The Systematic Removal of the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis

Photo historical side of the Tertiary sisters school in Hall in Tyrol. Held in parish archive Hall in Tyrol.

In 1845, a new residential building for the Tertiary or School Sisters, including classrooms, was constructed on the site of the old hospital.
For 90 years, the Tertiary or School Sisters had been educating female youth in Hall in Tyrol. However, overnight in March 1938, their beloved school building was taken from them. The teaching sisters were dismissed and replaced by instructors who taught in the National Socialist spirit. For all the abolished Catholic schools, the Hitler salute replaced the school prayer, and instead of quiet study, the noisy drilling and commanding of the Hitler Youth and the "Pimpfe" (young boys in the junior branch), as well as marches by the League of German Girls (BDM), took over.

Photo Tertiary sisters  (1937) in Hall in Tyrol. Held in Parish archive of Hall in Tyrol. 

Sister Alfonsa Brettauer (1893-1994) ​

The Franciscan Tertiary or School Sisters of Solbad Hall were served a dismissal decree from the District School Board of Innsbruck-Land for the main school teacher Sister Alfonsa Brettauer (1893-1994) from Hall in Tirol on July 20, 1938:
"The District School Board hereby dismisses you from the teaching position at the main school in Hall i. T., which you held in a permanent capacity from September 16, 1937, to September 1, 1938. /Handwritten addition/: 1938/39 reused without written notice."

Photo - Memorial card of Sr. Alfonsa (Josefa) Brettauer. Archive of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters, Hall in Tyrol.

Sister Alfonsa Brettauer was reassigned as a teacher in Achenkirch in 1938/39. According to her own accounts, a teachers' meeting was held in July 1941. Subsequently, she was banished to Bremen for three years, where she was forced to work in the office of an armaments factory. She remained only until just before Christmas 1941 and returned to Tyrol on her own authority. She forced Gauleiter Hofer, through the threat of betraying important armament secrets to foreign countries, to assign her to compulsory service in her homeland of Tyrol. She was interrogated by the Gestapo 25 times before the end of the war and was imprisoned twice (in 1942 and 1944). Sr. Alfonsa was subsequently employed as a parish sister in Innsbruck-Pradl. On November 16, 1943, a severe air raid occurred on Pradl, during which Sr. Alfonsa was in great danger.

Sister Elisabeth Santer and sister Angelika Mayr

Sister Elisabeth Santer passed the secondary school teaching examination for physical education in the autumn of 1937, having already completed the exams for ice skating and swimming. No further examinations were possible, as with the end of the school term in July 1938, all young teaching sisters were dismissed from public school service by the Nazi authorities.
The sisters returned to the convent. They had to earn their income through occasional work; for example, Sr. Elisabeth Santer and Sr. Angelika Mayr gave private lessons in stenography and typewriting to prospective clerical staff for the newly established offices of Nazi authorities. Sr. Elisabeth and Sr. Dominika were employed as clerical officers at the Apostolic Administrature in Innsbruck on July 19, 1939, and Sr. Angelika in 1940. In mid-December 1939, three sisters moved into the parish house in Hötting.
Sr. Elisabeth witnessed the horrors of Nazi power: the persecution of the Catholic Church community, the bombing of Innsbruck, the misery of war and refugees, hunger, and hardship. On December 15, 1943, Innsbruck was bombed. She was praying with two fellow sisters in the Jesuit Church in Innsbruck and survived, as if by a miracle, the severe bombing attack that almost completely destroyed the church. After the war, she continued to work at the Apostolic Administrature in Innsbruck until the autumn of 1946, in order to later take further secondary school teaching examinations and return to teaching service.

Memorial card of Sr. M. Elisabeth (Hedwig) Santer. In: Archive of the Tertiary Sisters, Hall in Tyrol.
Memorial card of Sr. M. Angelika Mayr. In: Archive of the Tertiary Sisters, Hall in Tyrol.

The Provincial Superior Sr. M. Elisabeth Santer

On July 7, 1980, the Provincial Superior Sr. M. Elisabeth Santer from Hall wrote a letter to Father Johann Reiter in Innsbruck concerning the dismissal of Tertiary or School Sisters from teaching service during the Nazi rule:
"Besides the teachers mentioned in Schwaz, another 26 sisters were removed from teaching service or were not appointed or no longer appointed; three kindergartens (each with one kindergarten teacher) and two sewing schools (each with one director) were closed."

In Memory of the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis of Hall in Tyrol – Victims of National Socialism and War

The Congregation of the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis, whose missionary and charitable spirit dates back to their foundress Maria Hueber (1653–1705), had long been dedicated to education, especially of girls, and to caring for the needy. In 1928, the provincial seat for North and East Tyrol was established in Hall in Tyrol, from where the sisters carried out their service.
With the "Anschluss" of Austria in 1938, National Socialist terror directly struck this community. In March 1938, the sisters' beloved school building in Hall was taken from them overnight, the teachers were dismissed and replaced by personnel loyal to the regime. The following years were marked by systematic repression: sisters were dismissed from teaching, forced to work in armaments factories, arrested, and interrogated. Nevertheless, they continued their quiet, conscientious resistance—through prayer, passing on their faith, and charitable work.
The Second World War, unleashed by the Nazi regime, ultimately caught up with these women of charity in a cruel way. While they were following their calling to care for the wounded or provide shelter to those seeking refuge, the bombing war struck them on two fateful days. (see memorial blog Tertiary sisters of Hall in Tyrol)

Photo: Tertiary sisters of St. Franciscus. Held in private archive K. Walder Hall in Tyrol.