Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hall in Tyrol: Persecution Before and During the Nazi Era

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Heinrich Andergassen part 1,2,3

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Jehovas Zeugen in Hall in Tirol (German)

Jehovah's Witnesses in Tyrol – Persecution and Resistance under the Nazi Regime

Prohibition and Suppression before the "Anschluss"

​Long before Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in March 1938, the religious life of Jehovah's Witnesses in Tyrol was already marked by repression. On 6 February 1936, an official ban on their community came into force under the government of Federal Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg. Yet the members refused to be intimidated: they continued to hold their Bible study meetings in secret. During this period, the Austrian authorities confined themselves to house searches, the confiscation of religious literature, and short custodial sentences.

Terror under National Socialism

When the National Socialists seized power, the situation for Jehovah's Witnesses – at the time still commonly referred to as "Bible Students" – became dramatically worse. They fell into the crosshairs of Nazi terror, as their deep religious convictions led them to refuse the Hitler salute, reject the oath of loyalty to the "Führer", and refuse military service. Their allegiance belonged to Jehovah alone – and it was precisely this that sealed their fate. Anyone who refused to renounce their faith risked arrest, torture, or deportation to a concentration camp. Many paid for their steadfastness with their lives.

Karl Killinger – A Life Guided by Conscience

Photo of  Karl Killinger. Private Archive of Roland Killinger, 6068 Mils.

A striking example of this unwavering faithfulness is Karl Killinger. Born on 2 July 1901 in Pabneukirchen/Rechberg in Upper Austria, he moved to Hall in Tyrol in 1931, where he earned his living as a blacksmith. On 15 May 1938, he married Hedwig Arnold in Innsbruck. Together with his wife and their son – also named Karl Killinger – he lived at Ritter-Waldauf-Straße 6 in Hall.
Karl Killinger openly professed his faith as a Jehovah's Witness. After the "Anschluss", he faced mounting repression and was ultimately arrested for his beliefs. His fate stands as a testament to those who, even in the face of violence, deprivation, and mortal threat, remained true to their conscience – and in doing so bore quiet yet unyielding witness to resistance.

The Fate of Karl Killinger (1901–1940)

Photo of Hedwig and Karl Killinger (1938). Private Archive of Roland Killinger, 6068 Mils.

Karl Killinger was a committed member of Jehovah's Witnesses – a man who made no secret of his faith and met the violence of the National Socialist regime with quiet, unyielding resolve. On 16 February 1939, he was arrested by the Nazis. Just a few weeks later, on 24 March 1939, he was deported to the Dachau concentration camp. In September of the same year, he was transferred to Gusen, one of the most feared subcamps of the Mauthausen concentration camp.
At Gusen, Karl Killinger was exposed to the murderous conditions of camp imprisonment without any protection. Systematic starvation, brutal forced labour, and daily abuse steadily sapped his strength. Yet even under these inhumane circumstances, he remained unwaveringly true to his faith. At no point did he consider recanting his beliefs – even though doing so might have saved his life.
On 19 January 1940, Karl Killinger died at Gusen concentration camp from the effects of pneumonia. He was only 38 years old.
His death stands as a testament to the fate of countless Jehovah's Witnesses who refused to betray their conscience – even when it cost them everything.

Remembering the Victims of Dachau

The Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich was the first permanent concentration camp established by the National Socialist regime. It was opened on March 22, 1933, and developed into a central site of oppression, persecution, and extermination of political opponents, religious minorities, and numerous other victim groups from across Europe.
Many people from Tyrol were also deported to Dachau, including members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were persecuted because of their religious convictions and their refusal to give the Hitler salute or perform military service. For many of them, imprisonment in Dachau meant years of suffering, forced labor, and the loss of their freedom.
The stories of these individuals continue to remind us of the courage of conscience and the importance of freedom of religion and belief.

