17 Facts About Otto Neururer

Otto Neururer was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest and was the first priest to die in a Nazi concentration camp.

Otto Neururer was arrested in 1938 for attempting to persuade a girl not to be wed to a man of questionable morals and was sent to Dachau before being transferred to Buchenwald where he died after being hanged upside down, nailed to a tree, practically crucified.

Otto Neururer was left there for 36 hours and then killed by Nazi guard Martin Sommer.

Otto Neururer's beatification was celebrated on 24 November 1996 based on the fact that he died as a result of "odium fidei".

Otto Neururer was born on 25 March 1881 as the last of twelve children to the poor and modest farmers Alois Neururer and Hildegard Streng.

Otto Neururer's parents managed a small farm with a mill.

Otto Neururer was a timid but academic man who battled depression much like his mother did.

Otto Neururer celebrated his first Mass as a priest in his hometown.

Otto Neururer wanted to become a Jesuit so he could join their missions though his delicate health at the time prevented him from being able to pursue that path.

Otto Neururer served as a curate and as a teacher of religious education in the Saint James parish from 1917 until 1932 following his ordination and later joined the Christian Social Movement despite the fact that it put him at odds with his conservative superiors.

Otto Neururer was then sent to Innsbruck and then in 1932 was sent to his final assignment as a pastor in Gotzens near Innsbruck to the Saints Peter and Paul parish church.

Otto Neururer was serving as a parish priest in Gotzens at the time that this was taking place.

Otto Neururer advised a girl not to marry a divorced man owing to his questionable morals, but it happened that this man was a personal friend of Franz Hofer.

Otto Neururer was arrested on 15 December 1938 as a result of his actions on the charge of "slander to the detriment of German marriage" and sent on 3 March 1939 to the Dachau Concentration Camp before later being sent on 26 September 1939 to Buchenwald where he faced frequent torture.

Otto Neururer, despite suspecting a trap, agreed to perform a forbidden baptism at the camp for a prisoner who approached him in April 1940 and was sent to the punishment block when his action was discovered not long after.

Otto Neururer's remains were cremated on 3 June 1940 and his ashes sent in an urn to Gotzens later that same month and where they are now located under the altar of the Gotzens parish church.

Otto Neururer was cleared for beatification on 12 January 1996 after Pope John Paul II confirmed that the priest had died "in odium fidei".