Arnold Fortuin

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Portrait of Arnold Fortuin on a house wall in Berlin

Arnold Fortuin (born October 19, 1901 in Neunkirchen / Nahe ; † June 19, 1970 in Illingen [Saar] ) was a Roman Catholic clergyman who killed hundreds of " gypsies " during the Nazi era from persecution by the Nazi state saved.

Life

Fortuin attended high school in St. Wendel and graduated from high school there. He studied theology at the seminary in Trier . On July 31, 1927, he was ordained a priest in Trier Cathedral. He was initially a chaplain in the parish of St. Michael in Saarbrücken and in Hönningen am Rhein. Between 1933 and 1937 he worked as a religion teacher at a vocational school in Bad Kreuznach . In 1937 he was transferred from Bad Kreuznach to Beuren because of his anti-Nazi attitude .

From 1937 to 1950 he was pastor in Beuren. From 1951 he looked after the parish of St. Stephanus in Illingen and from 1958 he took over the function of "Definitor" of the dean's office in Illingen. In September 1965 he was appointed pastor of the "Gypsies" in Germany by the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference , Cardinal Julius Döpfner . Fortuin died in Illingen and was buried in the cemetery of his home parish in Neunkirchen.

Activity during the time of National Socialism

In 1939, the Hinzert SS special camp was established near Beuren . After the so-called assessment decree was issued in October 1939 , Sinti and Roma were no longer allowed to leave their place of residence in Germany under the threat of concentration camp imprisonment. Half a year later the first Roma and Sinti were deported. Fortuin then helped numerous Sinti and Roma, with whom he had been in contact since his time in Saarbrücken, to flee to France. After surviving Sinti re-established contact with Fortuin in the 1950s, the first "Gypsy pilgrimage" to the mountain chapel in Illingen took place in 1955 .

Honors

In the 1970s, a housing estate for Roma was built in the Roggendorf / Thenhoven district of Cologne . The street is named Fortuinweg .

In September 2012 the Arnold-Fortuin-Haus with 137 apartments for around 600 Roma was opened in Berlin-Neukölln, which was renovated by a real estate company of the Catholic Church. The head of the project, Benjamin Marx, had religious instruction from Fortuin at the time. A mural on this house shows a portrait of Fortuin.

On March 20, 2019, the Schwarze Weg in Illingen was renamed Arnold-Fortuin-Straße and the community school was renamed Fortuin community school .

Web links

Commons : Arnold Fortuin  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.mahnmal-trier.de/Personen/fortuin.htm
  2. ↑ Thanksgiving procession for a courageous priest. Saarbrücker Zeitung, October 3, 2017, accessed on March 23, 2019 .
  3. ↑ see report by Eva-Maria Fortuin, a niece of Arnold Fortuin, in Paulinus.de, a newspaper of the Diocese of Trier under [1]
  4. ↑ Solveig Lenz-Engel: Fortuin stands for peace and freedom. Saarbrücker Zeitung, March 21, 2019, accessed on March 23, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Fortuin, Arnold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Roman Catholic clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Neunkirchen (Nohfelden)
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1970
Place of death Illingen (Saar)