Aloys Nordmann

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Aloys Nordmann (born January 3, 1921 in Melchendorf ; † October 20, 1944 in Berlin ) was a Wehrmacht soldier from Erfurt who was executed for " statements that degrade the military force ". It is cited in literature and in church circles as an example of Christian-motivated resistance against National Socialism .

Life

Aloys Nordmann grew up with four siblings in a Christian family in Erfurt, his father worked for the Reichsbahn . The first political prison camp of the National Socialists was set up in the back building of the apartment in 1933, where the family, including 12-year-old Aloys Nordmann, witnessed abuse of prisoners. The family tried to help the inmates as much as possible. No family member joined any of the National Socialist organizations or parties, which in particular brought professional disadvantages to the father. The children were also exposed to corresponding discrimination in school. As a youth, Aloys Nordmann was a member of the Erfurt Kreuzbund group and the Christian youth association Quickborn .

Nordmann and his two brothers were called up for military service; his younger brother Rudolf died on the Eastern Front in 1944 at the age of 18, and his older brother Gerhard was reported missing in the same year. Aloys Nordmann was seriously injured in a military hospital in Bremerhaven , where he witnessed the destruction of the war and air raids on Germany. After a heavy air raid, he expressed himself bitterly to his comrades about "the serious guilt that the war had also caused at home" and that the person who had "started this war" must be shot. He was reported and arrested and sentenced to death by shooting in Berlin in an express trial for “statements that degrade the military strength ” .

According to a letter from his defense lawyer to the parents, three comrades are said to have later sworn in court that Nordmann had literally said:

“If someone were found to shoot the Fiihrer, a 70 million people would be saved and he would go down in history as a great man. You have to be happy about every air raid alarm, because it is one step closer to peace. During all of his time as a soldier he had not fired a shot at the enemy. It would be better to pile up than to be shot, it would all be in vain. "

The death sentence was carried out in Berlin-Spandau prison on October 20, 1944 , after two appeals for clemency had been rejected. The last words of Aloys Nordmann are said to have been attested by the Wehrmacht priest:

“You murderers and criminals, maybe in eight to ten weeks you will be in the same place where I am today. Long live Christ the King and his righteousness! "

Commemoration

The Diocese of Erfurt, in cooperation with the Working Group of Christian Churches of the City of Erfurt and the Working Group on Church and Judaism in Thuringia, invites you to an ecumenical service in the Erfurt Cathedral on January 27th each year . In 2003, Aloys Nordmann was the focus of remembrance of the victims of National Socialism.

The Catholic Church accepted Alyos Nordmann as a martyr in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

literature

  • Karl-Joseph Hummel , Christoph Kösters: Forced Labor and the Catholic Church 1939–1945. History and memory, compensation and reconciliation - a documentation. Schoeningh, Paderborn 2008, ISBN 978-3-506-75689-3 .
  • Helmut Moll (ed.): Witnesses for Christ. The German martyrology of the 20th century . 7th, revised and updated edition. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , pp. 203–204 (on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference).
  • Bernhard Sacrificemann (Ed.): The Episcopal Office Erfurt-Meiningen and its Diaspora. Past and present - a manual. St. Benno, Leipzig 1988, ISBN 3-7462-0214-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Moll: Witnesses for Christ. The German martyrology of the 20th century. Volume 1, Schöningh, Paderborn 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , p. 204.
  2. ↑ bistum-erfurt.de ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Nordmann, Aloys
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Melchendorf
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1944
Place of death Berlin