Josef Lenzel

Josef Lenzel (* April 21, 1890 in Wroclaw, Lower Silesia, † July 3, 1942 in the Dachau concentration camp ) was a German Roman Catholic priest, pastor, resistance fighter against National Socialism, pastor and defender of the rights of Polish forced laborers and martyrs.

Life

After graduation in 1911 he began to study theology in Breslau. On June 3, 1915 Josef Lenzel ordained a priest in Wrocław Cathedral. From 1929 he worked as Pfarrkurat in the parish of St. Mary Magdalene in Berlin- Niederschoenhausen. He was also president of the Kolping Family Berlin Central. During the Second World War, Lenzel care of Polish forced laborers ( " Eastern workers " ) in his parish. He was then supervised as opponents of the regime by the Gestapo. Because of a worship preparation with the forced laborers, he was arrested on January 7, 1942 and transported to Dachau concentration camp where the brutal methods affected his health. He died there shortly after his transfer on 3 July 1942.

Commemoration

• Before the St. Mary Magdalene Church in Berlin- Niederschoenhausen since 1980 has been a monument to Lenzel,
• Plaques are on Bebelplatz, St. Hedwig's Cathedral, Berlin-Mitte and in the Platanenstraße 22b, Pankow, attached.
• In Berlin -Neukölln and the Lenzelpfad from 21 April 1990, it was named in Pankow- Niederschoenhausen the priest - Lenzel - street after him.