Josef Kraker

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Josef Kraker (born May 13, 1875 in Altlag bei Gottschee , Austria-Hungary , † 1949 in Bled , Yugoslavia ) was a Catholic priest . His resistance to the evacuation of the German-speaking ethnic group of the Gottscheers from Yugoslavia by the National Socialists was important .

Life

Josef Kraker was born on May 13, 1875 in Altlag in the Gottscheer Land. Later he was a long-time Catholic pastor in the parish of Rieg .

After the Balkan campaign in April 1941, the Gottschee was occupied by the Italian army and became part of the Italian province of Ljubljana . The National Socialists relocated the Gottscheers from their homeland to Lower Styria , which was occupied by the Wehrmacht. The Diocesan Bishop of Ljubljana released the priests from the oath of loyalty. However, together with other Gottscheer clergymen ( Josef Eppich , Ferdinand Erker, Josef Erker, August Schauer , Josef Gliebe , Josef Kreiner and Alois Perz), Kraker took a public position against the planned resettlement.

Together with his fellow priests Josef Gliebe and some other Gottscheers collected Josef Kraker late September and early October 1941 in Rieg , Göttenitz and measles signatures against the relocation, which were then presented to the German consul in Ljubljana. The National Socialist leadership of the Gottscheers under Wilhelm Lampeter , Richard Lackner , Herbert Erker and Ludwig Kren reacted, among other things, with the threat that the Italians would relocate the Gottscheers who remained at home to southern Italy or Abyssinia . This explains the failure of the campaign to stay. Of over 10,000 Gottscheers, only a few hundred remained in the Gottschee, but of the eight Gottschee clergy there were four - besides Kraker, his colleagues Schauer, Eppich and Gliebe. Schauer and Eppich died in 1941 and 1942 respectively.

Josef Kraker initially stayed behind with some Slovenian families in Rieg, where Domobranzen from Dolenja vas / Niederdorf tried to persuade him to set up a village guard (MVAC). He resisted and left Rieg in September 1942, after he had been threatened several times and no longer felt safe about his life. In May 1943 he became pastor in Bled / Veldes , where Pastor Jakob Černe had previously been arrested for making critical statements. He was not received with goodwill in the community, as the faithful initially held him responsible for Černe's arrest. In the CdZ area of ​​Carinthia and Carniola , the German occupying power had banned the use of the Slovene language in the church, but Kraker, unlike his predecessor, dared to hold the readings in both languages. He also taught the children in Slovene. On May 26, 1945, Kaplan Šoukal came to Bled and Kraker took over the Blejska Dobrava community. He stayed here until his death in 1949.

Like his colleague Gliebe, Josef Kraker ran a beekeeping business in his places of work. He had a special breed with long trunks, but he did not want to sell his bees. They died one winter when he could no longer take care of them.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The parishes of the Gottscheer Land . Yearbook of the Diocese of Laibach, 1932 ( online )
  2. ↑ Frensing 1970, p. 19
  3. ↑ a b Erich Petschauer: Jahrhundertbuch der Gottscheer, 1980  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.7 MB). P. 110.@1@ 2Template: dead link / www.uni-klu.ac.at  
  4. ↑ Viktor Michitsch on July 15, 1965, in Frensing (1970), p. 84.
  5. ↑ Zdravko Troha (2004), p. 76.
  6. ↑ a b Erich Petschauer: Jahrhundertbuch der Gottscheer, 1980  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.7 MB). P. 124.@1@ 2Template: dead link / www.uni-klu.ac.at  
  7. ↑ Franc Gornik: Župnija Bled v LETIH druge svotovne vojne . Mohorjev koledar 1991.
  8. ↑ KRISPIN Ogris: Čebele for dolgimi rilčki . Zveza čebelarskih društev za Slovenijo. Slovenski čebelar 65 (1963), p. 70.

literature

  • Hans Hermann Frensing: The resettlement of the Gottscheer Germans . Oldenbourg, Munich 1970. 180 pages.
  • Erich Petschauer: Century Book of Gottscheers , 1980 ( online PDF ; 1.7 MB).
personal data
SURNAME Kraker, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Gottscheer priest
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Altlag near Gottschee , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH 1949
Place of death Bled , Yugoslavia