Johann Nepomuk Womes

Johann Nepomuk Womes was born in Zwingau in the district of Bischofteinitz (Bohemia) and attended the humanistic grammar school in Duppau (Dupov) near Karlovy Vary. After graduating from high school, he studied theology at the German Charles University in Prague, where he joined the student fraternity Vandalia Prag in 1924. In 1925, he was ordained a priest in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. After his time as a chaplain, he became a priest in Sollmus, in Karlovy Vary and then in Bohemian Domaschlag near Mariánské Lázně.

In 1939, he was reported to the Gestapo and subsequently warned in Karlovy Vary, followed by a house search in 1940 and then a ban on teaching religion in school. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested in Domaschlag on August 20, 1940 and held in Gestapo custody in Karlovy Vary until March 1941. The reason given for his imprisonment was that he had circumvented the ban on teaching by giving religious instruction in church and that he had dishonored the Hitler salute through his behaviour. On March 21, 1941, he was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp. Johann Nepomuk Womes was then arrested on March 28, 1945 on the basis of a general order issued by the RSHA on March 23, 1945.