Honoring - Otto Schimek

I wanted to share a little clip honoring Otto Schimek, proof that a good human being is not defined by his uniform.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hhoj-65MD-U]

You sure that this is the right link? I only get a youtube guide how to make shorts???

He'd be 99 is he was still alive.

Stories like that, the murder of Schimek and the murder of the Polish family of four, just show how appalling the Germans were and how they just did what they were told to do, killing anyone who didn't follow the sick concept of "ordnung".

His story deserves to be much better known.

I wonder if his killers were ever brought to justice.

Now I googled him....an Austrian btw....

The german Wiki says the story is untrue....there are no trustworthy sources for that....developed by his sister?

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Schimek

A good article here about him, mentioning the testimony of a local in Lipiny who remembered his murder.

paxchristiusa.org/2015/12/21/reflection-the-seldom-told-story-of-otto-shimek/

At least he isn't totally forgotten in the german speaking part of the world....he got mentioned on a memorial plaque:

geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at/Gedenktafel_f%C3%BCr_Gefallene_mit_Befehlsverweigerer_Otto_Schimek

Seems to a issue, and I can't find the short* again so far. A pity

It seemed rather believable, especially as flowers are still laid down at his grave. I would have to check German wikipedia. As it is highly interesting that such a claim is written there

Now I got it, thanks!

That worked:

youtube.com/shorts/hhoj-65MD-U

Thank you BB!

It's mentioned in the main Wikipedia, in English, however it seems to have been added as an extra.

Did you see the article from paxchristusa?

Yupp! Highly interesting and incredible!

it is also interesting that we don't know of many such cases - meaning they were few and far between

There were several such instances of true conscientious objectors. A pity their stories aren't more well known.
Although Wiki claims otherwise, one never knows what right wing, pro-Nazi infiltrators can edit certain sites and
spew their misinformation!

@Lyzko
That's because they lack honour! This single soldier raises up the entire German military! Just think if 1 million soldiers like him were present in the Wehrmacht! It would have kept the honour of the German military from times of preWW1

You know....he was Austrian!

And I don't think it's only a few Nazis at Wiki:

....In 1993, the TV station Telewizja Polska created a 40-minute documentary show entitled Casus: Otto Schimek.[5] In 2011, the journalist Martin Pollack and the writer Christoph Ransmayr, both Austrians, published a description of their sources, "which counteract this heroic narrative and make the case appear as simple desertion."[6]Genesis of a legend made visible as a guided event of interpretation and the actual fall of Shimek to the exemplum."[6] In 2013 the Polish magazine Wprost adopted the criticisms of the two Austrian authors and described the story as a second-hand hero saga from the sister of the executed soldier.[7]...

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Schimek

Not that I would want to denigrate that "only a desertion"....that too was not that easy back then!

@Bratwurst Boy
There are plenty of other scenario's (safer?) that I can imagine him trying to desert. Many armies employ the accusation of desertation as a reason of harsh punishments for individual soldiers for, petty reasons, political, disobedience or others.

So I'll remain sceptical, he seems like did a good thing despite a horrible situation

I would never judge since I can only hope to do the right thing in their situation....

@Bratwurst Boy
Not as much as judgement from my side, more of an appreciation of humanity in a single soldier I can only dream of reaching in terms of actions in my own lifetime. Past is the past, but it is a calming thing for me to see men I can try to strive for to be

No Gruni, I didn't want to criticize you, that is a misunderstanding....I only mentioned that because some could wonder why I as a German put doubts of his bravery into this thread....I didn't do it because I judge this man, not at all!

Ach, I better leave here...it's not my place!

@Bratwurst Boy
It is any man's place! Nonsense BB!
However I am quite surprised that Torq has been absent from this thread. I would thought that his Austrian side would increase his happiness by 1000%

I guess he still has to work through the polish ice hockey defeat against Germany in Ostrava today! :)

That's a thing about Wikipedia.

One takeaway from my several decades in Poland is that we shouldn't be quick to relate personal politics to personal behaviour.

Some of those people who gave their lives to save Jewish people in the Holocaust weren't necessarily philosemitic. Some were undoubtedly very much not. They did what they did through human decency and/or religious conviction rather than political or cultural views.

Kaj Munk in Denmark was such a case! Not a friend of the Jews, he nonetheless gave his
life for his fellow Danes in their fight against Hitler.

Danes fighting against Hitler? What planet are you on?
In 1939, there were 4 million Danes. Of those 4 million, 6600 died as "a direct result of WW2" or 0.16%. Those brave Danes...

No, he didn't give "his life for his fellow Danes". He was murdered, and not even by the Gestapo. He was arrested, given a cup of coffee, and let go.

The Gestapo arrested Munk on the night of 4 January 1944, a month after he had defied a Nazi ban and preached the first Advent sermon at the national cathedral in Copenhagen. Munk's body was found in a roadside ditch in rural Hørbylunde near Silkeborg the next morning with a note stating, "Swine, you worked for Germany just the same."[4]

The poor sob was murdered by his fellow Danes, it seems...

Munk gave his life by leading his fellow countrymen into a situation
which surely would have ended in his own death, apparently with little
concern for his personal safety!

Indeed the Danes had ONE Nazi leaning member of the Folketing
or Parliament, a "Dr." Frits Claussen. However, he was rejected by his
people as "un-Danish" in character.

Wikipedia says nothing about him leading anyone.

Not surprised, Rich. Don't rely on Wiki for accuracy!

Give me your source.

Anything but Wiki! Merely google sources concerning Danish history, maybe start with Kai Winding's "A History of Denmark" among
many others, and there you'll find the "sources" you're looking for:-)

Give me your source.