Walter Hoeft

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Walter Hoeft (born October 29, 1906 in Fischerbabke (today: Rybina ), † November 11, 1939 near Piaśnica ) was a Roman Catholic priest and is a martyr of the Catholic Church .

origin

Walter Hoeft has a German name, he was born in the German Empire . He received his education from 1921 to 1933 in Poland . He served as a priest in the Free City of Gdansk for six years . From his father's and mother's side of his ancestors, he is on the one hand " Danziger " and on the other hand " Kashubian ".

Life

Hoeft grew up in Danzig (today: Gdańsk ) , among other places , but he finished school in Wejherowo . When the Danzig Free State was founded, his parents moved to Wejherowo (formerly German: Neustadt in West Prussia ), which belonged to Poland in 1920 .

He studied at the Seminary of Pelplin and was on 17 December 1932 ordained priests . In 1933 he joined the Maria Meeresstern Church in Sopot as a chaplain . There he was very popular and was active in several Polish clubs and youth organizations.

In 1935 he was transferred to Prangenau (Polish Pręgowo ) near Praust ( Pruszcz Gdański ). In 1937 Hoeft was vicar at the Franziskus Church in Schidlitz-Emaus ( Gdańsk-Siedlce ) before he was transferred to the Christ the King Church in Gdansk in 1938 . During these years he had to limit his priestly work due to illness. From 1937 he was also chairman of the Association of Catholic Journeyman's House in Danzig.

At the beginning of the Second World War , the vicar stayed with his parents in Wejherowo. He immediately reported as a war volunteer and military chaplain . During the advance of the Wehrmacht , he was captured and taken to the Schießstange prison in Gdańsk . On November 10, he was transported with other political prisoners to Wejherowo and shot the following day in the Piaśnica Dead Forest . The Piaśnica massacre is considered to be the first systematically carried out murder campaign by the National Socialists in German-occupied Europe.

Commemoration

In Sopot since 1985 a memorial to him, four Catholic chaplains who in concentration camps were killed and 69 other citizens who were victims of Nazi atrocities were. A plaque on the Marienkapelle in Söder near Hildesheim also mentions his name. The Catholic Church included Vicar Walter Hoeft as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century . Nothing is known about a process of beatification as a martyr.

See also

literature

  • Lech Kaczmarek (Ed.): Studia Gdańskie, Tom 1 (Polish). Gdańsk-Oliwa 1973. p. 47, p. 93 f. (PDF 12.2 MB [3] (PDF file; 12.21 MB))
  • 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 , Volume I, p. 763.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 1 września 1939 r Gdańsk (Polish) [1]  ( 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.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.mariateresa.pl  
  2. ↑ Kafemann (Ed.): Danzig residents' book 1937/38. Danzig 1937. Part III. P. 43
  3. ↑ Sopot War Memorial (Eng.) [2]  ( 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.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / old.sopot.net  
personal data
SURNAME Hoeft, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman Catholic clergyman and Nazi victim
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Fischerbabke , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 1939
Place of death Piaśnica , German Empire