Salesian Sisters of Thurnfeld 1938 - 1945 in Hall in Tyrol

During the Nazi era in Austria, the monasteries in the town of Hall in Tirol, like many others, faced systematic repression due to the regime's ideological opposition to religious influence. Here is a summary of the measures taken against them:
The following table outlines the specific actions taken against three convents in Hall in Tyrol:
Monastery/Convent AffectedPrimary Repressive MeasuresKey Dates / Details

Salesian Sisters of Thurnfeld(Order of the Visitation of Mary)Closure of girls' school and boarding school; Gestapo interrogations; baseless house searches; conscription for hospital service.School closure ordered Feb 7, 1939; sisters forced to work in military hospitals (Lazarett) in Hall and Feldkirch.

Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (Innsbruck)Expropriation of their monastery in Innsbruck.In 1940, the sisters were expelled and found refuge with the Salesian Sisters in Thurnfeld, Hall.
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Tertiary Sisters of St. FrancisClosure of their girls' school in Hall.School was closed in 1938 as part of the general wave of closures

📜 Historical Context and Motives

The actions were not based on legitimate legal charges but were ideologically driven. The Nazi state sought to eliminate all Christian influence from youth education to replace it with its own ideology. A common tactic was to accuse religious orders of child abuse to justify closures, though no evidence was found to support such claims against the Hall communities.

🔍 Broader Nazi Policy

This was part of a wider campaign. A secret decree in January 1941 called for a "Klostersturm" (monastery storm), leading to the confiscation of around 300 monasteries across the German Reich. Religious orders were seen as harmful to the "national body," and monks and nuns were disparaged as "useless dead-ends"

Closure of the Girls' School and Boarding School of the Salesian Sisters in Thurnfeld in Hall (1939 – 1945)

Photographs Monastery of the Salesian Sisters in Thurnfeld - Hall in Tiyrol. Held in private archive Walder Hall in Tyrol.

All institutions and facilities run by Catholic religious sisters/brothers were affected by closure in 1938. The state took over welfare services and schools to impart its National Socialist ideology to children and adolescents.
Closure of schools: [...] Girls' schools of the Salesian Sisters in Thurnfeld with institute, abolished; [...] Girls' schools of the Tertiary Sisters in Solbad Hall abolished." (Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance, Helmut Tschol, pp. 30-31, 45)

Plaque - Monastery of the Salesian Sisters Thurnfeld- Hall in Tyrol. Photo held in private archive Walder Hall in Tyrol.

"The Nazi Persecution and Closure of the Salesian Sisters' School in Thurnfeld (1939-1945)"

On June 6, 1610, the Order of the Visitation of Mary was founded by Saints Francis de Sales and Jane Frances de Chantal in Annecy, Savoy. The Monastery of the Visitation of Mary in Thurnfeld can look back on a long history, as it was founded in 1859 by the Visitation Monastery of Beuerberg in Bavaria. The Order of the Visitation of Mary is one of the contemplative orders, in which the sisters lead a life of silence and dedicate themselves to their work. They have also always had an open ear for the troubles of their fellow human beings who seek their help.

Image source: Symbolic photo of Thurnfeld Monastery. Retrieved from { http://www.franz-sales-verlag.de/ovm/} on 13 December 2025.

The Salesian Sisters in Thurnfeld maintained a girls' school with a boarding school until 1939, which was however closed by the National Socialists. Prof. Dr. Franz Egger reported in August 1945 on the measures with which the National Socialists combated the monasteries of Hall:
"Their school was taken away from them because the sisters were not in a position to educate the youth in a 'German'—in other words, 'National Socialist'—manner."
Regarding the closure of the girls' school and boarding school of the Salesian Sisters in Thurnfeld in Hall in Tyrol, a report from the Mother Superior Sister Agnes Cäcilia Wörz (†2017) to Father Johann Reiter in Innsbruck dated May 12, 1980, is available:
"Since the new government wanted to nullify every Christian influence in the schooling and education of the youth, according to a general decree at the beginning of the 1938/39 school year, all Catholic schools with boarding facilities had to cease their activities. Through the mediation of parents of our pupils who were friendly to the Nazis, the closure of our school and boarding house had been temporarily refrained from in our case.
However, on February 7, 1939, we received the final notification from the regional school authority to dismiss all school-age children. [...]
Individual sisters were summoned by the Gestapo on account of inappropriate remarks about the course of the war and religious matters. We also had to endure baseless house searches. One day, 8 Gestapo men arrived to plan a possibility of establishing a public school on our monastery grounds. Another time, a nocturnal house search could still be averted."

