de Maisons-Laffitte/Mesnil-le-Roi. Libre participation aux frais.
C'est l'une des dernières
fois (La dernière ?) que le père Blet interviendra en France à ce sujet.
Écrit par : Bernie |
20/09/2007
UN MODÈLE
Franz Jagerstätter était
un laïc, membre du Tiers Ordre de Saint François d'Assise. Quel modèle il est
pour nous! IL nous incite à nous opposer, coûte que coûte à cette civilisation
prêchant la haine des autres, la cupidité, la richesse. Il est tout à l'opposé
de cela, pauvre, il était paysan et mourut a cause de son opposition au
nazisme. Que de leçons nous avons à tirer de sa vie et de son message!
Puissions-nous tout bien comprendre et imiter ses vertus, méditer et réaliser
sa spiritualité!
Écrit par : Franck | 05/10/2007
Bienheureux
Franz Jägerstätter (1907-1943)
Avoir une femme et des
enfants ? Cela donne-t-il le droit d’offenser Dieu ?
Rien ne prédisposait ce
jeune paysan autrichien à être élevé à la gloire des autels. Il fréquentait
plus les bals que les églises, frimait. Il aimait le jeu, le sport et… les
filles ! En 1933, il a une fille naturelle, Hildegarde.
En 1935, il épouse
Franziska, une fervente chrétienne. A son contact, il devient un autre homme.
Il approfondit sa foi et lit tous les soirs un passage de la Bible. Le jeune
couple va à la messe le matin. Trois fillettes leur naîtront. Ils désirent
adopter Hildegarde mais la grand-mère de l’enfant s’y oppose. Franz témoigne de
sa foi et en parle tout naturellement.
En janvier 1938, Franz
rêve d’un joli train qui serpente au flanc d’une montagne. Beaucoup se battent
pour y monter. Une voix dit : « Ce train conduit en enfer. » Il
comprend que ce train symbolise le nazisme. Le 12 mars suivant, les Nazis
envahissent l’Autriche. L’annexion du pays est ratifiée par 99,75 % de
oui ! Franz est le seul à voter non dans son village ! Le maire fait
disparaître le bulletin de vote pour éviter des représailles. Franz se retire
de la vie communale.
« On ne peut pas
être à la fois chrétien et national socialiste ! »
Il refuse l’indemnité
nazie lors d’une averse de grêle qui détruit les récoltes « Un grand
fleuve nous a submergés. Pour atteindre sain et sauf l’autre rive, nous n’avons
plus qu’à nager à contre-courant. Même si nous vivons des temps difficiles,
nous devons et pouvons nous réjouir avec l’Eglise. Qu’y a-t-il de plus joyeux
que de savoir que le Christ est ressuscité et vainqueur de la mort et de
l’Enfer ? Qu’y a-t-il de plus réconfortant pour les chrétiens que de ne
pas craindre la mort ? » Franz ne demandera pas, comme tant
d’autres, son exemption du service militaire. Il y subira bien des brimades
parce qu’il ne cache pas sa foi. Le maire, de sa propre initiative, le fera
revenir. Mais quant à servir l’armée des Nazis, non ! « On ne peut pas
être à la fois chrétien et national socialiste ! » Franz, ta
femme, tes filles ! Sa famille ne le soutient pas dans sa décision. Les prêtres
non plus et même l’évêque ! Il en est tout bouleversé et se retrouve
bien seul. Un prêtre l’accuse de vouloir se suicider. Cette pensée le trouble
tellement qu’il ne va plus communier.
Heureusement Franziska,
elle, le soutient. L’armée refuse de le faire servir comme agent sanitaire. Les
2 mois d’emprisonnement à Linz où il subit tortures et brimades lui font traverser
une crise de la foi. Le souvenir du bonheur avec Franziska l’aidera à en
sortir. Si Dieu l’a comblé pendant ces 7 années, c’est donc qu’il existe et
qu’il l’aime. « Si Dieu ne m’avait pas accordé la grâce et la force
de mourir pour ma foi, je ferais comme les autres. S’ils l’avaient reçue,
peut-être auraient-ils fait plus de bien. »
Il est décapité le 9
août. Dans sa lettre d’adieu, il écrit : « Mieux vaut avoir les
mains que la volonté enchaînée. Dieu donne sa force à ceux qui l’aiment et ne
préfèrent pas la terre au ciel. Rien, pas même la mort ne peut les séparer de
l’amour de Dieu. La force de Dieu est invincible. »
SOURCE : http://fmnd.org/In_Altum/2016/11/bienheureux-franz-jagerstatter-1907-1943/
Gedenktafel für Franz Jägerstätter. Witzlebenstraße 4-5 (am ehem. Reichskriegsgericht), Berlin-Charlottenburg. Enthüllt am 4. Juli 1997.
Also
known as
Franz Jaegerstaetter
Profile
Born to Rosalia Huber and
Franz Bachmeier, servants too poor to
get married.
His father died in
World War I when the boy was
less than ten years old; his mother then married local famer Heinrich
Jägerstätter who adopted Franz.
Franz had little formal education,
but his adoptive father was
serious about the boy being
able to read so that he could educate himself. At age 20 he began three years
of work in the iron ore industry. He led a rather wild and dissolute life in
his early 20’s, but by his late 20’s had settled down to life as a peasant farmer,
became serious about his faith, married,
and became the father of
three daughters. He worked as sacristan for
his parish,
arranging funeral and prayer services,
attended Mass daily,
and developed a special ministry to the bereaved.
He became known as a
vocal critic of the Nazis; he was the only one in his village to vote
against Austrian unification
with Germany in 1938,
when greeted with “Heil Hitler” would respond “Pfui Hitler”, and basically had
no social life in the town because of his beliefs. When drafted into the army of
the Third Reich, Franz could not reconcile such service with his faith;
after a brief period served behind the lines, he refused to report for further
service, was arrested, imprisoned in Linz, Austria,
and Berlin, Germay,
given a military trial, and finally executed.
He spent time in prison praying,
supporting other prisoners,
and writing a
series of letters and essays.
Born
20 May 1907 in
Sankt Radegund, Oberösterreich, Austria
beheaded on 9 August 1943 in
Brandenburg an der Havel, Brandenburg, Germany
body cremated the next
day
ashes re-buried in
Sankt Radegund, Oberösterreich, Austria in 1946 as
part of a memorial of locals who had died in military service
1 June 2007 by Pope Benedict
XVI (decree of martyrdom)
26
October 2007 by Pope Benedict
XVI
Additional
Information
other
sites in english
Against the Stream, by Dr
Erna Putz
Christian
Biographies, by Paul Bellan-Boyer
Dicastery of the Causes of Saints
Franz
Jägerstätter and Leopold Engleitner
Internet
Movie Data Base: A Hidden Life
Internet
Movie Data Base: Der Fall Jägerstätter
National Catholic Register: Franz Jägerstätter’s widow, ‘a
warm, gentle soul,’ dies at 100
Parish
of Saint Mellitus, London, England
images
video
webseiten
auf deutsch
Katholische
Kirche in Oberosterreich
fonti
in italiano
Readings
I can say from my own
experience how painful life often is when one lives as a halfway Christian; it
is more like vegetating than living. – Blessed Franz in a letter to a
god-child
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 – often in horrible ways –
for Christ and their faith. If we hope to reach our goal some day, then we, too,
must became heroes of the faith. – Blessed Franz in a letter to a
god-child
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. – Blessed Franz in a
letter describing his moral dilemma over being drafted
Just as the man who
thinks only of this world does everything possible to make life here easier and
better, so must we, too, who believe in the eternal Kingdom, risk everything in
order to receive a great reward there. Just as those who believe in National
Socialism tell themselves that their struggle is for survival, so must we, too,
convince ourselves that our struggle is for the eternal Kingdom. But with this
difference: we need no rifles or pistols for our battle, but instead, spiritual
weapons – and the foremost among these is prayer. Through prayer, we
continually implore new grace from God, since without God’s help and grace it
would be impossible for us to preserve the Faith and be true to His
commandments. Let us love our enemies, bless those who curse us, pray for Those
who persecute us. For love will conquer and will endure for all eternity. And
happy are they who live and die in God’s love. – Blessed Franz, writing from prison
I can say with certainty
that this simple man is the only saint I have ever met in my lifetime. – Father Jochmann,
who ministered to Venerable Franz in prison
MLA
Citation
“Blessed Franz
Jägerstätter“. CatholicSaints.Info. 28 October 2023. Web. 14 October 2024.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-franz-jagerstatter/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-franz-jagerstatter/
Franz Jägerstätter
(1907-1943)
Beatificazione:
- 26 ottobre 2007
- Papa Benedetto XVI
Ricorrenza:
- 9 agosto
Laico, martire, il contadino che disse di no ad
Hitler, rifiutò la fedeltà al Reich e per questo venne condannato a morte
“Scrivo con le mani legate, ma è meglio così che se fosse incatenata la mia volontà”
Franz Jägerstätter was born on 20 May 1907 in St
Radegund, Upper Austria, to his unmarried mother, Rosalia Huber, and to Franz
Bachmeier, who was killed during World War I. After the death of his natural
father, Rosalia married Heinrich Jägerstätter, who adopted Franz and gave the
boy his surname of Jägerstätter in 1917.
Franz received a basic education in his village's
one-room schoolhouse. His step-grandfather helped with his education and the
boy became an avid reader.
