Karl Weiss O.Cr.
Personalia
Born:
Died:
Profession:
Persecution:
Imprisonment 27.07.1942 - 30.10.1942,
Dachau concentration camp 30.10.1942 - 11.04.1945
Memberships
Curriculum Vitae
After graduating from secondary school in Eger in 1931, Karl Weiss began studying theology at the German Karl Ferdinand University in Prague. In September 1931, he joined the Order of the Holy Cross with the Red Star, was invested in 1931 and made his profession in 1935. Shortly after joining the order, he became a member of the student fraternity Ferdinandea Prague in 1931. After studying theology, he was ordained a priest in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague in 1936 and then worked as a conventual priest at the Holy Cross Monastery in Prague. In 1937, he moved to Tachau near Mariánské Lázně, where he initially worked as an assistant chaplain and from September 1, 1938 until 1942 as chaplain.
Between 1941 and 1942, the Gestapo harassed him with house searches and summonses. On July 27, 1942, he was forced to give up his post and arrested for sabotage. After a three-month stay in the Gestapo prison in Karlsbad, he was transferred to Dachau concentration camp on October 30, 1942, without any proper legal proceedings having taken place beforehand. Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903-1946), Higher SS and Police Leader Danube, cited as the reason for the "protective custody order" that he had hindered the "food economy of the German people".
[...] By holding church celebrations on workdays [referring here to the long-established procession through the fields on June 21, 1942], Weiß is preventing the rural population from carrying out necessary agricultural work. In doing so, he is committing serious sabotage against the food economy of the German people in this war that has been forced upon us. He must therefore be expelled from the German national community and placed in a concentration camp.
Efforts to secure his release are unsuccessful. The blows to his ears with the butt of a rifle lead to hearing loss - as retribution from the Nazis for preventing a firing squad from carrying out the order by praying the Lord's Prayer aloud. On March 23, 1945, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who in the meantime had become head of the RSHA in Berlin, issued a "general decree", in execution of which Karl Weiss was released from the concentration camp on April 11, 1945 with the instruction to report to the nearest police station at all times. On April 12, 1945, he reached Eger again and went into hiding to avoid being drafted into the "Volkssturm".
After briefly resuming his work as an administrator in Tachau, he was expelled from his homeland and came to the diocese of Passau, where he was incardinated in 1961 after being exclaustrated from the Order of the Holy Cross. Here in Passau, he was active in pastoral work until his death - appointed Bishop's Councillor in 1978.
He was also one of the co-founders of the student fraternity Oeno-Danubia.
Places
Persecution:
Citations
Krause, Peter/Reinelt, Herbert/Schmitt, Helmut (2020): Farbe tragen, Farbe bekennen. Katholische Korporierte in Widerstand und Verfolgung. Teil 2. Kuhl, Manfred (ÖVfStG, Wien) S. 385/386.