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www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/en/historical-site/dachau-concentration-camp-1933-1945/

Blog 87 (EN) Dr. Ernst Verdross (einzeln)

Book _ Presentation _Concentration Camp Dachau

🕯️ Memorial Portrait: Karl Killinger (1901–1940)

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Memorial _(EN) _Karl _Killinger

Mauthausen Concentration Camp

Mauthausen concentration camp, established in August 1938 on the banks of the Danube in Upper Austria, was one of the largest and most feared camps in the National Socialist system of terror. Unlike many other camps, Mauthausen was conceived from the outset as a site of annihilation through labour – prisoners were forced to work under inhumane conditions in the notorious granite quarries. The camp served as the centre of an extensive network of more than 40 subcamps, among them the nearby Gusen concentration camp. Its prisoners included political opponents, Jews, Sinti and Roma, prisoners of war, and members of persecuted religious communities – among them Jehovah's Witnesses. Between 1938 and the liberation by American forces on 5 May 1945, an estimated 90,000 to 100,000 people were murdered at Mauthausen and its subcamps.

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www.mauthausen-memorial.org/en

Gusen Concentration Camp

Bundesarchiv, Bild 192-149 / CC-BY-SA 3.0. File: Bundesarchiv Bild 192-149, KZ Mauthausen, Baracken und Wachturm des Lagers Gusen.jpg; Erstellt: etwa 1942 date QS:P571,+1942-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902. 

Gusen concentration camp, located in the municipality of St. Georgen an der Gusen in Upper Austria, was one of the most brutal camps in the National Socialist camp system. Established as a subcamp of Mauthausen – and at times even larger than the main camp itself – it began receiving prisoners from across Europe in May 1940. Inmates were subjected to forced labour in stone quarries and underground armaments factories, under conditions deliberately designed to destroy them physically. The mortality rate at Gusen was among the highest in the entire Nazi camp system. It is estimated that more than 35,000 people lost their lives there between 1940 and 1945.

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www.mauthausen-memorial.org/en/History/The-Mauthausen-Concentration-Camp-19381945/The-Gusen-Branch-Camp

Heinrich Andergassen and the Fate of His Neighbour Karl Killinger

Two Men – One Street – One History

Heinrich Andergassen (1908–1946), a native of Hall in Tyrol, was among those Austrians who, following the "Anschluss" of 1938, actively pursued and secured careers within the National Socialist security apparatus. A former gendarmerie officer, he entered the service of the Innsbruck Gestapo and eventually rose to become head of the SD branch office in Merano. After the war, he was brought before a court as a war criminal – convicted on proven charges of participation in the torture and murder of Allied prisoners of war. He was executed in 1946.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Andergassen

Blog (EN) Heinrich Andergassen (Part I)

Neighbours in Ritter-Waldauf-Straße

What lends Andergassen's biography a particularly disturbing dimension is a geographical circumstance: he lived at Ritter-Waldauf-Straße 8 in Hall in Tyrol. Just a few doors away, at Ritter-Waldauf-Straße 6, lived the blacksmith Karl Killinger (1901–1940) – a committed Jehovah's Witness who was relentlessly persecuted by the National Socialist regime on account of his religious beliefs.
Killinger refused the Hitler salute, the oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler, and military service – acts regarded as serious offences under the Nazi state. On 16 February 1939, he was arrested and deported to Dachau concentration camp. Shortly afterwards, he was transferred to Gusen concentration camp, a subcamp of Mauthausen, notorious for its exceptionally high mortality rate. There, Karl Killinger died on 19 January 1940 – as a consequence of forced labour, systematic starvation, and the brutal conditions of imprisonment. He was only 38 years old.

An Unanswered Historical Question

Whether Heinrich Andergassen was personally involved in the arrest of his neighbour cannot be established with certainty on the basis of currently available sources. Nevertheless, it must be noted that Andergassen was already serving as a Gestapo officer in his home town at the time and undoubtedly possessed detailed knowledge of local political and social conditions. The physical proximity between him and Karl Killinger therefore raises a historically legitimate and as yet unanswered question: what role – whether active or passive – did Andergassen play in the persecution of those who lived in his immediate neighbourhood and had been designated as enemies by the Nazi regime?

