In Memory of Josef Pontoi (1911–1943)

Josef Pontoi was born on 31 July 1911 in Hall in Tirol. The trained gardener, who lived in Ampass near Innsbruck, was conscripted into the German Wehrmacht, like many Austrians after the annexation of Austria in 1938.
In 1943, he went absent without leave from his unit in Lehrte, near Hanover. For this act of desertion, he was sentenced to death on 7 August 1943 and executed just two days later, on 9 August 1943, in Brandenburg-Görden.
His fate is representative of countless ordinary soldiers who fell victim to the inhumane Nazi military justice system. We remember Josef Pontoi not as a deserter, but as a man who, driven by the brutality of war, took a desperate step and paid for it with his life. He was a victim of Nazi tyranny.
May his memory be a reminder for peace.