Josef Pontoi (1911–1943)

This page commemorates the life of Josef Pontoi from Hall in Tirol. His fate is a stark example of the brutal inhumanity of the Nazi regime and the tragedy of many ordinary soldiers who fell victim to a criminal military justice system.

Childhood and Youth in Tyrol

Josef Pontoi was born on July 31, 1911, in the historic salt-mining town of Hall in Tirol. He grew up at Weissenbachstraße 12. Before his conscription, he lived in Ampass, a municipality near Innsbruck, and worked as a gardener in Innsbruck. These few details paint a picture of a man rooted in the rural idyll of Tyrol, pursuing a simple, civilian trade. His life, like that of many in his generation, initially followed a conventional path—until the political events in Germany and the annexation of Austria in 1938 changed everything.

Historical Context: Wehrmacht Justice and Desertion

With the "Anschluss" (annexation) of Austria into the German Reich in March 1938, Austrian men became subject to German conscription. Josef Pontoi, like tens of thousands of other Tyroleans, was drafted into the German Wehrmacht.
During the war, the Wehrmacht's military justice system became a compliant instrument of Nazi terror. Discipline and absolute obedience were paramount. The crime of desertion—being absent without leave—was punished with relentless severity. The primary goal of the sentences was not military necessity but deterrence. Between 1939 and 1945, German military courts passed more than 30,000 death sentences, of which approximately 20,000 were carried out. The charge of "undermining military morale" was often used arbitrarily to break any sign of weakening resolve.

Conscription, Desertion, and Sentencing.

Josef Pontoi was transferred to Lehrte near Hanover, where he served as a Jäger (a light infantryman). The reasons why he went absent without leave from his unit in the summer of 1943 remain unknown. It may have been despair, fear of the increasingly hopeless war situation, or simply a longing for home.
His desertion had fatal consequences. He was captured and brought before a military court. On August 7, 1943, Josef Pontoi was sentenced to death for desertion. The trials were typically short and offered no real chance for a proper defense. Just two days later, on August 9, 1943, at 4:30 PM, the sentence was carried out in the execution facility of the Brandenburg-Görden prison. This penitentiary was one of the central sites of Nazi terror, where thousands of people were killed by guillotine or firing squads.

Commemoration and Rehabilitation

Josef Pontoi was not a political resistance fighter but a man who took a desperate step in an impossible situation. His fate reminds us that the Nazi state did not spare its own soldiers once they refused to obey inhumane orders.
Only much later, after decades of campaigning by relatives and initiatives, were the sentences of the Nazi military justice system morally and legally rehabilitated. In 2002, the German Bundestag passed a law annulling all convictions against deserters and other victims of Nazi military justice. Josef Pontoi, as we now recognize, was a victim of Nazi tyranny.
May this page help preserve his memory and serve as a reminder of the cruel reality of war and dictatorship.

Note for further information:

To learn more about the historical context and memorial work, please visit the websites of the Brandenburg-Görden Memorial (https://www.stiftung-bg.de/) and the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (https://www.doew.at/).