Josef Kaltenbacher was born in St. Blasien near Waldshut in Baden on February 26, 1902, the son of lathe operator Vinzenz Kaltenbacher and his wife Berta, née Beck. He completed an apprenticeship as a mechanic and lived in Munich from 1924 onwards. On May 6, 1927, he married Rosa Rieger and from 1934 lived with her at Marienstrasse 10. In 1927, Josef Kaltenbacher left the Catholic Church and joined the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Even after the Nazi seizure of power, Josef Kaltenbacher, as a “Bible student”, as the Jehoveh’s Witnesses were called at the time, made house visits and conducted discussions about the Bible, even though this was forbidden by the Nazis. He later said in court that God’s Great Commission to do missionary work stood above the law of any worldly government. On May 27, 1936 he met the “Old Fighter” and committed Catholic Josef Hitzler, who shortly afterwards took him personally to the police and denounced him. Josef Kaltenbacher’s trial in the Munich Special Court on July 23, 1936 is one of the most spectacular “Bible student” trials in the Nazi era. 20 members of his faith from Munich, including Rosa Kaltenbacher, appeared there to give Josef Kaltenbacher moral support. After sentence had been passed, the judge, Dr. Wölzl, demanded several times that those present should give the Hitler salute as they left. Because Josef Kaltenbacher’s brothers and sisters in faith refused to do this, the trial did not end with the sentencing of one defendant but with sentences or court orders against 21 Jehovah’s Witnesses, in some cases with profound consequences. Josef Kaltenbacher was sentenced to one year in prison. On his release he was deported to Dachau concentration camp on August 7, 1937 and was often mistreated there. On September 27, 1939, Josef Kaltenbacher was transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp. He died due to the catastrophic prison conditions there on March 12, 1940 at the age of just 38. Josef Kaltenbacher’s wife, Rosa, had already died on May 13, 1939 in the sanatorium and nursing home Eglfing-Haar at the age of 36. She had suffered greatly from her husband’s imprisonment. It is not clear whether there is any connection between her death and persecution by the Nazis.
(Text: Ch. Wilker; translation: C. Hales: editor: Ch. Fritsche)