It seems Franz was unruly in his younger years; he
was, in fact, the first in his village to own a motorcycle. However, he is
better known as an ordinary and humble Catholic who did not draw attention to
himself.
After his marriage to Franziska in 1936 and their
honeymoon in Rome, Franz grew in his faith but was not extreme in his piety.
Besides his farm work Franz became the local sexton in
1936 and began receiving the Eucharist daily. He was known to refuse the
customary offering for his services at funerals, preferring the spiritual and
corporal works of mercy over any remuneration.
In the mid to late 1930s, while much of Austria was
beginning to follow the tide of Nazism, Franz became ever more rooted in his
Catholic faith and placed his complete trust in God.
While carrying out his duties as husband and
bread-winner for his wife and three daughters, this ordinary man began thinking
deeply about obedience to legitimate authority and obedience to God, about
mortal life and eternal life and about Jesus' suffering and Passion.
Franz was neither a revolutionary nor part of any
resistance movement, but in 1938 he was the only local citizen to vote against
the "Anschluss" (annexation of Austria by Germany), because his
conscience prevailed over the path of least resistance.
Franz Jägerstätter was called up for military service
and sworn in on 17 June 1940. Shortly thereafter, thanks to the intervention of
his mayor, he was allowed to return to the farm. Later, he was in active
service from October 1940 to April 1941, until the mayor's further intervention
permitted his return home.
He became convinced that participation in the war was
a serious sin and decided that any future call-up had to be met with his
refusal to fight.
"It is very sad", he wrote, "to hear
again and again from Catholics that this war waged by Germany is perhaps not so
unjust because it will wipe out Bolshevism.... But now a question: what are
they fighting in this Country - Bolshevism or the Russian People?
"When our Catholic missionaries went to a pagan
country to make them Christians, did they advance with machine guns and bombs
in order to convert and improve them?... If adversaries wage war on another
nation, they have usually invaded the country not to improve people or even
perhaps to give them something, but usually to get something for themselves....
If we were merely fighting Bolshevism, these other things - minerals, oil wells
or good farmland - would not be a factor".
Jägerstätter was at peace with himself despite the
alarm he could have experienced witnessing the masses' capitulation to Hitler.
Mesmerized by the National Socialist propaganda machine, many people knelt when
Hitler made his entrance into Vienna. Catholic Churches were forced to fly the
swastika flag and subjected to other abusive laws.
In February 1943 Franz was called up again for
military service. He presented himself at the induction centre on 1 March 1943
and announced his refusal to fight, offering to carry out non-violent services:
this was denied him.
He was held in custody at Linz in March and April,
transferred to Berlin-Tegel in May and subject to trial on 6 July 1943 when he
was condemned to death for sedition. The prison chaplain was struck by the
man's tranquil character. On being offered the New Testament, he replied:
"I am completely bound in inner union with the Lord, and any reading would
only interrupt my communication with my God".
On 9 August, before being executed, Franz wrote:
"If I must write... with my hands in chains, I find that much better than
if my will were in chains. Neither prison nor chains nor sentence of death can
rob a man of the Faith and his free will. God gives so much strength that it is
possible to bear any suffering.... People worry about the obligations of
conscience as they concern my wife and children.
But I cannot believe that, just because one has a wife
and children, a man is free to offend God".
Franz Jägerstätter, who would not bow his head to
Hitler, bowed his head to God, and the guillotine took care of the rest. He was
obviously called up to serve a higher order.
SOURCE : https://www.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/franz-jagerstatter.html
.jpg)
Beato Franz Jägerstätter
Bauernhaus, Franz Jägerstätter-Museum
Gedenktafel für Franz Jägerstätter
.jpg)
Franz
Jägerstätter-Museum Detail Anerkennung bleibende Werte, Geschichtsort St.
Radegund
Bl. Franz Jägerstätter
(1907-1943)
Layman and martyr
Franz Jägerstätter was
born on 20 May 1907 in St Radegund, Upper Austria, to his unmarried mother,
Rosalia Huber, and to Franz Bachmeier, who was killed during World War I. After
the death of his natural father, Rosalia married Heinrich Jägerstätter, who
adopted Franz and gave the boy his surname of Jägerstätter in 1917.
Franz received a basic
education in his village's one-room schoolhouse. His step-grandfather helped
with his education and the boy became an avid reader.
It seems Franz was unruly
in his younger years; he was, in fact, the first in his village to own a
motorcycle. However, he is better known as an ordinary and humble Catholic who
did not draw attention to himself.
After his marriage to
Franziska in 1936 and their honeymoon in Rome, Franz grew in his faith but was
not extreme in his piety.
Besides his farm work
Franz became the local sexton in 1936 and began receiving the Eucharist daily.
He was known to refuse the customary offering for his services at funerals,
preferring the spiritual and corporal works of mercy over any remuneration.
In the mid to late 1930s,
while much of Austria was beginning to follow the tide of Nazism, Franz became
ever more rooted in his Catholic faith and placed his complete trust in God.
While carrying out his
duties as husband and bread-winner for his wife and three daughters, this
ordinary man began thinking deeply about obedience to legitimate authority and
obedience to God, about mortal life and eternal life and about Jesus' suffering
and Passion.
Franz was neither a revolutionary
nor part of any resistance movement, but in 1938 he was the only local citizen
to vote against the "Anschluss" (annexation of Austria by Germany),
because his conscience prevailed over the path of least resistance.
Franz Jägerstätter was called
up for military service and sworn in on 17 June 1940. Shortly thereafter,
thanks to the intervention of his mayor, he was allowed to return to the farm.
Later, he was in active service from October 1940 to April 1941, until the
mayor's further intervention permitted his return home.
He became convinced that
participation in the war was a serious sin and decided that any future call-up
had to be met with his refusal to fight.
"It is very
sad", he wrote, "to hear again and again from Catholics that this war
waged by Germany is perhaps not so unjust because it will wipe out
Bolshevism.... But now a question: what are they fighting in this Country -
Bolshevism or the Russian People?
"When our Catholic
missionaries went to a pagan country to make them Christians, did they advance
with machine guns and bombs in order to convert and improve them?... If
adversaries wage war on another nation, they have usually invaded the country
not to improve people or even perhaps to give them something, but usually to get
something for themselves.... If we were merely fighting Bolshevism, these other
things - minerals, oil wells or good farmland - would not be a factor".
Jägerstätter was at peace
with himself despite the alarm he could have experienced witnessing the masses'
capitulation to Hitler. Mesmerized by the National Socialist propaganda
machine, many people knelt when Hitler made his entrance into Vienna. Catholic
Churches were forced to fly the swastika flag and subjected to other abusive
laws.
In February 1943 Franz
was called up again for military service. He presented himself at the induction
centre on 1 March 1943 and announced his refusal to fight, offering to carry
out non-violent services: this was denied him.
He was held in custody at
Linz in March and April, transferred to Berlin-Tegel in May and subject to
trial on 6 July 1943 when he was condemned to death for sedition. The prison
chaplain was struck by the man's tranquil character. On being offered the New
Testament, he replied: "I am completely bound in inner union with the
Lord, and any reading would only interrupt my communication with my God".
On 9 August, before being
executed, Franz wrote: "If I must write... with my hands in chains, I find
that much better than if my will were in chains. Neither prison nor chains nor
sentence of death can rob a man of the Faith and his free will. God gives so
much strength that it is possible to bear any suffering.... People worry about
the obligations of conscience as they concern my wife and children.
But I cannot believe
that, just because one has a wife and children, a man is free to offend
God".
Franz Jägerstätter, who
would not bow his head to Hitler, bowed his head to God, and the guillotine
took care of the rest. He was obviously called up to serve a higher order.
SOURCE : http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20071026_jagerstatter_en.html
Beato Franz Jägerstätter
St.
Radegund (Bezirk Braunau am Inn): Stele im Ort mit Lebensdaten des
seliggesprochenen Franz Jägerstätter, einem von den Nazis zu Tode gebrachten
Widerständlers
Austrian farmer executed
for defying Nazis on path to sainthood
Friday 26 October 2007
23:00 BST
A poor Austrian farmer
who was executed by the Nazis for refusing to fight for Hitler took the first
step on the path to sainthood when he was beatified yesterday by a Vatican
cardinal at Linz Cathedral, not far from the village where he was born.
Franz Jägerstätter was
deeply obscure in his life and no less so in death. But the last man to speak
to him before he was executed, a priest called Father Jochmann, said he was the
only saint he had ever met. Yesterday, the Catholic Church endorsed his view.
Pacifism may seem an
obvious choice for a religion founded on loving one's neighbour as oneself and
turning the other cheek, but millions of practising Christians fought on both
sides during the Second World War, encouraged by army chaplains. So, to put a
man on the road to sainthood because he was a pacifist marks, according to
Canon Paul Oestreicher of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, "a historic
volte-face – there is no modern precedent".
Jägerstätter was born in
1907 in the village of St Radegund in Upper Austria, not far from Hitler's
birthplace. His parents, a farmer and a chambermaid, were too poor to marry.
After his father died in the First World War, Franz's mother married another
villager and family life improved. The boy received only seven years of
schooling but became an avid reader.
As a young man, he got a
girl pregnant and had to marry her. His relationship with Franziska, who bore
him three daughters, proved to be the rock of his life. He was the first father
in the village to own a motorbike and to take his children out for walks. As he
matured, religion became more important to him and he became the sacristan of
the village church. His decision not to fight was arrived at gradually.
