Josef Quinke

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Josef Quinke (born October 18, 1905 in Fretter ; † December 16, 1942 in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was a German master baker and victim of the Nazi regime. He died in Sachsenhausen concentration camp and was later declared a martyr of the 20th century.

Life

Quinke was the son of a master baker. He wanted to become a missionary and attended the Steyler Missionaries' grammar school in Driburg . Because he was supposed to take over his parents' bakery after the death of his brother, he returned home. He learned the bakery trade and in 1925 took over his father's bakery. He was also active in Catholic youth work. He continued this activity during the National Socialist era .

From the beginning he opposed the efforts of the National Socialists and, for example, gathered the parishioners around him on Sundays in order to subvert the Hitler Youth service. He did not lose contacts with soldiers from Fretter whom he knew. During the Second World War he sent the soldiers at the front messages (baked in bread rolls) as well as parcels and, out of Christian conviction, enclosed them with the famous pastoral letter and sermons of the Münster Cardinal von Galen . The sermon of August 3, 1941, attracted particular attention because the bishop fearlessly spoke out against the euthanasia of the mentally handicapped and the terminally ill, which Hitler ordered. He reported on the conditions in the sanatoriums. In particular, the killing of war invalids, which von Galen linguistically presented in the subjunctive as a possible consequence, was accepted as a factual assertion and heightened the effect of the sermons considerably. The Nazi rulers did not like the distribution of these writings at all and they took action against it with great severity. Quinke was aware of this and was not intimidated. He expressed his opinion frankly and the following answer has been passed down when he was advised to be careful: "My comrades are at the front and have to give their lives. I don't want to be more cowardly than them!"

Since the rulers came to the conclusion that their attempts to keep the killing of sick people secret had failed, that further opposition from the churches was to be feared and that the "euthanasia" proved inconsistent in large parts of the population, Action T4 was interrupted for the time being only continued in a less noticeable form a year later.

Quinke was helped by various people in reproducing the scriptures. That is why informers found out about the activity and leaked some of the documents to the Gestapo .

His home and the local parsonage were searched. On May 17, 1942, he and the local pastor were imprisoned in the Steinwache Gestapo prison in Dortmund . While the pastor was soon released, Quinke remained in custody. He declared himself responsible and did not reveal the names of his helpers despite the abuse. He died on December 16, 1942 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Appreciation

  • The Catholic Church accepted Josef Quinke as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .
  • In his birthplace Fretter, a street is named after him and a church window is dedicated to him.

literature

  • Ottilie Knepper-Babilon / Hannelie Kaiser Löffler (2003): Resistance against the National Socialists in the Sauerland. Brilon. P. 40f.
  • Helmut Moll (publisher on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference), witnesses for Christ. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhundert , Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , 604–606.
  • Tigges, Paul / Föster, Karl (2003): Catholic youth in the hands of the Gestapo. Resistance in the Westphalian area against the totalitarian Nazi regime. Bigge. Pp. 168-178.
  • DER DOM (1999): You answered the call of your conscience. The lay witnesses of the Archdiocese of Paderborn 1933-1945. 54th vol., Supplement from October 31, 1999, pp. 24–29.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DER DOM (1999): They answered the call of their conscience. The lay witnesses of the Archdiocese of Paderborn 1933-1945. 54th vol. Pp. 24-29.
  2. ↑ DER DOM (1999): They answered the call of their conscience. The lay witnesses of the Archdiocese of Paderborn 1933-1945. 54th vol. Pp. 24-29.
  3. ^ Tigges, Paul / Föster, Karl (2003): Catholic youth in the hands of the Gestapo. Resistance in the Westphalian area against the totalitarian Nazi regime. Bigge. Pp. 168-178.
personal data
SURNAME Quinke, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION catholic priest
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Fretter
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1942
Place of death Sachsenhausen concentration camp