Dr. Jakob Passler

Born in East Tyrol, Jakob Passler first attended the Vinzentinum in Brixen and then transferred to the local state grammar school. After graduating from high school, he studied medicine in Innsbruck. In 1909, he joined the Raeto-Bavaria student fraternity. He was soon drawn to Graz and Prague, where he joined the student associations Vandalia Prague and Carolina Graz.

During the First World War, the young doctor was taken prisoner of war in Russia in 1915 and only returned home from Siberia in 1920. From 1921, he worked as a general practitioner in Gnas in Styria. From 1936 to 1938, he was the local head of the VF.

After the Anschluss, he was arrested by the Gestapo on March 12, 1938 and detained for some time. He was banned from his profession and his car was confiscated. At the beginning of the war, he was allowed to resume his full medical practice, but had to report regularly to the district leader in Feldbach/Styria. A few weeks before the end of the war, when the front runs between Gnas and Bad Gleichenberg, Jakob Passler organizes the resistance and the raising of the white flag on the church tower. However, the German troops succeed in advancing to Gnas once again and Jakob Passler is arrested again and transferred to Graz. There he is sentenced to death by the People's Court.