In 1940, aged 33, he was
conscripted into the German army and completed basic training. Returning home
in 1941 on an exemption as a farmer, he began examining closely the religious
reasons for refusing military service. He studied the issues in detail and at
one point wrote a series of questions about the morality of the war that he
discussed with his bishop. He emerged from that conversation saddened that the
bishop seemed afraid to confront the issues.
The mass of Austrian
Catholic opinion was reconciled to fighting a war to defeat godless communism –
overlooking the fact that Nazism was just as godless. But Jägerstätter refused
to accept the Nazis' aims. "It is very sad to hear from Catholics that
this war is perhaps not so unjust because it will wipe out Bolshevism," he
wrote.
"But what are they
fighting? Bolshevism or the Russian people? When our Catholic missionaries went
to a pagan country to make them Christians, did they advance with machine-guns
and bombs in order to convert and improve them?"
He added: "What
Catholic can dare to say these raids which Germany has carried out in several
countries constitute a just and holy war?"
In 1943, after being
called to active duty, Jägerstätter reported to his army base and refused to
serve. A military court rejected his assertion that he could not be both a Nazi
and a Catholic and sentenced him to death for undermining morale. His offer to
serve as a paramedic was ignored. A priest from his village visited him in jail
and tried to talk him into serving, but to no avail.
Jägerstätter was
guillotined on 9 August 1943. "I am convinced it is best that I speak the
truth, even if it costs me my life," he wrote before his execution. In a
final letter to his wife, he asked forgiveness and said he hoped his life would
be accepted by God as "atonement not just for my sins but also for the
sins of others".
Grab des Widerstandskämpfers Franz Jägerstätter in St. Radegund
A Franciscan Tertiary
Martyr: Bl.Franz Jagerstatter
By Sr. JosephMary f.t.i.August 9, 2014
Ave Maria Meditations
In February 1943 Franz
was called up again for military service. He presented himself at the induction
centre on 1 March 1943 and announced his refusal to fight, offering to carry
out non-violent services: this was denied him.
He was held in custody at
Linz in March and April, transferred to Berlin-Tegel in May and subject to
trial on 6 July 1943 when he was condemned to death for sedition. The prison
chaplain was struck by the man’s tranquil character. On being offered the New
Testament, he replied: “I am completely bound in inner union with the Lord, and
any reading would only interrupt my communication with my God”.
On 9 August, before
being executed, Franz wrote: “If I must write… with my hands in chains, I
find that much better than if my will were in chains. Neither prison nor chains
nor sentence of death can rob a man of the Faith and his free will. God gives
so much strength that it is possible to bear any suffering…. People worry about
the obligations of conscience as they concern my wife and children.
But I cannot believe
that, just because one has a wife and children, a man is free to offend God”.
Franz Jägerstätter, who
would not bow his head to Hitler, bowed his head to God, and the guillotine
took care of the rest. He was obviously called up to serve a higher order.
The rest of this short
biography can be found at the Vatican website at www.vatican.va
SOURCE : https://airmaria.com/2014/08/09/a-franciscan-tertiary-martyr-bl-franz-jagerstatter/
Neben
dem Pfarrheim von Kematen am Innbach wurde ein Bildstock mit den Bildern von
Camilla Estermann, Franz Heger, Franz Jägerstätter und Heinrich Steiner zur
Erinnerung errichtet. Sie waren Opfer des Nationalsozialistischen Regimes in
Österreich
AGAINST THE STREAM. Franz
Jägerstätter – the manwho refused to fight for Hitler
Written by Dr Erna Putz
Translated by Michael Duggan
In the parish church of
St Radegund,Upper Austria Franz Jägerstätter was baptised; here he married and
here his children were christened. Here too, from 1941 to 1943 he served as
sacristan.
The jung farmer and
family man became one of the outstanding figures of Christian resistance to
National Socialism. He refused not only any support for the Nazi party (NSDAP),
but also declined to fight in the German army in the war started by Germany.
The consequences of his decision were clear to him and his family from the
start; everyone hoped that the war would end before he was called up.
In the two years between his first experiences in the German army and his second call-up, he looked for a way out of the conflict of conscience between his family responsibility and his knowledge that supporting this war would involve great personal guilt. He found guidance and help in the Bible and in the example of figures such as Thomas More and Nicholas of Flüe (1st Footnote : Nicholas of Flüe, Brother Klaus 1417-1487. Swiss hermit and mystic. he left his wife Dorothea, and his ten children and lived as a hermit for 20 years. In 1481 Brother Klaus prevented a Swiss civil war. ).
In his wife, Franciska, he had an understanding companion; their strong mutual
relationship and love were a crucial human support in the crises before and
during his imprisonment.
A childhood in poverty and hunger
On 20 May 1907 the unmarried farmer's maid Rosalia Huber bore a son, Franz, in
St Radegund. As servants, she and the child's father, Franz Bachmeier
(2labjegyzet:Franz's father was killed in the First World War), were too poor
to get married. The child remained in the care of his grandmother, Elisabeth
Huber, who though poor was an affectionate woman with wide interests. For seven
years Franz Huber attended the primary school in St Radegund, where a teacher
taught up to 70 children aged from 6 to 13 simultaneously in one room. During
the First World War there was widespread hunger in that region. In retrospect,
Franz felt more hurt at being disadvantaged at school as a poor child than at the
hunger.
When his mother married,
the situation suddenly improved. She married the farmer, Heinrich Jägerstätter,
who adopted his wife's child on marrying, so from February 1917 he became Franz
Jägerstätter. Now, on the farm, there was enough to eat. There was reading too,
because Franz's step-grandfather subscribed to a newspaper and possessed many
serious books. Little Franz became an enthusiastic reader. Reading, informing
oneself, he later told his godson, was very important: "People who don't
read will never be able to stand on their own feet and will all too easily
become a football for the opinions of others."
At the age of 20, Franz
Jägerstätter began three years of work in the Steiermark iron ore industry.
The unusual situation in St Radegund
The 500-strong community by the River Salzach in the western part of Upper
Austria was known until the 1930s for its Passion plays. In 1933 they proved a
failure due to Hitler's seizure of power in Germany and the subsequent closing
of the border.
This may partly explain
why, in St Radegund in 1938, after troops marched into Austria, there were no
Nazis - till then illegal - and therefore why no one wanted the post of mayor.
Franz Jägerstätter was among those who were asked in March 1938 whether they
would accept the office. But it was quite clear to him that any co-operation
with the new rulers would be incompatible with his religious faith. Only when
the appointment of a commissioner from outside was threatened did another
farmer express willingness to be mayor.
Later a woman denounced
ten opponents of the regime to the Gestapo. The postwoman, naturally, brought
the letter to the mayor. He made sure it disappeared. Among the opponents named
was Jägerstätter. The Gestapo reaction to denunciations included monitoring the
suspect`s mail. In Jägerstätter`s case this would soon have been productive, as
his opposition was all too clear from his correspondence. In any other
municipality he would have been prosecuted for "sedition". In 1940
the parish of St Radegund stood united behind the parish priest, Fr Karobath,
when he was imprisoned for a "seditious" sermon.
In the Diocese of Linz
there was very strong Gestapo pressure on the clergy, with an exceptionally
high number of murders and imprisonments. In the Deanery of Ostermiething, to
which St Radegund belongs, 8 of the 12 priests were jailed, several of them
friends of Jägerstätter. Two further priests, born in St Radegund, were also
jailed.
These experiences
strengthened Jägerstätter in his rejection of National Socialism. Should he
fight and kill so that it could conquer the whole world? On top of that, he
learned in 1941, in Ybbs, of the fate of the mentally ill.
Support from Franziska
Franz Jägerstätter could live in freedom, until his military refusal, only with
the protection of St Radegund village, but his inner reliance on his wife,
Franziska, was equally important.
They married in 1936.
Franz was the first man in the village to take his children out in a pram and
to develop a relationship with the three small children which was unusually
close for that milieu.
In the referendum on the
Anschluss, held on 10 April 1938, Franz Jägerstätter voted No: this followed a
crisis in the married couple's relationship. Franz said that he didn't want to
go to the referendum, for there was scarcely a choice if the Germans were
already there with their tanks. Franziska was already aware of the terror as
people from every village were being taken off to concentration camps. She
threatened her husband that she would no longer love him if he did not go to
the referendum. Franz was alarmed, and so then was Franziska. She learned from
this argument never to pressurise her husband in matters of conscience. In her
letters to prison she never does, saying in the first merely that she had hoped
to the end that he could have decided otherwise.
In the first weeks of
imprisonment at Linz in March 1943, his worst weeks, Franz Jägerstätter
underwent a crisis of faith.
Because of his faith, he
was obliged to regard fighting in the German army as involving serious personal
guilt, and was threatened with execution. In this situation, his memory of the
love and happiness during seven years of marriage to Franziska helped him to
resist temptation.
"Who dares to assert that only one person among the German people bears the responsibility in this war?"
In the summer of 1940, Franz Jägerstätter was first called up for military
service and in Braunau on 17 June he was sworn in. At the instigation of the
mayor, however, he was alowed to return to the farm after a few days. From
October 1940 to April 1941 he was in the army, though not at the Front. When,
after repeated requests from the mayor, he was listed as
"indispensable" and returned to St Radegund, he announced that he
would not comply with further conscription. To fight so that Hitler might
conquer the whole world he saw as a matter of personal guilt and serious sin.
