History of Sorts

Otto Neururer was born in Tyrol, Austria, on March 25, 1881. He was the twelfth and youngest child of a peasant farmer, Alois Neururer, and his wife, Hildegard. When Otto was eight years old, his father died, leaving the family in difficult circumstances. His mother, a devout Catholic, suffered recurring bouts of depression, and Otto himself grew up physically frail, timid, and similarly prone to periods of melancholy. Despite these hardships, he possessed a keen intellect and gradually discerned a vocation to the priesthood. At the age of twenty-one, he entered the seminary to pursue this calling.

He was ordained a priest in 1907 and celebrated his first Mass in his hometown. Although he longed to join the Society of Jesus and serve as a missionary, poor health prevented him from doing so. Instead, he devoted himself to parish ministry and teaching, eventually being appointed pastor of St. Peter and Paul Parish in Innsbruck.

In 1938, while serving as pastor, a young woman sought his counsel about marrying a divorced man. Father Neururer knew the man’s reputation as a philanderer and con artist and advised her against the marriage. When she informed her fiancé of her decision and the priest’s warning, the man—who had connections within the Nazi Party—reported Father Neururer to local authorities. On December 15, 1938, he was arrested and charged with “slander to the detriment of German marriage.”

On March 3, 1939, he was deported to Dachau concentration camp, the first concentration camp established by the Nazi regime, where he was confined in the so-called “priests’ barracks.”

There he endured repeated torture. Later, on September 26, 1939, he was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp, then under the command of Martin Sommer, known as the “Hangman of Buchenwald.” This would be his final place of imprisonment.

While at Buchenwald, a fellow prisoner asked Father Neururer for baptism. Though he suspected the request might be a trap, he refused to deny the sacrament in case the request was sincere. The suspicion proved correct: the incident was staged. As punishment, Sommer ordered the priest taken to the camp’s punishment block, where he was hanged upside down.

He was subjected to a torture that resembled a cruel mockery of crucifixion. As he endured this suffering, he did not cry out but prayed silently. Suspended in this manner for thirty-six hours, he remained steadfast in prayer until he was finally killed by the Nazi guard Martin Sommer.

A chaplain who witnessed the ordeal later testified that Father Neururer never complained. He survived for thirty-four hours, praying continually even as death approached. He died on May 30, 1940, at the age of fifty-eight, becoming the first of more than 2,600 Catholic priests killed under the Nazi regime.

Father Otto Neururer died in odium fidei—“in hatred of the faith”—and was beatified at St. Peter’s Basilica on November 24, 1996, by Pope John Paul II.

sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Neururer

https://www.tracesofwar.com/sights/138713/Memorial-Otto-Neururer.htm

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=7562

https://aleteia.org/2019/09/03/the-first-of-the-priests-killed-by-the-nazis/

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