Throughout the Second World War, there were many people who were executed inside of Nazi
prisons.
Inside of Plotzensee Prison, there was a guillotine which claimed the lives of hundreds of people
who went against Hitler’s ideas and beliefs, and it was very dangerous to voice opposition
about him.
There were a number of people who met their end inside of execution chambers across Germany
and occupied lands at the hands of the SS and the Gestapo, but some of those who were
put to death lived a very quiet life before.
One such woman who was executed by the Nazis in Vienna was Maria Restituta Kafka, who was
executed by guillotine for simply voicing her opposition against Hitler, and saying
Hitler was a madman.
She was a nun who did not hold back in her criticism, and she saw the persecution which
was happening, and she wanted to do something about it.
But what is her story?
Join us today as we look at the horrific execution of the nun that stood up to Hitler.
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Maria Restituta Kafka was born Helene Kafka near to Brno in Austria Hungary on the 1st
May 1894.
She had a number of siblings and was the sixth daughter of her father who was a shoemaker.
When she was just two years old, her family moved to Vienna which was the capital of the
nation, and she lived in a Czech migrant community made up of fellow Czechs.
As a young girl she worked as a housemaid and then she worked in a tobacco shop, and
then in 1913 she then at the age of 19 became a nurse inside of the municipal hospital in
the Lainz neighbourhood of the city.
But as she was working as a nurse, she came into contact with members of the Franciscan
sisters of Christian Charity, and she then became a nun and part of their congregation
at the age of 20.
Helene was then given the religious name of Maria Restituta after a 4th century martyr,
and she took her vows of the congregation and then she became a sister.
Despite her new found religious feelings she then returned to be a nurse in the hospital.
But in 1919 following the First World War, she was transferred to a different hospital
and whilst here she became one of the best surgical nurses inside of the hospital.
The Modlng hospital where Maria worked was affected by the 1938 annexation of Austria
known as the Anschluss.
Hitler when he took control of Germany and his Nazi party dominated the politics sought
to expand the German territory and empire.
He wanted to untie all German speaking people, and he turned to Austria to take the country
under his empire.
Before the Anschluss there was support for unification between Austria and Germany, and
following the breakup of the Habsburg monarchy, Austria was considered a broken country which
was suffering from economic crisis.
It was hoped Germany could save it, but some people did oppose unification.
But Hitler would impose his regime on Austria, and a rigged ballot in which it was said 99.7%
of people supported the unification of Nazi Germany and Austria got Hitler what he wanted,
and he annexed the country into his empire.
However as mentioned, there were many people who opposed Hitler and his ideas, and Maria
Restituta Kafka was very outspoken in her opposition.
The Nazis had instigated and implemented the Nuremberg Laws into Austria, a series of antisemitics
laws and regulations that limited the freedoms of Jews.
Jews were prevented from marrying, from visiting the cinema, sitting on specific park benches
and they also had to wear the Star of David on their clothes.
These persecuting laws aimed to bring segregation to the Jews and also turn people against them,
but Maria spoke out against these.
When Hitler took control of Austria, she called Hitler a madman and she said that an inhabitant
of Vienna cannot keep her mouth shut and must speak out.
A new hospital wing was created where she worked, and Kafka Hund a crucifix in every
room of the new building, and with this the Nazis were furious.
This was against what they believed, and they ordered that the crosses should be taken down,
and Maria was threatened with losing her job.
But ultimately she refused to take them down, and she won this debate against the Nazis
as the crucifixes were also not removed and she was not sacked from her job, and the hospital
said she was too valuable and they could not lose her.
But as time went on Maria continued her vocal opposition to the Nazi government, and this
continued for years even during the Second World War.
She would be shouted down and verbally attacked by pro-Nazi doctors also, and some did find
her words slanderous and offensive.
But ultimately she was giving her opinion against an evil regime which at the time was
slaughtering and executing millions of people, in a war of aggression that brought the world
to its knees.
She could not support Hitler and the Nazis, however on Ash Wednesday 1942, or the 18th
February whilst she was coming out of an operating theatre following a procedure, Maria Restituta
was arrested by the Gestapo.
She was accused of not just hanging crucifixes in the hospital, but she was also accused
of recited and writing a poem which mocked Hitler and the Nazis.
Following a short trial, she was sentenced to death for her actions by the People’s
Court in Vienna, as it was said she ‘favoured the enemy and committed conspiracy to commit
high treason.’
She was offered a deal by the Nazis, that if she would have accepted she would have
been spared.
They offered her to live and be released from prison if she left the convent she was part
of but she refused to do so.
There were some requests for clemency on her behalf, and one even reached the Desk of Martin
Bormann the Head of the Nazi Party Chancellery.
However he looked unfavourably on Maria Restituta and said that her execution would be effective
intimidation for others who would want to resist, and she was made an example of.
Maria spent her final few days in prison, and behind bars it was said that she cared
for other prisoners and helped them.
She wrote a letter during her imprisonment which said, ‘It does not matter how far
we are separated from everything, no matter what is taken from us: the faith that we carry
in our hearts is something no one can take from us.
In this way we build an altar in our own hearts.’
She was held on death row and in the condemned cells for over a year whilst the Nazis considered
if she would reconsider her opinions, but on the 30th March 1943 she was executed.
In the Vienna Regional Court she was taken into the execution chamber, and at the age
of 48 was handed over to the executioner.
The executioner’s assistant took hold of her and strapped her to a board and she was
quickly slid under the guilotine’s blade.
Within seconds of entering the chamber, she was lying under the blade, and the executioner
took her life releasing it, and she was beheaded.
Maria Restituta Kafka was a nurse and a nun who tried her best to defy the Nazis and Hitler
in any way that she could.
She tried to rally others against the Nazi cause, but ultimately she was seen as a traitor
and because of this she was sentenced to death.
She had numerous chances to live and to evade her death sentence if she would have left
the convent she was a part of, but she was a woman of her word and of strong convictions,
to the point where she went to the guillotine as she refused to back track on her beliefs.
She’s today considered a forgotten victim of the Second World War, and she’s a nun
who’s brilliance was in her defiance.
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