Wolfgang Piatkowski

Wolfgang Piatkowski OFM (born September 19, 1907 in Ronnenberg as Paul Piatkowski ; † April 22, 1945 in Upper Palatinate on the way to the Flossenbürg concentration camp ) was a German lay brother in the Franciscan order .

Life

Paul Piatkowski completed a commercial apprenticeship after finishing school and worked in his profession in Gehrden , the neighboring town of his birthplace. On November 3, 1934, he entered the Thuringian Franciscan Province ( Thuringia ) and was initially Terziar . On March 19, 1935, he made his third order profession in the Frauenberg monastery in Fulda and worked in the Thuringia mission administration , where his professional knowledge was helpful. He was then transferred to the Watersleyde Monastery near Sittard (Holland) as a kitchen assistant and returned to Fulda in January 1938 in the same position. His religious name was Wolfgang . On September 19, 1939 the order admitted him to the novitiate in the First Order of St. Francis , but soon after entering the novitiate he was called up for military service.

He was used as a soldier in Russia. From the letters to his relatives, his convincing basic religious attitude can be seen. Apparently he was accused of " decomposing the military force ", because in 1943 he was demoted from sergeant to pioneer and belonged to a punishment company . In June 1944 he was in hospital because of typhus and was transferred to Berlin in July 1944, where he was taken into Gestapo custody. The conditions of detention tightened after the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 . On October 11, 1944, Wolfgang Piatkowski was sentenced to two years in prison and transported to the Buchenwald concentration camp on February 19, 1945 . There he fell ill with typhus , as he did once in Russia . On April 9, 1945, he was transported to the Flossenbürg concentration camp by train and on foot , but was already severely exhausted and weighed only 60 pounds. Wolfgang Piatkowski did not live to see the liberation of the camp by the 3rd US Army on April 23. It is unknown whether he died as a result of imprisonment or was shot by the SS .

The date of death is April 22, 1945, Wolfgang Piatkowski was officially declared dead by the community of Pösing (Upper Palatinate) on December 7, 1947.

literature

• Emmanuel Dürr, Art .: Brother Wolfgang (Paul) Piatkowski. In: Helmut Moll (ed.): 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 , vol. 1, pp. 927-928.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Emmanuel Dürr: Brother Wolfgang (Paul) Piatkowski. In: Helmut Moll (ed.): Witnesses for Christ. The German martyrology of the 20th century . Paderborn 1999, Vol. 2, p. 763.