The testimony of Josef Mayr-Nusser

September 1944. Josef Mayr-Nusser from Bolzano/Bozen is forcibly conscripted into the SS. With other recruits Josef leaves for training in Konitz, a town in West Prussia.

At the end of three weeks of training, the procedure is to swear the oath to Hitler in solemn form. On 4 October, the SS Marshal explains to the recruits the meaning of this act of unconditional loyalty to the Nazi regime:

“I swear to you, Adolf Hitler, Führer and Chancellor of the Reich, loyalty and courage. I solemnly promise to you and to the superiors appointed by you obedience until death. May God assist me”.

May God assist me? The God who out of love became man, born in a stable, of Jewish parents, on the periphery of history… Appealing to this God, Josef should now swear to Hitler “loyalty and courage”?

Josef raises his hand, asks for the floor. In front of the terrified comrades, he declares that he, that oath, cannot and will not pronounce it.

Say no to racism and nationalism. No to a totalitarian system. No to the cult of the leader. This is what the South Tyrolean Josef Mayr-Nusser did in October 1944. He refused to swear “loyalty and courage” to Adolf Hitler. He paid with his life. He died in February 1945 on the train that was taking him to Dachau concentration camp.

In a world in which new Führers or would-be Führers emerge, in which walls and borders reappear, in which the truth is submerged by a flood of lies, a testimony, that of Josef, of tragic relevance.

Josef Mayr-Nusser, recognised as a martyr by Pope Francis, was proclaimed blessed on 18 March 2017.

Bibliography:

Paolo Bill Valente, Fedeltà e coraggio. La testimonianza di Josef Mayr-Nusser, ed. Alpha Beta, Merano 2017