Vincent Platajs

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Vincent "Vinko" Platajs (born April 2, 1899 in Wölling, Styria (today: Velka, Slovenia); † October 9, 1944 in the Brandenburg-Görden prison ) was a Jehovah's Witness of Yugoslav origin. Among other things, he was sentenced to death and executed for distributing anti-military writings in National Socialist Germany.

Life

Vinzenz Platajs was born in Styria in 1899 . He later moved to France and worked in the coal mine in Liévin . There he had contact with Bible Students . At the end of the 1920s he met Ludmilla Letonja and their children Anton, Wilhelm and Josefine and put them in touch with the Bible Students. In 1928 he and Josephine were baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses . The two married in the same year. A year later their daughter was born, who was also called Josefine. In 1931 the family moved to Austria in southern Styria, only to move on to Yugoslavia a short time later. There the couple served as full-time preachers. Vincent Platajs had lost his Yugoslav citizenship due to his long stay in France and, like his wife and daughter, had become stateless.

After Germany invaded Yugoslavia , Platajs and his family had to return to Austria. There they had to work as slave labor on a farm. At the end of August 1943 he was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to Munich-Stadelheim prison. During interrogation, he was beaten so brutally that his spine festered. He was sentenced to death by the People's Court in Berlin. He was accused of illegally transporting literature, supporting the families of concentration camp prisoners, and disrupting the military . The indictment of July 8, 1944 stated, among other things, that he had attempted “by disseminating, in part also by producing anti-military writings publicly to paralyze and undermine the will of the German people to defend themselves” . Platajs had received forbidden writings from Jehovah's Witnesses from Narciso Riet and Matthäus Burgstaller several times and participated as a courier in their distribution. Platajs was executed by beheading on October 9, 1944 in the Brandenburg-Görden prison. His brother-in-law Wilhelm Letonja had already been executed in the same prison in 1942 for desertion and conscientious objection.

His wife's custody of their daughter was withdrawn after his death. She came to live with National Socialist foster parents who severely abused her. When the Red Army marched in , this family was shot by soldiers. Plataj's daughter returned to her mother. The two later moved to Switzerland, where they continued to work for Jehovah's Witnesses.

Rehabilitation

In the course of the Recognition Act of 2005, the rehabilitation of Plataj and his brother-in-law Wilhelm Letonja was applied for on February 3, 2005. These applications were granted on August 16, 2005 by the Vienna Regional Criminal Court .

literature

  • Andreas M. Ioannis Rohrweg: "You have to excuse my writing, I am tied up!" . In: A Letter To The Stars . Students write history. Volume 1 Letters to Heaven. Alfred Worm et al. a. (Ed.), Verlag Verein Lern ​​aus der Zeitgeschichte, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-9501836-9-8 , pp. 160–167 ( online , accessed on December 21, 2017).
  • Anton Letonja: Faith Tests in Europe under the Nazi Regime . In: Awake! . February 8, 2003, pp. 16-20 ( online , accessed December 21, 2017).
  • Angela Nerlich: "And suddenly the Germans were there". The Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in France and Luxembourg. In: Gerhard Besier , Katarzyna Stokłosa (ed.): Jehovah's Witnesses in Europe: Past and Present, Volume 1 . Lit Verlag , Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-643-11508-9 , pp. 166-170 ( online , accessed December 21, 2017).

Web links

  • Platajs Vincent. In: Victim reports of the association Lila Winkel. March 31, 2013, accessed January 5, 2017 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c See Nerlich 2013
  2. ↑ See Ioannis Rohrweg 2003
  3. ↑ a b c d See Letonja 2003
  4. ↑ Kauer Hermine b. Tautz. In: Victim reports of the association Lila Winkel. February 3, 2014, accessed January 5, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Overview of rehabilitation. In: jehovas-zeugen.at. Retrieved January 5, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Platajs, Vincent
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Platajs, Vinko
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jehovah's Witness and victims of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Wölling (Velka)
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 1944
Place of death Brandenburg-Görden prison