Even the war against Russia did not ease Franz Jägerstätter's conscience. He
writes: "It is very sad to hear again and again from Catholics that this
war, waged by Germany, is perhaps not so unjust because it will wipe out
Bolshevism. It is true that at present most of our soldiers are stuck in the
worst Bolshevist country, and simply want to make harmless and defenceless the
people who live there and defend themselves. But now a question: what are they
fighting in this country - Bolshevism or the Russian people? When our Catholic
missionaries went to a pagan country to make them Christians did they advance
with machine guns and bombs in order to convert and improve them? Most of these
noble warriors for Christianity wrote home that if they only had the means to
hand things out, everything would go much faster... If we look back a little
into history, we note almost the same thing again and again: if a conqueror
attacks another country with war, they have not normally invaded the country to
improve people or even perhaps give them something, but usually to get
something for themselves. If we fight the Russian people, we will get much from
that country which is of use to us here. If one were merely fighting
Bolshevism, these others things - minerals, oil wells or good farmland - would
not be a factor."
It was immediately clear
to everyone that conscientious objection would cost Franz his life. His mother
tried through relatives to change her son's mind. Franziska spoke to him too,
at the start. But as everyone tried to talk him round, as the arguments went on
and he was quite alone against them all, she stood by him "If I had not
stood by him, he would have had no one," she explained.
Franz discussed his plans
with priest friends. They tried to save his life and talk him out of it. Yet
they could not answer his biblical arguments. Franz Jägerstätter even asked the
Bishop of Linz for advice. But he was afraid Franz might be a spy. Bishop
Fliesser knew that the Gestapo was very watchful for links between faith and
war service. In 1940, during simultaneous house searches at every presbytery in
his diocese, they had been looking specifically for soldiers' letters. Franz
had prepared questions for the discussion, including:
"What Catholic can
dare to say that these raids which Germany has carried out in several
countries, and is still carrying out, constitute a just and holy war?"
"Who dares to assert
that among the German people in this war only one person bears the
responsibility, and why then did so many millions of Germans have to give their
'Yes' or 'No'? Can one be reproached today for lacking patriotism? Do we still
even have a mother country in this world? For if a country is supposed to be my
mother country, it may not just impose duties - one must also have rights, and
do we have rights here today? If someone becomes ineducable and might be a
burden on the state, what happens to them? Would such a mother country be worth
defendig at all? - which we cannot speak of anyway, because Germany was
attecked by no one. Once, I believe, we would have had the right to defend
ourselves, and that was four years ago when we were still Austrians."
In 1946 Bishop Fliesser
wrote of his conversation with Franz Jägerstätter: "I explained in vain to
him the moral principles on the degree of responsibility that the private
citizen has for the actions of the authorities, and reminded him of the much
higher responsibility he had for those around him and particularly his family."
After the war ended the bishop suppressed publication of the affair in his
district.
Franz Jägerstätter had
sensed the bishop's fear, and his objections to war service were not weakened.
Of his responsibility as the father of a family, he noted: "Again and again,
people try to trouble my conscience over my wife and children. Is an action any
better because one is married and has children? Is it better or worse because
thousands of other Catholics are doing the same?"
Jägerstätter knew that
bishops and priests would be arrested if they said anything other than the
government permitted. Yet he put the question: "If the Church stays silent
in the face of what is happening, what difference would it make if no church
were ever opened again?"
Condemned to death for sedition
Franz Jägerstätter had no contact whatsoever with groups or individuals within
the resistance movement. Only in the Linz military remand prison did he learn
that others too had refused to do military service. As he told his wife, in a
letter smuggled from the prison, this was a great encouragement to him. So was
the news from prison chaplain Kreutzberg in Berlin that one year before him the
Austrian priest Franz Reinisch had been a conscientious objector on the same
grounds. Franz Jägerstätter was clear that 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".
After he was called up,
Franz Jägerstätter presented himself to the military authorities in Enns on 1
March 1943 and announced that he was refusing to fight. During March and April
he was held in custody at Linz. At the beginning of May he was transferred to
Berlin-Tegel. The main trial of Franz Jägerstätter took place on 6 July 1943
before the second panel of the national court martial led by Werner Lueven.- He
was "condemned to death for sedition and sentenced to loss of civil rights
and of eligibility for military service".
In the judgement, open
for inspection at the military archive in Prague since 1990, the reasons are
given thus:
"In February 1943
the accused was again called up, by written command, for active service with
motorised replacement unit 17 in Enns from 25 February 1943. At first he
ignored the call-up, because he rejects National Socialism and therefore does
not wish to do military service. Under pressure from relatives and the
persuasion of his local priest, he finally reported on 1 March 1943 to the
permanent company at motorised replacement unit 17 in Enns, but immediatly
announced that because of his religious views he refused to do armed military
service. During questioning by the court officer, despite detailed instruction
and advice as to the consequences of his conduct, he maintained his negative
attitude. He explained that if he fought for the National Socialist state, he
would be actiong against his religious conscience. He also assumed this
negative attitude during questioning by the court investigating officer of
Division No 487 in Linz, and by the representative of the national court
martial. However, he declared himself willing to serve as a medical orderly as
an act of Christian charity. At the main trial he repeated his statements and
added that is was only during the last year he had reached the conviction that
as a believing Catholic he could not perform military service, he could not
simultaneously be a National Socialist and a Catholic: that was impossible. If
he had obeyed the earlier call-up papers, he had done so because at that time
he had regarded it as sinful not to obey the commands of the state: now God had
made him think that it was not a sin to reject armed service: there were things
over which one should obey God more than man: because of the command 'Love thy
neighbour as thyself' he could not fight with weapons. He was however prepared
to serve as a medical orderly...
"... The accused had
already been a soldier for six months, had taken the oath of loyalty to the
Führer and Supreme Commander of the Army, and during his period of service was
amply informed about the duties of the German soldier. Nevertheless, despite
being told about the consequences of his conduct, he stubbornly refuses for
personal reasons to fulfil his patriotic duty in Germany's hard struggle for
survival. Accordingly, the death sentence is pronounced."
The court did not respond
to Jägerstätter's request to be allowed to do medical service. To the end he
would have had the opportunity, like other conscientious objectors, to withdraw
his objection unconditionally, and would then have been assigned immediately to
a probation unit (panishment company).
Early on 9 August 1943,
Franz Jägerstätter was taken from Berlin to Brandenburg/Havel. At midday he was
told that his death sentence had been confirmed and that it would be carried
out at 4 pm. Fr Jochmann from Brandenburg spent considerable time with him and
was very impressed by the condemned man's calmness and composure. On the
evening of 9 August he told Austrian nuns that Franz Jägerstätter was the only
saint he had met in his life. On 9 August 1943, at 4 pm, Franz Jägerstätter was
beheaded, the first of 16 victims.
Fr Jochmann learned from
the civilian crematorium and cemetery superintendent of the spot where
Jägerstätter's urn was buried. The nuns planted flowers there, and on their
first trip to their mother house in Vocklabruck after the war they brought the
urn containing Franz Jägerstätter's ashes to his homeland. On 9 August 1946 it
was buried by the church wall in St Radegund.
Many people come to St
Radegund during the year, and particularly for the annual services
commemorating his death on 9 August. In Franz Jägerstätter they find strength,
consolation and direction. His wife still acts as sacristan.
In the Diocese of Linz,
preparations are being made for the canonisation of Jägerstätter, for his
inclusion in the register of officially recognised models of Chirstian life.
SOURCES:
Erna Putz, Franz Jägerstätter...besser die Händle als der Wille gefesselt,
(Linz, 1987)
Erna Putz (ed.), Gefängnisbriefe und Aufzeichnungten. Franz Jägerstätter
verweigert 1943 den Wehrdienst, (Linz, 1987) (Jägerstätter quotations are taken
from this edition.)
PICTURE CREDITS:
The Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, London (front cover picture of German
soldiers MH 9231): Privatarchiv Jägerstätter, St Radegund (front cover picture
of Franz Jägerstätter, pages 4,6, 11), R. Rinnerthaler, Salzburg (p.9), J. Mayhofer,
St Radegund (p.3), Valerie Flessati London (back cover).
FURTHER READING IN ENGLISH:
Gordon Zahn, Franz Jaegerstatter - Martyr for Conscience (Pax Christi USA,
Erie, 1984)
Franz Jägerstätter: an
International Symbol of Conscience (Pax Christi International Brussels, 1992)
Both the above pamphlets
are available from: Pax Christi, 9 Henry Road, London N4 2LH
Gordon Zahn, In Solitary
Witness: the life and death of Franz Jägerstätter (the original biography,
reprinted 1986, Templegate Press, Illinois)
AGAINST THE STREAM has
been published by:
PAX CHRISTI
9 Henry Road
London N4 2LH
(0181 800 4612)
ANGLICAN PACIFIST
FELLOWSHIP
11 Weavers End
Hanslope,
Milton Keynes MK19 7PA
(01666 825249)
SOURCE : https://bocs.hu/jager-a.htm
Sankt
Radegund (Autriche), église paroissiale, exposition d’un portrait
photographique de Franz Jägerstätter.
