Theodor Helten

Theodor Helten (born April 9, 1897 in Cologne-Ehrenfeld ; † May 18, 1942 in Sachsenhausen (Oranienburg) ) was a Catholic clergyman and was tortured to death in Sachsenhausen concentration camp .

Origin and education

Theodor Helten was one of seven children of the horse-drawn carriage driver Hermann Helten and his wife Gertrud, b. Albrecht. After studying Catholic theology at the University of Bonn and the subsequent training in Cologne seminary he was on August 10, 1923 at the Great Cathedral in Cologne by Archbishop Karl Joseph Cardinal Schulte for priests ordained .

Act

A first place led him on 11 December 1923 as chaplain to Nievenheim , another already on 16 August 1924 in the Upper bergische Morsbach and the third one on March 6, 1928. Meckenheim before March 23, 1931 Rector pastor in Heisterbacherrott appointed has been. During his activity there, the pilgrimage to the relic of the holy apostle Jude Thaddäus , which has existed since 1921, was very popular, especially after 1933.

Arrest and death

After anonymous denunciation for alleged embezzlement of pilgrimage funds and tax evasion, Helten was arrested in April 1937 and held in so-called protective custody for 18 months in the Königswinter prison . He then returned to Heisterbacherrott for one day, but left the place the next day, as threats were made against him by the local Nazi officials. In the period that followed, Helten was employed in the Wandering Church until the Gestapo arrested him again on a previously unknown date and sent him to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There Helten was tortured to death by a communist kapo . The Oranienburg registry office gave May 18, 1942 as the date of death. The clergyman's body was cremated in the small crematorium in the industrial yard of Sachsenhausen concentration camp. His mother was later able to collect the urn in Cologne for a fee and to have it buried in the family grave of the Melaten cemetery .

Honors

• In Heisterbacherrott, the Rektor-Helten-Weg commemorates the priest.
• In 1999, the Catholic Church accepted Theodor Helten into the German martyrology of the 20th century as a witness of faith .

literature

• Handbook of the Archdiocese of Cologne, 23rd edition, Cologne 1933, p. 757.
• Ulrich von Hehl (Ed.): Priest under Hitler's terror. A biographical and statistical survey. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh Paderborn 1996³, Bd. I, Sp. 731. ISBN 3-506-79839-1 .
• Helmut Moll : Rector Theodor Helten (1897-1942) from Heisterbacherrott tortured to death in Sachsenhausen concentration camp , in: Siebengebirgs-Zeitung. Independent local newspaper for the Siebengebirge and the surrounding area, vol. 34 (1997) nos. 36 (2-3) and 37 (2-3).
• Helmut Moll (Ed. 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 , Volume I, pp. 349–353.

Web links

• Martyr in the Archdiocese of Cologne