Remembering Blessed Franz Jägerstätter

Valerie Flessati
Aug 5th, 2021

Scene from 'A Hidden Life'

Monday 9 August is the anniversary of the execution of Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, when Pax Christi will hold its annual commemoration in thanksgiving for his life. This will be an online service, at 6.30pm - the same time as pilgrims will gather for Mass in his home village of St Radegund, Upper Austria. It is remarkable that 78 years after his death in obscurity, this Austrian farmer is honoured around the world and beatified by the Church.

In Solitary Witness was the title given by Professor Gordon Zahn to his biography of Franz Jägerstätter in 1964. A Hidden Life was the title of Terrence Mallick's film, screened in 2019. Both depict the awesome faith of Franz Jägerstätter: awesome in its heroic courage, most especially because of his loneliness. Franz could not square the demands of National Socialism with his beliefs as a Catholic - though the majority of Catholics in Austria seemed able to accommodate them.

When he refused compulsory conscription into the Nazi army in 1943, refused to swear the military oath of loyalty to Hitler, the outcome was predictable. He was on the path to imprisonment and execution. Even the Church leaders he consulted advised him to 'do his duty' and comply. Everyone knew that conscientious objection would cost Franz his life and everyone tried to change his mind: friends and family, the local bishop, priests and eventually lawyers.

His was an awesome faith, too, in trusting providence: that God would not abandon him if he obeyed his conscience, nor his wife Franziska and young children, even though Franz might seem to be abandoning them by the stark choice he made.

When Franz refused military service he had no thought of making a public stand. He did not know of anyone else who had done the same, and was even afraid that he was going against Church teaching by doing so. He was much consoled to be told in prison that a priest (Fr Franz Reinisch) had been executed the year before for refusing the oath.

Very gradually Franz's solitary witness, his hidden life, became better known. Substantial research, further biographies, and the publication of his letters, have brought more of his story into the light. In Austria there are now streets named after Franz, and many works of art, operas and plays about him. There is even a memorial at the barracks where he announced his refusal to do military service. Cynics may point out that the case of Franz Jägerstätter has been valuable to a modern Austria anxious to prove that there were national heroes who resisted Nazism.

None of that detracts from the extraordinary faith of Franz, obedient to God, not rulers - nor that of Franziska, whose own sacrifice was long-lasting: she lived to be 100, and died in 2013. As we contemplate Franz's decision, the weeks alone with God in prison whilst knowing his fate, we stand back in awe. We're seeing a different realm here.

Franz did not expect his death to have any effect on the war, on Hitler, or anyone else. His only concern was to act according to the truth which he felt God had entrusted to him - but the significance of his individual witness has far-reaching consequences. As Gordon Zahn wrote: "From the Nuremberg Trial through to present day military atrocities, the moral and legal issue hinges upon the extent to which individuals willingly comply with orders and policies later recognized as war crimes".

Pax Christi books and other resources about Blessed Franz here: https://paxchristi.org.uk/resources/peace-people-2/blessed-franz-jagerstatter/