Sankt
Radegund (Austria), parish church
Sankt
Radegund (Österreich), Pfarrkirche
Interior
of Saint Radegund Church (St. Radegund, Sankt Radegund, Braunau District, Upper Austria,
Pfarrkirche
St. Radegund
_Interior_01.jpg)
Interior
of Saint Radegund Church (St. Radegund, Sankt Radegund, Braunau District, Upper Austria,
Pfarrkirche
St. Radegund
Beato Francesco
Jagerstatter Laico, martire
St. Radegund, Austria, 20
maggio 1907 - Berlin-Brandenburg, Germania, 9 agosto 1943
Franz Jägerstätter nacque
nel maggio del1907a St. Radegund, cittadina dove trascorse una giovinezza
piuttosto dissipata. Poi, un giorno, una resipiscenza profonda lo indusse
a ricordarsi delle sue radici cattoliche. Ne seguì una conversione religiosa
intensa che lo portò a darsi una severa regolata. Messa finalmente la testa a
partito, nel1936si sposò con Franziska Schwaninger. Dal matrimonio nacquero tre
bambine. Nel frattempo lo Jägerstätter si era fatto terziario francescano ed
aveva anche prestato servizio militare. Ma venne il tempodell'Anschluss e la
Germania nazista mise le mani sull'Austria. Scoppiò anche la guerra e lo
Jägerstätter temette di dover parteciparvi come soldato tedesco. Ma non certo
per paura. Il fatto era che Franz Jägerstätter era stato l'unico a St. Radegund
a votare «no» nel referendum con cui il popolo austriaco doveva approvare
l'unione con la Germania. Egli, profondamente cattolico, detestava il nazismo
pagano e riteneva del tutto ingiustificata la guerra che esso aveva scatenato. Ma
nel febbraio del1943arrivò la chiamata alle armi. Lo Jägerstätter,
coerentemente, rifiutò di presentarsi. Venne arrestato ai primi di marzo per
renitenza alla leva e portato nel carcere di Linz. Sudi lui fu esercitato ogni
tipo di pressione, dalle lusinghe alle minacce. Gli permisero persino di
consultarsi con un paio di sacerdoti cattolici, i quali gli consigliarono di
cedere, almeno per amoredelle figliolette. Ma Franz Jägerstätter si sarebbe
fatto tagliare la testa piuttosto che giurare fedeltà al Reich. Venne preso in
parola nell'agosto, a Berlino. Papa Benedetto XVI ha riconosciuto ufficialmente
il suo martirio il 1° giugno 2007. Franz Jagerstatter, vittima del nazismo in
odio alla sua fede, è stato beatificato il 26 ottobre 2007.
C’è un beato che deve la
sua felice collocazione in Paradiso, oltre che alla grazia di Dio, anche alla
propria moglie. E non, si badi bene, in virtù del luogo comune secondo cui
tutte le donne fanno guadagnare il paradiso ai rispettivi mariti, ma perchè
“quella” donna è riuscita a trasformare il “suo” uomo da un cristiano qualsiasi
(e neppure tanto fervente) in un martire. Francesco, figlio di ragazza madre,
nasce in Austria nel 1907, frutto dell’amore contrastato e “impossibile” tra
una ragazza a servizio in una fattoria e un contadino che lavora nei campi
attigui: entrambi troppo poveri per sposarsi, tanto che la famiglia di lei, ad
un matrimonio di miseria, preferisce tenersi il bambino. Dieci anni dopo mamma
si sposa con il proprietario di una piccola fattoria che lo adotta e gli da il
proprio cognome. A 20 anni Francesco va a lavorare in una fattoria della
Baviera e in una miniera della Stiria: con i soldi guadagnati, dopo tre anni
può tornare in sella ad una moto, la prima del paese, che desta l’invidia degli
amici e l’ammirazione delle ragazze, ma ha perso per strada la fede. Simpatico,
allegro e festaiolo, ama corteggiare le ragazze del paese e si lascia
coinvolgere anche in alcune risse con i giovani delle cricche rivali: un
giovane come tanti, insomma, neppure migliore degli altri, che un giorno del
1933 si ritrova anche padre, in seguito alla contrastata relazione con una
domestica. Comincia un lungo percorso di riavvicinamento alla fede, ma la vera
svolta nella sua vita avviene nel 1935, quando conosce Francesca, che sposa
l’anno successivo: cominciano a pregare insieme, la Bibbia diventa loro lettura
quotidiana, cercano di “aiutarsi l’un l’altra nella fede”, come ricorda ancora
oggi Francesca. “Non avrei mai immaginato che essere sposati potesse essere
così bello”, ammette Francesco, che intanto diventa papà di tre meravigliose
bimbe. Contadino nei campi che il padre adottivo gli ha lasciato in eredità e
per qualche tempo anche sacrestano della sua parrocchia, la sua fede, si nutre
sempre più di preghiera e di comunione frequente. I problemi di coscienza
cominciano per lui con l’ascesa di Hitler al potere. Ritenendo il nazismo
assolutamente incompatibile con il Vangelo e per restare un cristiano coerente
non solo a parole, comincia la sua solitaria battaglia di opposizione: rifiuta
di fare il sindaco del suo paese, manda indietro gli assegni familiari che lo
stato gli dovrebbe, rinuncia anche all’indennizzo per i danni della grandine,
fino a convincersi che è peccato grave combattere e uccidere per permettere a
Hitler di conquistare il mondo. Prega, digiuna, si confronta con parenti ed
amici sacerdoti e tutti gli consigliano di adeguarsi, di pensare alla famiglia,
di non mettere a repentaglio la propria vita, mentre lo stesso vescovo di Linz
gli ricorda che non è compito di un padre di famiglia stabilire se la guerra
sia giusta o no. Tutti, ad eccezione di Francesca. Che, pur sperando in una via
d’uscita, non fa pressioni al suo uomo, lo lascia libero di seguire la sua
coscienza, lo sostiene quando gli altri non lo capiscono o lo avversano. Così,
quando il 1° marzo 1943 viene chiamato a fare il soldato, rifiuta con decisione
il servizio militare armato perché “nulla potrebbe garantire la mia anima
contro i pericoli che i nazisti le farebbero correre”. Immediatamente arrestato
e processato a Berlino davanti al Tribunale supremo del Terzo Reich, viene
condannato a morte. Passa in carcere momenti terribili, combattuto tra il ricordo
delle figlie e dei momenti felici regalatigli da Francesca, che gli “sembrano
talvolta perfino dei miracoli”, e i suoi imprescindibili doveri di cristiano.
Mentre sente “l’obbligo di pregare Dio, che ci permetta di capire a chi e
quando dobbiamo obbedire”, cosciente che potrebbe cambiare il suo destino con
un semplice “sì”, arriva alla conclusione che “né il carcere, né le catene e
neppure la morte possono separare un uomo dall’amore di Dio e rubargli la sua
libera volontà” “Scrivo con le mani legate, ma è meglio così che se fosse
incatenata la mia volontà”, è il suo ultimo messaggio dal carcere; viene
ghigliottinato il 9 agosto 1943 a Brandeburgo, nello stesso carcere in cui è
detenuto anche il teologo protestante Bonhoeffer. Franz Jägerstätter, il contadino
che disse di no ad Hitler, è stato beatificato a Linz il 26 ottobre dell’ano
scorso.
Autore: Gianpiero
Pettiti
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/93494
OMELIA DEL CARDINALE JOSÉ
SARAIVA MARTINS
1. Sono venuto a Linz, con una gioia nel cuore davvero grande, per l'onore che
il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI mi ha voluto benevolmente concedere, nel
designarmi a presiedere il solenne rito della Beatificazione del servo di Dio
Franz Jägerstätter, come suo rappresentante. Mi è caro manifestarvi la letizia,
del tutto particolare, nel vedere iscritto, oggi, nell'albo dei beati un laico,
sposato, padre di famiglia.
Il servo di Dio Giorgio
La Pira, popolarmente conosciuto in Italia, ma non solo, come "il
sindaco santo" di Firenze, con quel tratto profetico che non manca
mai ai santi, 50 anni fa, se pure in un contesto così diverso e lontano
dall'attuale, già scriveva:
"La santità del
nostro secolo avrà questa caratteristica: sarà una santità dei laici. Noi
incrociamo per le strade coloro che
fra cinquant'anni saranno forse sugli altari: per le strade,
nelle fabbriche, al parlamento, nelle aule universitarie".
Allora un tale auspicio
sembrava quasi impossibile da concretizzare. Oggi vediamo che in virtù
dell'ultimo Concilio, e della sua generosa attuazione attraverso il ministero
petrino di Giovanni Paolo II, sono fatti realizzatisi, non solo a parole, e
continuano ad esserlo con l'alto magistero di Benedetto XVI.
2. La peculiarità del
nostro beato è racchiusa nel suo martirio (1943), inserito nel contesto storico
particolarmente tragico del periodo del III Reich, durante la seconda guerra
mondiale. Il beato Franz era un uomo del nostro tempo, un uomo normale, con dei
difetti e persino per un certo periodo di vita, con uno stile di vita piuttosto
leggero e mondano. Ma in seguito alla sua vocazione e con la grazia di Dio
giunse a mettere la volontà di Dio al di sopra di tutto, arrivando, dopo lunghe
lotte interne a una vita straordinaria di testimonianza cristiana. Per le sue
convinzioni di fede ha affrontato la morte. Il suo cammino è una sfida ed un
incoraggiamento per tutti i cristiani che possono prendere esempio da lui, per
vivere con coerenza ed impegno radicale la loro fede, anche fino alle estreme
conseguenze se necessario. I beati e i santi hanno sempre dato l'esempio di
cosa significhi e comporti l'essere cristiani, anche in particolari concreti
momenti della storia.
