Bernhard Heinzmann

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Bernhard Heinzmann (born August 20, 1903 in Böhmenkirch ; † August 10, 1942 in the Nazi killing center Hartheim in Upper Austria ) was a Catholic priest and opponent of the Nazi regime . He was persecuted and murdered by the National Socialists .

Life

Bernhard Heinzmann was a priest in the diocese of Augsburg . Even as a chaplain in Starnberg in 1930 he defended himself against anti-French polemics on the grounds that the French were also “ God's creatures ”. Although he was physically threatened again and again, he preached against the “ idolization of Hitler ” and against the “ racial madness ”.

After he had tried to settle a dispute at a journeyman's association because of singing an anti-Italian song with reference to the internationality of the Catholic Church and there was then strong hostility against him, he was transferred several times by his superiors, because they said so to be able to calm the situation down. On Epiphany in 1941, he was parish vicar in Kronburg -Illerbeuren when he was arrested in the parsonage there to be sent to the remand prison in Augsburg . From there he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp in November 1941 and on August 10, 1942 as part of the so-called “ Aktion 14f13 ” to the Hartheim Nazi killing center in Hartheim Castle near Alkoven near Linz in Upper Austria, where he was gassed .

Honors

The Catholic Church accepted Vicar Bernhard Heinzmann in 1999 as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

literature

  • Otto Knab: The Martyr of Böhmenkirch: Pastor Bernhard Heinzmann , published by the Catholic Parish Office of Böhmenkirch (hectography) 1975.
  • Helmut Moll (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. The German Martyrology of the 20th Century , Paderborn a. a. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Volume I, pp. 68-72.
  • Eduard Werner: Pastor Heinzmann - a martyr of tolerance between peoples . In: The rock, Catholic word in time. 31st year, No. 9, September 2000 ( PDF file; 654 kB).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elke Fröhlich (ed.), Martin Broszat (ed.): Bavaria in the Nazi era. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-486-42411-4 , p. 130 ( online )
personal data
SURNAME Heinzmann, Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catholic priest and opponent of the Nazi regime
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Böhmenkirch
DATE OF DEATH August 10, 1942
Place of death Nazi killing center Hartheim , Upper Austria