Ideological Motives Instead of Substantiating Allegations: The Closure of the Salesian Sisters' School in Thurnfeld"

A frequent accusation by the National Socialists against religious orders was to charge them with child abuse in order to ideologically justify closures. This served to discredit the influence of the Church in education and to legitimize state intervention. In the case of the Salesian Sisters of Thurnfeld, however, there is no evidence whatsoever of such misconduct. In fact, it remains noteworthy that even parents sympathetic to National Socialism continued to entrust their children to the sisters, which can be seen as an indirect acknowledgment of the community's integrity and quality of education. Had the National Socialists been able to substantiate such allegations, the closure of the school and boarding house would undoubtedly have occurred earlier, for example in 1938. This illustrates that the measures against the religious orders were motivated purely by ideology and were systematic.

The Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Innsbruck – Relocation to Hall to the Salesian Sisters in Thurnfeld 1940

As the number of wounded in the military hospitals had grown alarmingly, the National Socialists used this circumstance to also conscript cloistered nuns for hospital duty. Thus, sisters from the Visitation Monastery in Thurnfeld and several of the Perpetual Adoration sisters residing there were compelled to perform nursing services not only in the opposite Provincial House of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, which was used as a military hospital (Lazarett), but were even ordered to Feldkirch in Vorarlberg.

Image: Mother Maria Pia of Divine Love, founder of the Monastery of Perpetual Adoration in Innsbruck (1838 – 1898). Source: {https://www.ewigeanbetung-ibk.at/home-1}, (accessed 13 December 2025).

Expropriation, Refuge, and Return: The Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Innsbruck (1940–1945)

In 1940, the Monastery of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Innsbruck was expropriated by the National Socialists. The sisters found refuge in Thurnfeld Monastery in Hall.
Monsignor Dr. Carl Lampert (1894–1944) was the right hand of the Tyrolean Bishop DDr. Paulus Rusch. Dr. Lampert protested against the closure of the monastery of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Innsbruck to Gauleiter Hofer with the words:
“The Sisters of Perpetual Adoration do what we all do too little of:
p r a y.”
Already on 13 August 1943, Sister Agnes Grad of the Perpetual Adoration died as a consequence of the heavy work in the military hospital (Lazarett) of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Hall.
In 1945, the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration were able to return to their monastery. The interior of the church was severely devastated, so it could not be reopened until 1949. The monastery of the Order of Perpetual Adoration is located at Karl Kapferer Straße 8 in Innsbruck.

Persecution and Execution of a Resistor: Dr. Carl Lampert

Monsignor Dr. Carl Lampert (1894–1944), who had courageously defended the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, himself became a primary target of Nazi persecution. As the Protonotary and vicar official for the Diocese of Innsbruck, his steadfast defense of the Church and its institutions marked him as an enemy of the regime.
Following years of surveillance, interrogation, and a first imprisonment in Dachau concentration camp, Lampert was arrested again in 1943. He was subjected to a show trial by the Volksgerichtshof (People's Court) in Halle an der Saale. The charges were a mixture of alleged treason and violations of the oppressive laws against pastoral activities. On November 13, 1944, Dr. Carl Lampert was executed by guillotine in Halle, becoming one of the most prominent Catholic martyrs from Austria under the Nazi regime.
His fate underscores that the Nazi campaign was not only against properties and schools but directly against the individuals who represented and defended the faith. Dr. Carl Lampert was beatified by the Catholic Church in 2011.

Provincial House of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Hall in Tirol

See blog entry: Sisters of the Holy Cross in Hall in Tirol.

Girls' School of the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis in Hall in Tirol, closed 1938–1945

See separate blog post: Repressions Against Educational Institutions Part II.