In his speech, Fischer spoke of human rights and the beatification of Franz Jaegerstaetter. The Federal president expressed his respect for Jagerstaetter’s stance, which was that Hitler’s orders not be followed out of deepest convictions.
One could surely say that I am proud of him, said the 94-year-old Franziscka Jaegerstaetter of the beatification of her husband Franz on Thursday. “I was surprised, that it went so quickly with the beatification, but it is right to me. I am happy,” said the wife of the new beatified one in an interview with the Upper Austrian News (OON) on Thursday. on the question whether she has had to think of “her ‘Franzl’” quite a bit in the last few days: “Yes. I need him, have often needed him. He often has to help me.” And she is looking forward to the time “when we come together,”; she is still in love with her husband.
Maria Dammer, one of the three daughters of Franziska and Franz Jaegerstaetter, also had a chance to speak to the OON. She marvels at her father, “That he withstood it at all. He is a model. Also in Faith and in Consistency. one should tell the young people [about him, so] that they do not simply run after an idol, but decide for themselves whether it is right or not.”
Franziska Jaegerstaetter underscored that no other path would have come into question for her husband, but the one he took. “He strictly rejected Hitler and the National Socialist Regime. He had seen how many from his hometown of St. Radegund had fallen in war—for false goals.” Jaegerstaetter’s daughter elaborated, “What should he fight for, is what my father always asked. How to kill people who hadn’t done anything to him.”
He also made a clear distinction between wars of aggression and wars of defense. He once wrote of Hitler’s war of aggression: “there is no Fatherland to defend”. Many had recognized that, but others hadn’t made a decision consistent with it as her father had, said Maria Dammer.
In the conversation Fraziska Jaegerstaetter revealed that she had tried to bring her husband around (to a different view). “We talked about it again and again. Day and night almost. I couldn’t talk Franzl out of it.” The priest of St. Radegund at the time, was among the persons who tried to head Franz Jaegerstaetter off from refusal of military service. “The priest would later be locked up, like many priests in Innviertel, because he had said too much in a sermon. There was a National Socialist teacher who had written and denounced the priest,” related Franziska. Her husband also went to the Bishop in Linz. The church also said yes, he should turn back, “but he was never so obedient”. “He was really downcast after the discussion with the bishop,” said his daughter Maria.
Neither Jaegerstaetter’s wife nor his daughter can accept the reproach that he abandoned his family. “Even if he had changed his mind, he had no guarantee that he would have come home again,” said Marie Dammer. "The Nazis would surely have stuck him somewhere where he would never have come home from because of his stance against (them).” “There are still hostilities today, even if people don’t say anything. one feels it” said Franziska Jaegerstaetter.
At that time she told the children ‘not much’ of the story of their father: “I couldn’t say much. That can’t easily be told. It hurts.” only after the 60’s was more spoken about their father, also scolded, said Maria Dammer. She remembers all too clearly how it was—as the news of his death sank it. “My father had written a farewell letter, I can still remember how Mother read the letter to us. We were in the dining room, eating together, that was terrible. I was five years old at the time. I cried so much.”
Franziska Jaegerstaetter married her husband Franz in the year 1936, the couple had three girls: Aloisia, Maria and Rosalia; today they are between 67 and 70 years old. Franziska Jaegerstaetter lives with her daughter Maria in St. Radegund; she has 14 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren.
translated by Julie Boswell