Perpetrator and Victim – A Symbolic Place of Remembrance

Even in the absence of direct evidence, one fact remains beyond dispute: Karl Killinger fell victim to the very apparatus of persecution to which Heinrich Andergassen belonged and within which he deliberately advanced his career. Ritter-Waldauf-Straße in Hall in Tyrol thus becomes a symbolic site of remembrance and warning. Here lived a man who acted out of the deepest conviction of faith and paid for it with his life – and just a few metres away, a man who was part of the very system that drove him and thousands of others to their deaths.
The fate of Karl Killinger serves as a powerful reminder of the consequences of state-organised persecution, intolerance, and the willingness of individuals to place themselves in the service of a criminal regime. It calls upon us not to consign the names of the victims to oblivion.

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Blog (ENI) Dr. Josef Mair

Anton Bodenwinkler (1911–1940) – Jehovah's Witness from Hall in Tyrol

A Life in the Shadow of Persecution

Anton Bodenwinkler worked as a farm labourer in Hall in Tyrol and was a committed member of Jehovah's Witnesses – a religious community known during the National Socialist era by the name "Bible Students". His faith was not a private matter but shaped his every action: he refused the oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler, the Hitler salute, and military service – acts of conscience that the Nazi regime regarded as dangerous insubordination and pursued without mercy.

Arrest, Deportation and Death

On 22 February 1939, Anton Bodenwinkler was arrested and taken to Innsbruck police prison, where he was held in detention for more than three months. On 2 June 1939, the authorities deported him to Dachau concentration camp, where he was assigned prisoner number 33636. On 24 September 1939, he was transferred together with his fellow believer Karl Killinger to Mauthausen concentration camp.
There, his health deteriorated rapidly and irreversibly under the combined effects of systematic starvation, brutal forced labour, and conditions incompatible with human dignity. On 11 February 1940, Anton Bodenwinkler died at Mauthausen concentration camp as a result of exhaustion and severe malnutrition. He was only 28 years old.

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www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/en/historical-site/dachau-concentration-camp-1933-1945/

Book _ Presentation _Concentration Camp Dachau

Blog 87 (EN) Dr. Ernst Verdross (einzeln)

Historical Background: The Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses under National Socialism

Jehovah's Witnesses were among the first religious communities to be systematically persecuted following the National Socialists' seizure of power in 1933. As early as that year, their assemblies were banned in Germany, their publications confiscated, and their members placed under mounting pressure to renounce their faith. In Austria, a corresponding prohibition came into force in February 1936.
The National Socialists regarded Jehovah's Witnesses as particularly intractable opponents, since on religious grounds they fundamentally refused to demonstrate loyalty to the Nazi state. They rejected the Hitler salute, refused the oath of allegiance and military service, and continued their religious practices in defiance of the ban. Within the concentration camp system, they were identified by a purple triangle sewn onto their uniforms – a symbol that marked them as "Bible Students" and distinguished them from other prisoner groups.
Unlike members of other persecuted groups, Jehovah's Witnesses were formally offered the possibility of release by signing a written declaration renouncing their beliefs. The vast majority refused to take this step – out of profound faithfulness to their convictions and in full awareness of the consequences. It is estimated that between 1933 and 1945, more than 10,000 Jehovah's Witnesses were imprisoned throughout the territories under German control; several hundred of them were executed or died in the concentration camps.

A Second Victim from Hall in Tyrol

Anton Bodenwinkler was the second Jehovah's Witness from Hall in Tyrol to be arrested in the course of National Socialist persecution and ultimately murdered in a concentration camp. Together with Karl Killinger, who died just a few weeks after him at Gusen concentration camp, he stands as a testament to the quiet yet unshakeable faith of a community that refused to yield even in the face of death.
Their names call upon us to keep alive the memory of those who offered resistance not out of political calculation, but out of deepest personal conviction – and paid for it with their lives.

🕯️ Memorial Portrait: Anton Bodenwinkler (1911–1940)

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Memorial (EN) Anton Bodenwinkler