Anton Bodenwinkler (1911 - 1940)

🕯️Commemorative Portrait: Anton Bodenwinkler (1911–1940)

Born: 1911
Residence: Solbad Hall, Tyrol
Profession: Agricultural laborer
Religious Affiliation: Jehovah's Witness (Bible Student)
Arrest: February 22, 1939, Innsbruck
Places of Detention: Innsbruck police prison → Dachau concentration camp (from June 2, 1939, prisoner number 33636) → Mauthausen concentration camp (from September 24, 1939)
Date of Death: February 11, 1940
Cause of Death: Malnutrition in Mauthausen concentration camp
Anton Bodenwinkler was a simple agricultural laborer whose deep faith brought him into a fatal confrontation with the Nazi regime. As a member of Jehovah's Witnesses, he refused, on religious principle, to follow the cult of the Führer, to give the Hitler salute, or to perform military service.
For this steadfastness, he was persecuted, imprisoned, and ultimately deported. After months of detention in the Innsbruck police prison, he was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp and later, together with Karl Killinger, to Mauthausen. There, he died of exhaustion caused by hunger, cold, and severe forced labor.
Anton Bodenwinkler was the second member of Jehovah's Witnesses in Hall in Tirol to be killed under Nazi rule. His fate stands for the quiet, non-violent resistance of religious minorities against a totalitarian regime – and for the courage to remain true to one's conscience.