The One "No" in a Village of Yes

On April 10, 1938, the residents of St. Radegund, a small village in Upper Austria, cast their ballots in Hitler's plebiscite on the Anschluss — the annexation of Austria into the Third Reich. The result was nearly unanimous. Franz Jägerstätter, a thirty-year-old farmer and sexton at the parish church, cast the lone dissenting vote in the entire village.

His neighbors shunned him. His parish priest urged compliance. Bishop Joseph Fliesser of Linz personally counseled him to fulfill his duty to the state for the sake of his wife, Franziska, and their three young daughters. But Jägerstätter had spent years in prayer and study of scripture, and his conscience would not bend.

When his conscription orders came in early 1943, he reported to the military induction center in Enns but refused to take the oath of service. He was arrested, transferred to Berlin, tried before a military tribunal, and sentenced to death. On August 9, 1943, Franz Jägerstätter was beheaded at Brandenburg Prison. He was thirty-six years old.

"Do not be conformed to this pattern of this world," Paul wrote to the Romans, "but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." A whole nation conformed. One farmer, his mind renewed by scripture and prayer, saw clearly what millions would not. Following Christ sometimes means your conscience must stand where the crowd refuses to.