During World War 2, there were a huge number of executions which were carried out by the
German Army.
The Wehrmacht rampaged across different countries and then death squads followed them carrying
out mass executions of the civilian populations.
Millions were killed in the conflict, and there was a greater civilian cost than military
cost, and people’s lives were turned upside down.
Hitler also viewed people who refused to carry out orders as deserters and also as traitor’s
to his Nazi regime.
Because of this many men were executed themselves despite being part of the German army, and
one of those men who was condemned was Otto Schimek, a young Austrian solider who would
refuse to carry out the executions of a group of polish people.
However despite being included in the firing squad, this young man would become a victim
himself, standing up for what he believed in.
But because of this refusal, he too became a victim of the firing squad, and his story
is one which should be known about.
Join us today as we look at the execution of the German soldier that refused to shoot
his enemies.
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Otto Schimek was born on the 5th May 1925 in Vienna Austria, and he was the 13th child
of his mother and father.
The family were greatly affected by the Great Depression and because of this they became
impoverished especially after Otto’s father died who was the main wage earner.
Following this, Otto was required to spend more time at home helping his mother who was
a dressmaker, and he had to help bring money in to feed the large family.
He was not necessarily a religious boy, but he did attend church every Sunday with his
mother, but as the Second World War broke out, Otto Schimek was drafted into the German
Army.
Adolf Hitler had steamrolled into Austria years before, and had united Germany and Austria
and absorbed the country into his Reich or Empire.
This meant that Austrians were considered Germans and when the war broke out many Austrians
were called up to serve in the German Army.
This was the case for Otto and when he was called up he carried a cross with him all
the time.
He had spent a lot of time working with his family, so his drafting into the army was
a great loss, but he did not have many friends.
But in the local area he was highly regarded as, and the neighbours all waved him off when
he went to join his new army unit.
He was just 17 years old when he became a soldier in the Wehrmacht, and to begin with
he served towards the east in Bosnia before he was then moved with his unit to southern
Poland.
Otto had deep reservations though about whether he could actually take a life with his weapon
or not, and whilst he was allowed some time away on leave, he met with his sister and
said hoe he did not want to kill anyone, and that when confronted with the enemy he would
fire his rifle directly above the enemies intentionally missing, but of course this
was also dangerous.
Otto Schimek allegedly said, ‘My conscience is clear, I will not shoot people.
These people want to return home just like me.
This war is not Christian.’
He clearly did not want to fight for Hitler and his army, and this avoidance and behaviour
was picked up on by the Army and because of this he was warned by the authorities.
Refusing to follow orders was considered treasonous in the Wehrmacht, and they dealt with this
in a number of ways including execution, however to begin with Otto was imprisoned.
He then somehow managed to escape his incarceration, and he tried to get back to Vienna his hometown
and reunite with his family.
But he was arrested in Czechoslovakia, and he was then beaten badly when he was arrested.
The Wehrmacht threatened him with court martial for desertion, however they decided to give
Otto Schimek one more chance.
To test his metal and to see if he was serious about his refusal to shoot the enemy, the
Wehrmacht cruelly stated that Otto Schimek would be tasked with being part of a firing
squad.
To prove himself to the army, he was to kill a polish family, a father, mother and two
sons.
This family had been preparing food for the soldiers of the Home Army, and when captured
they were accused of committing acts of treason, as they were willingly helping the enemy and
providing them with food.
Otto continued to protest and refuse to shoot innocent people, and because of this his superiors
then condemned him to death, and Schimek was to be executed for desertion and cowardice.
It was brutal and swift justice in the eyes of the Nazis, and his sister said that the
family heard about the death sentence, and that his mother then wrote a letter to Berlin
asking for clemency and for a reprieve.
But before the execution was to take place, Otto wrote home to his brother and said, ‘I
am in a happy mood.
What do we have to lose?
Nothing, only out poor lives, they cannot kill our souls.
What a hope!
Today I am going to heaven, where the father is waiting, May God Guard you so that you
will join me.’
On the morning of the 14th November 1944, Otto Schimek was led from his prison cell
to what is believed to have been the outskirts of a village names Lipiny, which is southeast
of Tarnow.
He was shot dead and was executed by a firing squad who were made up of German army soldiers.
He was in a sense executed by his own soldiers, and it’s not known exactly where he was
killed.
It may have been up by a wall, or down an alley, however following the execution he
was then collected and his remains were gathered but villagers and locals who had witnessed
the execution.
It’s believed that these villagers then took his remains to the cemetery in the nearby
village of Machowa, but then exhumation work carried out in the 1990s on an individual
who was buried in his alleged grave stated that the remains that were there were of a
man who was much older.
Because of this there was some debate as to where he was actually buried, but today it’s
considered that he was buried alongside other German soldiers inside a war cemetery in Leki
Dolne.
But today his tomb is considered a place of pilgrimage, and a marker reads, ‘Born in
1925, executed in 1944 because he did not want to shoot the poles.
May God take you in his mercy.’
Each year people visit the grave and lay flowers and also light candles, and Polish and Austrian
flags are left near to it.
There were some people who were stopped making the way to the grave, and Communist militia
then detained a number of people who were travelling to pay their respects to Otto Schimek.
There is some debate though regarding Otto Schimek, and the story of his execution as
some historians have criticised the fact that little documentary evidence has survived about
his story, and that also there are no witnesses around today who can corroborate the story
of his execution.
Most of the information was obtained by Otto’s sister, and this is what is told today, but
some historians have been skeptical about the legitimacy of the story.
But Otto Schimek was a man who did lose his life during the Second World War.
He would never return home at the end of the conflict, and it’s believed that his executioners
were his fellow soldiers as he refused to take the life of another person.
He would enact this belief in combat, shooting his rifle nowhere near the enemy which was
of course dangerous but his own belief was that the war was not a just one, and that
he had no part in it.
He was ultimately called up as he was Austrian and Hitler had seized control of his nation,
and he would have preferred to have stayed at home and to help his family survive their
financial plight.
But he met his end on a firing range, being shot by a collection of German soldiers who
would condemn him for refusing to take arms against the enemy.
The German soldiers saw this as immensely shameful, and for this Otto Schimek paid the
price.
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