Dr. Josef Fink (1894-1973): From Courageous Mayor Who Defied the Nazis to Silent Rescuer

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Blog (EN) Dr. Greiter, Dr. Kneussl und Dr. Fink

Blog (EN) Dr. jur. Franz Greiter

Blog (EN) Dr. jur. Erich Kneussl

Dr. Josef Fink (1894-1973): From Courageous Mayor Who Defied the Nazis to Silent Rescuer

Who was the man who demonstratively ignored Hitler, outsmarted the Gestapo, and after the war helped one of the most enigmatic Nazi perpetrators? The story of Dr. Josef Fink from Hall in Tyrol is a lesson in civil courage, humanity, and the ambivalence of justice.
In the picturesque municipality of Volders in Tyrol, nestled in the natural landscape of Volderwildbad, lies a place with a remarkable history. Today it is a quiet excursion destination, but in the darkest years of the 20th century, it was a quiet harbor of resistance. Here lived and worked Dr. phil. Josef Fink (1894-1973), a man whose life path led from Catholic academic and mayor to Nazi opponent in a concentration camp – and who after the war issued a decisive, still debated statement for a controversial Gestapo officer.
This article illuminates the courageous life of Josef Fink, his quiet but consistent resistance to the Nazi regime, and takes a special look at a surprising chapter of his post-war period: his exoneration of Heinrich Andergassen – an SS-Untersturmführer who was executed as a war criminal just one year later.

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Blog (EN) Heinrich Andergassen (Part I)

From High School to Political Office: The Path of a Resister

Josef Fink was deeply rooted in Tyrolean tradition. As a student at the Franziskaner Gymnasium in Hall in Tyrol and as a young man who was received into the Catholic student fraternity Sternkorona in 1911, he was shaped by Catholic values and a strong sense of community. After studying history and geography at the University of Innsbruck, where he was active in the AKV Tirolia, and receiving his doctorate (Dr. phil.) in 1918, a classic academic path seemed predetermined.
But World War I, which he experienced as a member of the Tyrolean Kaiserjäger (Imperial Riflemen), and the subsequent takeover of the "Volderwildbad" inn and guesthouse in 1919 gave his life a new direction. The academic became an innkeeper, a farmer, and above all: a local politician.
From 1928 to 1936, Fink was mayor of the municipality of Großvolderberg. His political commitment then led him from 1936 to 1938 as a deputy to the Tyrolean State Parliament (Landtag). But with the "Anschluss" of Austria to Nazi Germany, everything changed abruptly. His political career in the service of the republic was over – but his courage to resist injustice was just beginning.

Coat of arms of the Tirolia Innsbruck student fraternity. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Online at: Attribution: presumed Leopold Huter - AKV Tirolia, PD-alt-100, https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3858804 (Accessed: May 17, 2026)

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Blog (EN) Sternkorona III

(EN) The Franciscan Monastery in Hall Forced Closure and Seizure

Open Defiance and Silent Rescue: Fink's Fight Against the Nazis

What distinguished Dr. Josef Fink was his almost demonstrative disobedience. While others fell silent out of fear, he did not seek major confrontation, but constant, small affronts. The most famous anecdote describes how he demonstratively read a newspaper in a café in Hall whenever a Führer speech was broadcast on the people's radio (Volksempfänger) . A quiet, but unmistakable gesture of refusal that earned him his first warnings from the state police.
But his resistance was far more than mere symbolism. In 1939, he was denounced – for making a "derogatory remark" – and imprisoned by the Gestapo in Innsbruck. Here, for the first time, his luck in misfortune showed itself. His friend, the doctor Dr. Emil Sailer (1888-1966) , risked everything to help him. He diagnosed a temporary mental illness, allowing Fink to be transferred from the Gestapo prison to the presumed safety of the state hospital in Hall. When transfer to Hartheim – one of the central killing centers of the Nazi "euthanasia" program – threatened, Dr. Sailer simply certified him as fully recovered. Fink's life was saved.
Back in his inn in Volderwildbad, Fink continued his resistance. He hid victims of the Gestapo, without making a big fuss about it. His house became a secret meeting place for like-minded people such as the Sailer, Dr. Paul Torggler, and Dr. Ernst Verdross families. Citizens of Hall used the weekends to exchange ideas with him and discuss further strategies. Volderwildbad was an island of humanity in the brown sea of Tyrol.
Nevertheless, this activity did not remain without consequences. In 1944, Josef Fink was finally sent to the Reichenau concentration camp. He survived – one of the many proofs of the unimaginable harshness and the will to survive of the victims of Nazi terror.

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(EN) Dr. Ernst Verdross

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Photo: Volderwildbad. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available online at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Volderwildbad#:~:text=Das%20Anwesen%20Bad%20Volderwildbad%20liegt,ein%20Ortsteil%20der%20Gemeinde%20Volders. (Accessed: May 17, 2026). Acquisition of the guesthouse and pension Volderwildbad by Josef Fink and his wife. House brochure, 1950s.

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Reichenau Labor Camp Innsbruck: Nazi Forced Labor & Memorial

The Reichenau Labor Camp in Innsbruck is one of the darkest, yet least known, chapters in the city's history. For US visitors and history buffs, this site serves as an important memorial, away from the major concentration camps.

What was the Reichenau Camp?

