Mug-shot of Leopold Engleitner, a Jehovah's Witness arrested for his religious beliefs.
Overview
- Caption
- Mug-shot of Leopold Engleitner, a Jehovah's Witness arrested for his religious beliefs.
- Date
-
Circa 1934 - 1939
- Locale
- Austria?
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Robert Buckley
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Robert Buckley
Keywords & Subjects
- Photo Designation
-
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES -- Prisoners/Mug Shots
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Leopold Engleitner was born on July 23, 1905 in Aigen-Voglhub, a small rural area in Austria in the Strobl district and grew up in Bad Ischl. His father Leopold Senior worked in a saw mill, and his mother Juliana was the daughter of the owner of a large estate. He had a younger brother Heinrich. Leopold grew up impoverished, and he also suffered from curvature of the spine which prevented him from participating in many childhood activities. Though his mother was a strict Catholic, Leopold did not attend church frequently since his father was a free thinker. However, as a young man he began searching for spiritual answers and a religious framework for his deeply felt pacifist views. In 1931 he accompanied a friend to a meeting of the Bible Students - Jehovah's Witnesses, and the following year, Engleitner officially left Catholic faith and became baptized as a Witness. Engleitner's neighbors denounced his decision. He was fired from his job and told that only members of established churches could receive unemployment benefits. During the years preceding the Nazi takeover of Austria, Leopold was imprisoned briefly on four different occasions for sharing his religious beliefs. Then on April 4, 1939 during a religious ceremony commemorating death of Jesus, the Gestapo arrested Engleitner and three other Witnesses on the charge of "holding a bible discourse and being followers of Bible Students". Under interrogation Engleitner repeatedly refused to accept military service. The following October Leopold Engleitner was sent to Buchenwald where he was given one of the most grueling labor assignments working in the quarry and in March 1941, he and many other Witnesses were transferred to the Niederhagen concentration camp in Wewelburg, Westphalia to construct a large SS headquarters. Leopold's unit was composed entirely of Bible Students. That fall he was offered a release if he denounced his beliefs; Engleitner refused. When Niederhagen closed in April 1943, Leopold was sent to Ravensbrueck. After a few months, on July 15, 1943, he was released on condition that he work solely in agriculture. Engleitner worked on farm in his home district of St. Wolfgang until the final weeks of the war. On April 17, 1945, after receiving a call up for military service, Engleitner fled and hid in an Alpine hut and cave. He returned home on May 5, 1945. Though he wanted to work elsewhere, he was still bound by his promise to remain on a farm until American occupying forces intervened to release him from that obligation in April 1946. In 1949 married Theresia Kurz.
- Record last modified:
- 2007-08-15 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1163397