In un tempo come il
nostro, dove non mancano i condizionamenti e addirittura la manipolazione delle
coscienze e delle intelligenze, talvolta attraverso forme subdole che si
servono delle moderne e più avanzate tecnologie, la testimonianza del beato
Franz, del suo indomito coraggio e della sua ferma e forte coerenza è un
importantissimo esempio.
3. Sono commoventi le
parole contenute nell'ultima lettera inviata dallo Jägerstätter alla moglie
Franziska Schwanniger, in particolare quando afferma: "Ringrazio
anche il nostro Salvatore perché io ho potuto soffrire per Lui. Confido nella
sua infinita misericordia; spero che Egli mi abbia perdonato tutto e che non mi
abbandonerà neanche nella mia ultima ora... Osservate i comandamenti e, con la
grazia di Dio, ci rivedremo presto in Cielo!" (Doc. 21, Summ., 187-188).
Parole che ci portano
all'essenza, perché i santi sanno sempre andare all'essenziale, che qui è
riconducibile a quel "serva mandata", "osserva i
comandamenti" (cfr Mt 19, 17) con cui Gesù risponde a
chi vuol sapere cosa deve fare per avere la vita eterna.
Invocando la protezione
speciale del nuovo beato, il martire Franz Jägerstätter, su questa venerata
Chiesa diocesana di Linz, mi è caro partecipare a questo caro popolo di Dio, a
cominciare dal suo venerato Pastore sua eccellenza monsignor Ludwig Schwarz,
sui presbiteri, i diaconi, i religiosi e le religiose e su tutti i fratelli e
sorelle nella fede, la particolare Benedizione Apostolica del Santo Padre
Benedetto XVI, affinché vi accompagni nel cammino verso la santità, a cui tutti
siamo chiamati.
SOURCE : https://www.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/franz-jagerstatter.html
A proposito di :
Franz Jagerstatter. Un
contadino contro Hitler
Come di certo sapete solo
pochissimi cattolici e protestanti ebbero il coraggio, in contrapposizione alle
loro gerarchie, di rifiutare il servizio militare nell'esercito di Hitler.
Ancora dopo la fine della
guerra, il vescovo della diocesi di Jagerstatter, J. C. Fliesser, commentando i
motivi per cui aveva impedito la pubblicazione di un articolo in cui si
esaltava il comportamento del suo correligionario affermava:
"Considero veri eroi
quei giovani, teologi, sacerdoti e padri cattolici che, nell'eroico adempimento
del loro dovere e nella convinzione profondamente radicata di fare la volontà
di Dio, ognuno all'interno del proprio ruolo, hanno lottato e sono caduti per
questo, come un tempo i soldati cristiani nell'esercito dell' imperatore
pagano. O i veri eroi sono i testimoni di Geova e gli avventisti che
'coerentemente' hanno preferito morire nei campi di concentramento piuttosto
che impugnare le armi? Tanto di rispetto per una coscienza che è innocentemente
errata; troverà misericordia presso Dio".
Per costui, come per la
stragrande maggioranza del clero delle chiese cristiane, i veri eroi erano
quanti avevano sacrificato la propria vita nella guerra di Hitler, non coloro
che, come Jagerstatter, avevano seguito gli stimoli di una coscienza
"innocentemente errata".
( "Franz
Jagerstatter. Un contadino contro Hitler", Erna Putz. Berti Editrice.
2000. p. 193)
E' interessante osservare
quali fattori influirono sulla decisione coraggiosa e solitaria dello
Jagerstatter. Gordon Zahn scrive nel suo libro:
"A Santa Radegonda, per spiegare la condotta di Jagerstatter, si fa molto spesso riferimento alle sue relazioni con il cugino testimone di Geova. Si dà molta importanza al tempo che trascorsero insieme in lunghe discussioni su argomenti religiosi o per studiare la Bibbia. I testimoni di Geova, in Austria come negli Stati Uniti, rifiutano di prendere parte a guerre di ordine temporale, nell'attesa di un conflitto in cui dovranno impegnare tutte le loro forze per riportare una vittoria eterna; ecco perché un gran numero di essi vennero condannati a morte per aver rifiutato di prendere parte alle guerre hitleriane. Non c'è da meravigliarsi che quella gente di campagna, guidata dal buon senso, abbia potuto attribuire all'obiezione di coscienza di Jagerstatter all'influenza del cugino. . . . Tuttavia, padre Kreuzberg avanza una riserva: pur ammettendo che essa non abbia influito sull'ortodossia di Franz, ritiene però che l'esempio di quegli uomini fedeli alla loro fede e disposti ai più grandi sacrifici, abbia potuto incoraggiarlo nella sua decisione. Padre Kreuzberg ricordava di aver sentito Franz parlargli con ammirazione della loro fede incrollabile."
("Il testimone
solitario. Vita e morte di Franz Jagerstatter", Gribaudi. 1968. pp. 131,
133.)
SOURCE : http://www.triangoloviola.it/jagersta.html
Franz Jägerstätter, martire
della libertà di coscienza contro il nazismo
E’ stato beatificato per
la sua testimoniaza di fede fino al sacrificio
26 ottobre 2007RedazioneNotizie
dal Mondo
Di Mirko Testa
LINZ, venerdì, 26 ottobre
2007 (ZENIT.org).-
Ci fu un contadino, padre di famiglia, di nome Franz Jägerstätter che si oppose
al regime nazista e andò incontro alla morte a soli 36 anni pur di non tradire
il suo credo religioso.
Questo venerdì, nel
giorno in cui viene ricordata la liberazione dell’Austria dal nazismo, nella
Cattedrale dell’Immacolata di Linz, il Cardinale José Saraiva Martins, C.F.M.,
Prefetto della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi, su mandato di Benedetto
XVI, lo ha elevato alla gloria degli altari.
Franz Jägerstätter – come
riportato nel sito della diocesi
di Linz – nacque nel 1907 in un paesino a St. Radegund, nell’Alta
Austria – la stessa terra che diede i natali anche ad Adolf Hitler –, ove
trascorse l’infanzia e nel 1936 sposò Franziska Schwaninger. Dalla loro unione
nacquero tre figlie.
Franz e Franziska
pregavano insieme, ricevevano quotidianamente la Comunione, formando la propria
coscienza sulla lettura assidua delle Sacre Scritture. Lavorò come contadino,
poi in una miniera di ferro in Stiria, e in seguito come sagrestano a St.
Radegund.
Fu membro del Terzo
Ordine di San Francesco d’Assisi, ma soprattutto un profeta lungimirante nel
riconoscere la barbarie del nazionalsocialismo che voleva strappare Dio dal
cuore degli uomini e alimentava il razzismo, l’ideologia della guerra e la
deificazione dello Stato.
Fin dall’inizio, infatti,
negò ogni collaborazione o sostegno ai nazionalsocialisti, che riuscirono ad
annettere l’Austria alla Germania nel 1938.
Chiamato alle armi nel
1943, in pieno conflitto mondiale, dichiarò che come cristiano non poteva
servire l’ideologia hitleriana e combattere una guerra ingiusta per portare
alla vittoria un regime senza Dio e permettergli di sottomettere sempre più
popoli.
A nulla valsero i
tentativi di coloro che cercarono di convincerlo ad arruolarsi per non
rischiare la vita.
In una intervista a
“Radio Vaticana”, il postulatore della Causa di Beatificazione, l’avv. Andrea
Ambrosi, ha detto che il suo parroco, Josef Karobath, usciva dai colloqui con
lui “ammutolito” nel sentire le citazioni delle Sacre Scritture che faceva per
motivare questa sua posizione.
Dopo un nuovo richiamo
Franz Jägerstätter si presentò l‘1 marzo 1943 alla sua compagnia ad Enns, ma si
dichiarò subito renitente alla leva e contrario ad imbracciare un’arma per far
del male a qualcuno.
Successivamente, venne
portato nel carcere della Wehrmacht di Linz, nell‘ex convento delle Orsoline.
Due mesi di prigionia a Linz, con angherie e insulti, lo fecero precipitare in
una profonda crisi e tensione spirituale, in cui corse il rischio di perdere la
propria fede. La felicità provata accanto a Franziska rappresentò, però, per
Franz un costante segno della presenza di Dio.
Infine, il 9 agosto 1943
Franz Jägerstätter venne condotto a Brandeburgo sull‘Havel e lì decapitato.
Quel giorno indirizzò
alla sua famiglia rimasta a casa la sua ultima lettera, scritta poche ore prima
dell’esecuzione, che la vedova, ancora vivente, conserva come un prezioso
testamento.
“Carissima sposa e madre
– scrisse –, vi ringrazio ancora di cuore per tutto ciò che avete fatto per me
nella mia vita, per l’amore che mi avete donato e per i sacrifici che avete
sostenuto per me […] non mi è stato possibile risparmiarvi le sofferenze […]
salutate da parte mia le mie care bambine, di tutto cuore. Pregherò il buon
Dio, appena potrò arrivare in cielo, di riservare un posticino per tutti voi”.
Nel 1997 è stato
ufficialmente aperto il processo per la beatificazione di Franz Jägerstätter,
chiuso presso la diocesi il 21 giugno 2001. L‘1 giugno 2007 il Vaticano ha
confermato ufficialmente il suo martirio.