From 1941 to 1945, the Gestapo operated a so-called work education camp (Arbeitserziehungslager - AEL) in the Reichenau district. It was not an extermination camp, but a brutal system of Nazi forced labor. Its goal was to break "insubordinate" workers through beatings, starvation, and hard labor.

Victims and Death Toll

Over 8,600 people passed through the camp, including Soviets, Poles, Italians, and also Austrians. At least 130 people died here from hangings, freezing, or exhaustion. Many were subsequently deported to Dachau or Auschwitz.

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Remembrance in Innsbruck

The barracks were torn down after the war. Today, only a small memorial stone in the Rossau district commemorates the victims. A new, dignified memorial site in Innsbruck is planned for 2026. Visitors can see the location to remember the crimes of the Nazi era.

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www.innsbruck.gv.at/en/digitales-rathaus/digitale-kommunikation/projektliste/gedenkort-reichenau

A New Beginning: Return to Politics

After liberation and the end of the Third Reich, Dr. Josef Fink returned not only to his beloved Volderwildbad but also to politics. For the ÖVP (Austrian People's Party) , he was sent to the National Council (Nationalrat) – a worthy conclusion to a life lived in the spirit of democracy and humanity.
The Enigmatic Aftermath: The Case of Heinrich AndergassenBut Josef Fink's life holds one final, surprising turn, which we will illuminate conclusively here. Just a few weeks after the end of the war, on May 12, 1945, Dr. Fink issued an affidavit – for a man one would not expect to be on his side: Heinrich Andergassen.
As our website ns-widerstand-hallintirol.com details, Andergassen was an SS-Untersturmführer and Gestapo officer who was executed as a war criminal in Italy in 1946. He was responsible for brutal interrogations, deportations, and terror against the civilian population.
In his affidavit, Dr. Fink wrote, however:
"I was arrested in 1939 […] I am aware that Criminal Commissioner Andergassen, in whose department my case was handled, treated the matter benevolently and in my favor, thereby contributing significantly to the relatively favorable outcome."
This statement, which Fink wrote out of gratitude for his mild treatment in 1939, stands in stark contrast to everything we know today about Andergassen. Does it fit the picture of the Nazi opponent Fink?
Three Possible Interpretations of This Ambivalent Document

1. Personal Gratitude: Josef Fink was a fair and honest person. He wrote down what he himself had experienced: A Gestapo officer named Andergassen had stood up for him. In the immediate post-war period, when the goal was to identify perpetrators, he considered it his duty to record this experience.
2. The Perfidious System of the Perpetrators: Fink's affidavit is a perfect example of how people like Andergassen operated. Through apparent "good deeds," they created a network of gratitude that was supposed to protect them in the event of a collapse. Fink, who was unaware of Andergassen's other atrocities, fell for this deception.
3. The Burden of Ambivalence: History is rarely black and white. The statement shows the difficult reality that the same perpetrator could be both a torturer and, for the wrong reasons, a rescuer. For Josef Fink personally, Andergassen was the reason he might not have had to experience the concentration camp after all. Even a courageous resister could not simply discard this gratitude.

What remains is the realization: Dr. Josef Fink was a courageous man who risked his life to save others. That he issued an exonerating statement to an inhumane figure like Heinrich Andergassen after the war does not make him a sympathizer, but rather shows the tragic contradictions of life under a dictatorship. It is an important, if uncomfortable, piece of the puzzle that teaches us not to reduce historical figures to simple formulas.

read more:

Blog (EN) Heinrich Andergassen (Part I)

Blog (EN) Heinrich Andergassen (Part 2)

Blog (EN) Heinrich Andergassen (Part 3)

Conclusion: A Silent Hero with a Complex Legacy

Dr. Josef Fink is one of the many forgotten personalities of the Austrian resistance. His story teaches us that courage does not always have to be loud. The demonstrative act of reading a newspaper, the silent hiding of persecuted people in his inn – that was the real, everyday, and dangerous resistance that ultimately undermined the Nazi regime.
His later role in the case of Heinrich Andergassen warns us to be cautious in dealing with historical sources. It forces us to view the past in all its complexity – with heroic deeds and human errors, with clear fronts and diffuse gray areas.
The legacy of Dr. Josef Fink is one of an unyielding stance against tyranny. Volderwildbad is a quiet place today. May it serve as a reminder that it is worthwhile to preserve humanity even in the darkest of times.

Supporting Evidence: Dr. Fink Hid Gestapo Victims in Volderwildbad

A recent research tip from Christoph Knüppel from Herford (Germany) now provides another indication of the protective function of Dr. Josef Fink's inn.
Mr. Knüppel is working on an essay about the "half-Jewish" lawyer and notary Ehrhard Brand (1883-1981) from Herford. His well-founded assumption: Brand temporarily went into hiding in the Volderwildbad inn in the summer of 1943 to avoid an impending deportation.
The connection to Volderwildbad was likely made through pastors of the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) – either Hermann Maas (Heidelberg) or Rudolf Goethe (Roßdorf/Wiesbaden), both friends of Brand.
As evidence, Mr. Knüppel has a postcard from Volderwildbad dated August 1943 from his sister's estate. For good reasons, it was signed with the code name "Frieda" – a typical camouflage pattern for those in hiding.
This tip impressively confirms the accounts of Dr. Fink's quiet resistance: He took in not only local victims but also offered protection to people from other parts of Germany from the Gestapo.

Note: If you have any information about additional guest books from Volderwildbad or other documents from Dr. Josef Fink's estate, I would be very happy to hear from you.