Viktor Pichler

Viktor Pichler was born in Fladnitz, the son of master shoemaker Jakob and his wife Josefa, née Heuberger. After completing his school education, he takes part in the First World War and disarms as a lieutenant. He then entered the Graz seminary and was ordained a priest on July 2, 1922.

He then worked as a cooperator (chaplain) in Grafendorf, Fehring, Schwanberg and St. Georgen ob Stiefing. In 1938, he finally became parish priest in Lang in Styria.

As parish priest of Lang, Viktor Pichler witnessed the fall of Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht on March 12, 1938.

In July 1940, he was arrested by the Gestapo for listening to enemy radio stations (radio offense). A special court sentenced him to three years in prison. From September 1940, he was sent to serve his sentence in various labor camps in the German Reich, for example in Aschendorfermoor near Papenburg in Emsland and in Niederöfflingen near Wittlich in the Eifel. Various appeals for clemency from the Graz Ordinariate to the Reich Minister of Justice are unsuccessful. He was not released from prison.

In July 1943, Viktor Pichler was drafted into a punishment company in the German Wehrmacht. He was then sent to a medical unit in the Blaubeuren military hospital near Ulm, where he was liberated by the French on May 4, 1945. He was released by the French on May 5, 1945 and, despite a leg injury, set off on the march home, reaching Fladnitz on July 10, 1945.