Johann Mordstein

Johann Mordstein (* before 1910 ; † probably between 1945 and 1960 ) was a laborer and canteen keeper who saved two Jews from persecution by the National Socialists in 1945 .

Johann Mordstein led in the 1930s and 1940s with his wife Catherine the canteen of the German Reichsbahn in the station Garmisch-Partenkirchen and lived near the railway station in the warehouse Straße 3 . At that time the station was a central point for SS transports. On April 25, 1945, a train with around 1,700 Jewish concentration camp inmates from the Dachau concentration camp arrived. They were supposed to be brought to Austria before the Allies reached the concentration camp. From a hundred of the SS guards, the train was a total of three days in the station. Although his wife advised against it because of the impending danger to her husband and himself, Mordstein freed two of the prisoners one night and placed them in the basement of the Reichsbahn canteen. During the last days of the war near Scharnitz, the freight train with the concentration camp inmates, who had meanwhile been left to their own devices, got caught in a skirmish between Germans and Americans, and many of the abducted people lost their lives. Those hid by Mordstein were finally free when the Americans liberated the Garmisch-Partenkirchen market on April 29, 1945 . 47.49088 11.09939

Several years later - about five years after the death of Johann Mordstein - one of the two rescued wrote a letter from Haifa to the family of his rescuer and thanked him with a gift: the letter was attached to a box of Jaffa oranges . Today a plaque at the train station in Garmisch-Partenkirchen commemorates Mordstein. Johann Mordstein's son-in-law was bobsleigh driver Sylvester Wackerle , his grandchildren are ice hockey player Sylvester Wackerle and bobsleigh athlete Anton Wackerle .

Web links

Alois Schwarzmüller: Contributions to the history of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen market in the 20th century. Alois Schwarzmüller, accessed on January 28, 2020 .
The dark chapter of a local history. Bayerischer Rundfunk, January 27, 2014, accessed on January 28, 2020 .

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Pupils at Werdenfels-Gymnasium, Garmisch-Partenkirchen: Oranges from Haifa and the courage of Johann Mordstein. (MP3 Audio) Bayerischer Rundfunk , November 14, 2013, accessed on January 28, 2020 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Alois Schwarzmüller: In memory of Johann Mordstein and his bravura piece. 2007, accessed January 27, 2020 .
↑ Konstantin Groß: More than just a stopover. Mannheimer Morgen Großdruckerei und Verlag GmbH, February 23, 2019, archived from the original on February 23, 2019 ; accessed on January 28, 2020 .

personal data
SURNAME	Mordstein, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Innkeeper, saved Jews from murder by the National Socialists
DATE OF BIRTH	before 1910
DATE OF DEATH	between 1945 and 1960

[wg-audio-1] Pupils at Werdenfels-Gymnasium, Garmisch-Partenkirchen: Oranges from Haifa and the courage of Johann Mordstein. (MP3 Audio) Bayerischer Rundfunk , November 14, 2013, accessed on January 28, 2020 .

[gap-as-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Alois Schwarzmüller: In memory of Johann Mordstein and his bravura piece. 2007, accessed January 27, 2020 .

[mm-3] Konstantin Groß: More than just a stopover. Mannheimer Morgen Großdruckerei und Verlag GmbH, February 23, 2019, archived from the original on February 23, 2019 ; accessed on January 28, 2020 .