Nell’intervista alla
“Radio Vaticana”, il postulatore della Causa di Beatificazione ha affermato che
Jägerstätter “è stato capace di sacrificare sull’altare dell’amore a Dio i suoi
tenerissimi affetti terreni. La sua più grande aspirazione era quella di
testimoniare la sua esclusiva appartenenza a Dio, essendo capace per questa sua
indefettibile fedeltà di dare la propria vita”.
In un articolo apparso,
invece, su “L’Osservatore Romano” (26 ottobre 2007), il postulatore ha
raccontato che tra i 21 testimoni totali della Causa alcuni erano presenti agli
ultimi giorni di vita del Servo di Dio, che anche in carcere continuava a
pregare e meditare.
In particolare, il sign.
Gregor Breit, che condivise con lui la dura esperienza detentiva nel carcere
militare di Linz, ha testimoniato come Jägerstätter “abbia sopportato con
infinita pazienza la dura detenzione carceraria, evidentemente mosso da quella
fortissima spinta religiosa che gli faceva superare il dolore di dover lasciare
gli affetti più cari”.
Nel suo testamento
vergato a Berlino nel luglio del 1943 si legge: “Scrivo con le mani legate, ma
preferisco questa condizione al sapere incatenata la mia volontà. Non sono il
carcere, le catene e nemmeno una condanna che possono far perdere la fede a qualcuno
o privarlo della libertà”.
Stained
glass window showing stations of Jägerstätter's life in the Votivkirche, Vienna
Franz Jägerstätter
20. Mai 1907 - 09. August
1943
Franz Jägerstätter kommt
1907 in St. Radegund in Oberösterreich als nichteheliches Kind zur Welt; wegen
großer Armut können seine Eltern nicht heiraten. Als Zwanzigjähriger arbeitet
er in der Steiermark im Bergbau und kehrt 1930 in sein Dorf zurück, wo er einige
Jahre später den Bauernhof seines Stiefvaters übernimmt. 1936 heiratet er
Franziska, eine Magd aus der Nachbarschaft, aus der Ehe gehen drei Töchter
hervor. 1938 weigert sich Jägerstätter, nach dem Einmarsch deutscher Truppen in
Österreich für den „Anschluss“ zu stimmen. 1940 wird er in den Dritten Orden
des heiligen Franziskus augenommen. Seine Gegnerschaft zum NS-Regime verstärkt
sich vor allem angesichts der Verfolgung katholischer Geistlicher und der Morde
an Kranken und Behinderten. 1940 erstmals zur Wehrmacht einberufen, kann er
kurz darauf zu seiner Familie zurückkehren, da ihn seine Heimatgemeinde als
„unabkömmlich“ einstuft. Als Jägerstätter im Februar 1943 erneut zur Wehrmacht
einberufen wird, entschließt er sich aus christlicher Überzeugung, den
Fahneneid und den Kriegsdienst zu verweigern; er lässt sich weder von seiner
Familie noch von ihm nahestehenden Geistlichen von seinem Weg abbringen. Franz
Jägerstätter wird festgenommen, vom Reichskriegsgericht in Berlin am 6. Juli
1943 wegen „Zersetzung der Wehrkraft“ zum Tode verurteilt und am 9. August 1943
im Zuchthaus Brandenburg-Görden ermordet.
Literatur
Erna Putz: Franz
Jägerstätter. Gefängnisbriefe und Aufzeichnungen. Linz 1987
Erna Putz: Franz
Jägerstätter. „... besser die Hände als der Wille gefesselt... Linz 1985
Kurz-Biographie mit
Zeittafel: Franz Jägerstätter 1907 - 1943
Franz Jägerstätter wird
am 20. Mai 1907 in St. Radegund, Oberösterreich (Diözese Linz), als Kind der ledigen
Bauernmagd Rosalia Huber geboren.
Die Mutter heiratete 1917 den Bauern Heinrich Jägerstätter, der bei der Hochzeit das Kind seiner Frau adoptiert.
1933 wird er Vater der Tochter Hildegard. 1935 lernt er Franziska Schwaninger, Bauerntochter aus dem benachbarten Hochburg, kennen und sie heiraten am Gründonnerstag 1936. Sie bewirtschaften gemeinsam den Leherbauernhof. Franz Jägerstäter ist ab 1941 Mesner in St. Radegund.
Aus der Ehe gehen drei Töchter hervor, Rosalia (*1937), Maria (*1938) und
Aloisia (*1940).
Den Nationalsozialisten verweigert Jägerstätter von Anfang an jede
Zusammenarbeit, denn Christentum und Nationalsozialismus sind für ihn völlig
unvereinbar.
1940
wird Jägerstätter zum Militärdienst einberufen, aber zweimal unabkömmlich
gestellt. Einer weiteren Einberufung leistet er nicht mehr Folge, denn
"mitzukämpfen und zu töten, dass Hitler die ganze Welt beherrschen
könne", sieht er als Sünde und persönliche Schuld an.
Am 1. März 1943 erklärt er nach seiner erneuten Einberufung bei der
Stammkompanie in Enns, "dass er auf Grund seiner religiösen Einstellung
den Wehrdienst mit der Waffe ablehne, dass er gegen sein religiöses Gewissen
handeln würde, wenn er für den nationalsozialistischen Staat kämpfen würde und
er könne nicht gleichzeitig Nationalsozialist und Katholik sein."
Jägerstätter wird in das Wehrmachtsuntersuchungsgefängnis im Linzer
Ursulinenhof gebracht und Anfang Mai in das Wehrmachtsuntersuchungsgefängnis
Berlin-Tegel überstellt. Am 6. Juli 1943 wird Franz Jägerstätter wegen
"Wehrkraftzersetzung sowie zum Verlust der Wehrwürdigkeit und der
bürgerlichen Ehrenrechte" verurteilt.
Am 9. August 1943 wird er in Brandenburg/Havel enthauptet.
Ab 1989 werden im Auftrag von Diözesanbischof Maximilian Aichern Personen, die
Franz Jägerstätter gekannt haben, als Zeugen einvernommen. 1997 wird der
Seligsprechungsprozess für Franz Jägerstätter offiziell eröffnet und am
21. Juni 2001 auf diözesaner Ebene abgeschlossen.
Der Vatikan bestätigt am 1.Juni 2007 offiziell das Martyrium.
SOURCE : https://www.dioezese-linz.at/site/jaegerstaetter/biografie/franz/article/7087.html
Beato Franz Jägerstätter
Gedenkort für Franz Jägerstätter im Neuen Dom in Linz
Beato Franz Jägerstätter
Linz, Neuer Dom, Gedenkstätte für den sel. Franz Jägerstätter
Beato Franz Jägerstätter
Gedenkort zu Franz Jägerstätter im Neuen Dom in Linz, Brief von Jägerstätte in
der Stele, Detail
Biographie Franz Jägerstätter 1907 – 1943 Märtyrer
Franz Jägerstätter wird
am 20. Mai 1907 in St. Radegund, Oberösterreich (Diözese Linz), als Kind der
ledigen Bauernmagd Rosalia Huber geboren. Sie und der Vater, Franz Bachmeier,
können als Magd bzw. Knecht nicht heiraten. Die Erziehung des Kindes übernimmt
die Großmutter, Elisabeth Huber, eine liebevolle, fromme und vielseitig interessierte
Frau. Die materielle Not während des 1. Weltkrieges ist in der Region groß. In
der Schule erfährt sich das Kind Franz wegen seiner Armut benachteiligt. Die
Mutter heiratet 1917 den Bauern Heinrich Jägerstätter, der bei der Hochzeit das
Kind seiner Frau adoptiert. Inspiriert durch den (Adoptiv-)Großvater
interessiert sich Franz als Heranwachsender für Bücher, darunter auch für
religiöse Literatur. Von seinem Adoptivvater erbt er den Bauernhof.
Von 1927 bis 1930
arbeitet Franz Jägerstätter im Erzabbau in Eisenerz (Steiermark). Dort erfährt
er sich geistig und religiös entwurzelt und macht eine Glaubens- und Sinnkrise
durch. Er kommt als vertieft Glaubender 1930 in seine Heimat zurück.
1933 wird er Vater einer unehelichen Tochter Hildegard. Die Mutter des Kindes
ist Theresia Auer, Magd auf einem Hof in der Nachbarschaft; sie sagt später:
„Wir sind im Frieden auseinander gegangen, er hat mich um Verzeihung gebeten.“
Zwischen Vater und Tochter bestand eine gute Beziehung.
1935 lernt er Franziska
Schwaninger, Bauerntochter aus dem benachbarten Hochburg, kennen. Sie heiraten
am Gründonnerstag 1936. Auf seinen Vorschlag hin machen sie eine Hochzeitsreise
nach Rom. Sie bewirtschaften den Leherbauernhof. Die Ehe wird zum Wendepunkt im
Leben Franz Jägerstätters. In der Folge sei er ein anderer geworden, so die
Nachbarn. Franz und Franziska beten miteinander und die Bibel wird zum
Lebensbuch des Alltags. Franziska über diese Zeit: „Wir haben einer dem anderen
weiter geholfen im Glauben.“ Franz Jägerstätter ist ab 1941 auch Mesner in St.
Radegund. Aus der Ehe gehen drei Töchter hervor, Rosalia (*1937), Maria (*1938)
und Aloisia (*1940). Franz Jägerstätter bemerkt einmal: „Ich habe mir nie
vorstellen können, dass Verheiratetsein so schön sein kann.“
Den Nationalsozialisten,
die in Österreich 1938 die Macht übernehmen, verweigert Jägerstätter von Anfang
an jede Zusammenarbeit oder Unterstützung, denn Christentum und
Nationalsozialismus sind für ihn völlig unvereinbar. Durch einen Traum fühlt
sich Franz Jägerstätter vor dem Nationalsozialismus gewarnt: Ein Zug, der
unzählige Menschen ins Verderben führt, „entschleiert“ sich ihm als die NSDAP
mit all ihren Gliederungen.
1940 wird Jägerstätter
zum Militärdienst einberufen, auf Betreiben der Heimatgemeinde aber zweimal
unabkömmlich gestellt. Einer weiteren Einberufung will er nicht mehr Folge
leisten, denn mitzukämpfen und zu töten, dass Hitler die ganze Welt beherrschen
könne, sieht er als Sünde an. Die Mutter, Verwandte und auch befreundete
Priester versuchen ihn umzustimmen. Seine Frau Franziska hofft zwar auch auf
einen Ausweg, steht aber zu ihm in seiner Entscheidung: „Wenn ich nicht zu ihm
gehalten hätte, hätte er gar niemanden gehabt.“
In ausführlichen
Aufzeichnungen legt Franz Jägerstätter die Beweggründe seines Handelns nieder:
Er sieht es als persönliche Schuld, mitzukämpfen und Menschen zu töten, damit
das gottlose NS-Regime siegen und immer mehr Völker unterjochen könne. Franz
betet, fastet und berät sich. Er bittet auch den Linzer Diözesanbischof Joseph Calasanz
Fließer um eine Aussprache. Dieser meint unter anderem, als Familienvater sei
es nicht seine Sache zu entscheiden, ob der Krieg gerecht oder ungerecht sei.
Franziska Jägerstätter begleitet ihren Mann nach Linz, am Gespräch nimmt sie
nicht teil. Sie erinnert sich an den Moment, an dem ihr Mann aus dem
Sprechzimmer des Bischofs kommt: „Er war sehr traurig und sagte zu mir:
‘Sie trauen sich selber nicht, sonst kommen’s selber dran.’ Der Haupteindruck
von Franz war, dass der Bischof nicht wagte offen zu sprechen, weil er
Jägerstätter nicht kannte; er hätte ja auch ein Spion sein können.“
Nach der erneuten
Einberufung meldet sich Franz Jägerstätter am 1. März 1943 bei seiner
Stammkompanie in Enns, erklärt aber sofort: „dass er auf Grund seiner religiösen
Einstellung den Wehrdienst mit der Waffe ablehne, dass er gegen sein religiöses
Gewissen handeln würde, wenn er für den nationalsozialistischen Staat kämpfen
würde; ... er könne nicht gleichzeitig Nationalsozialist und Katholik sein; ...
es gebe Dinge, wo man Gott mehr gehorchen müsse als den Menschen; auf Grund des
Gebotes ‚Du sollst Deinen Nächsten lieben wie Dich selbst‘ dürfe er nicht mit
der Waffe kämpfen. Er sei jedoch bereit, als Sanitätssoldat Dienst zu leisten.“
(Aus der Begründung des Reichskriegsgerichtsurteils vom 6. Juli 1943)
Jägerstätter wird daraufhin in das Wehrmachts-Untersuchungsgefängnis im Linzer Ursulinenhof gebracht. Zwei Monate Haft in Linz mit Folter und Schikanen bewirken eine große Krise. Der junge Bauer ist in Gefahr den Glauben zu verlieren. Das erfahrene Glück mit Franziska ist ihm ein bleibender Hinweis auf die Gegenwart Gottes.
Anfang Mai wird Franz Jägerstätter in das Wehrmachtsuntersuchungsgefängnis Berlin-Tegel überstellt. Er bittet, zum Sanitätsdienst zugelassen zu werden, was abgelehnt wird. Am 6. Juli 1943 wird Franz Jägerstätter wegen „Wehrkraftzersetzung sowie zum Verlust der Wehrwürdigkeit und der bürgerlichen Ehrenrechte“ verurteilt.
Durch Pfarrer Heinrich Kreutzberg erfährt er, dass ein Jahr zuvor der
österreichische Pallottiner-Pater Franz Reinisch aus denselben Gründen den
Wehrdienst verweigert hat und dafür gestorben ist. Diese Mitteilung gibt ihm in
seiner Lage Halt und Trost. Die Eucharistie, die Bibel und ein Bild seiner
Kinder sind ihm in dieser Zeit sehr wichtig.
Franz Jägerstätter wird
am 9. August 1943 nach Brandenburg/Havel gebracht und enthauptet.
Die beiden Seelsorger, Pfarrer Kreutzberg in Berlin und Pfarrer Jochmann in
Brandenburg, sehen in ihm einen Heiligen und Märtyrer. Im Jahre 1965 verweist
Erzbischof Thomas D. Roberts SJ (1939 bis 1958 in Bombay, Indien) bei der
Arbeit an der Pastoralkonstitution des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils in einer
schriftlichen Eingabe auf die einsame Gewissensentscheidung Franz
Jägerstätters: „Märtyrer wie Jägerstätter sollen nie das Gefühl haben, dass sie
allein sind.“
Am 7. Mai 1997, 54 Jahre
nach seiner Hinrichtung, wird vom Landgericht Berlin das Todesurteil gegen
Jägerstätter aufgehoben. Die Aufhebung kommt einem Freispruch gleich und
bedeutet moralische und juristische Rechtfertigung seiner Handlung. Das
Landesgericht geht davon aus, dass der Zweite Weltkrieg nicht dem Volk sondern
dem nationalsozialistischen Machtstreben gedient hat. Wer sich wie Jägerstätter
einem Verbrechen widersetzt, kann kein Verbrecher sein.
Ab 1989 werden im Auftrag
von Bischof Aichern Personen, die Franz Jägerstätter gekannt haben, als Zeugen
einvernommen. Nach unterstützenden Voten der Österreichischen Bischofskonferenz,
einer historisch-theologischen Kommission und des Linzer Domkapitels wird 1997
offiziell der Seligsprechungsprozess für Franz Jägerstätter eröffnet, am 21.
Juni 2001 auf diözesaner Ebene abgeschlossen und die Akten nach Rom zur Selig-
und Heiligsprechungskongregation übergeben.
Der Vatikan bestätigt am
1. Juni 2007 offiziell das Martyrium des österreichischen
Kriegsdienstverweigerers Franz Jägerstätter (1907-43). Die Seligsprechung
erfolgt am 26. Oktober 2007 im Linzer Mariendom.
(Aus: Franz Jägerstätter_Christ und Märtyrer,
Erna Putz; Franz Jägerstätter. Gedenken und Gebet.Novene)
Diözesanbischof Dr. Ludwig Schwarz und Bischof Dr. Manfred Scheuer (Postulator des Seligsprechungsverfahrens) stellen zur Seligsprechung fest
(in: Franz Jägerstätter – Märtyrer. Leuchtendes Beispiel in dunkler Zeit)
„Die Kirche anerkennt
damit ausdrücklich die Haltung dieses gläubigen Mannes, der sehr wohl auch uns
Heutigen etwas zu sagen hat.
Das Gedenken an Franz
Jägerstätter steht in einem mehrfachen Beziehungsrahmen: zu seiner Frau, zu
seinen Kindern und zu seiner Familie, kirchlich zu seiner Seligsprechung, zu
Fragen der Heiligkeit und des Martyriums, gesellschaftlich und politisch in
Auseinandersetzung mit der Kriegsvergangenheit, mit der Kriegsgeneration, mit
der Unmenschlichkeit und dem Terror der Nationalsozialisten, ethisch und
pädagogisch mit den Themen von Krieg und Kriegsdienstverweigerung,
Gewaltfreiheit, Friedenserziehung und Abrüstung, von Obrigkeit, Gewissen und
Gehorsam.
Franz Jägerstätter ist
ein Prophet mit einem Weitblick und Durchblick, wie ihn damals die wenigsten
seiner Zeitgenossen hatten, er ist Vorbild in der Treue zum Gewissensanspruch,
Anwalt der Gewaltlosigkeit und des Friedens, Warner vor Ideologien, er ist ein gläubiger
Mensch, dem Gott wirklich Mitte und Zentrum des Lebens war. Sein prophetisches
Zeugnis für die christliche Wahrheit beruht auf einer klaren, radikalen und
weitsichtigen Analyse der Barbarei des menschen- und gottverachtenden Systems
des Nationalsozialismus, dessen Rassenwahn, dessen Ideologie des Krieges und
der Staatsvergottung wie dessen erklärten Vernichtungswillen gegenüber
Christentum und Kirche. Aus einem gebildeten und reifen Gewissen heraus hat er
ein entschiedenes Nein zum Nationalsozialismus gesagt und ist wegen seiner
konsequenten Weigerung, in Hitlers Krieg als Soldat zu kämpfen, hingerichtet
worden.“
SOURCE : https://www.dioezese-linz.at/site/jaegerstaetter/biografie/franz/article/7088.html
Voir aussi : http://www.clairval.com/lettres/fr/2008/04/02/6020408.htm
http://www.dioezese-linz.at/site/jaegerstaetter/home
https://www.dioezese-linz.at/seliger-franz-jaegerstaetter&ts=1729033941951
https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/person/gnd/118556509
