Lothar König (1906–1946) was a German Jesuit priest and member of the Kreisau Circle of the German Resistance during the Nazi period. Though multi-denominational, the Kreisau group's opposition to the Hitler regime had a strongly Christian orientation, and looked for a general Christian revival, and reawakening of awareness of the transcendental. Its outlook was rooted both in German romantic and idealist tradition and in the Catholic doctrine of

natural law Natural law (, ) is a Philosophy, philosophical and legal theory that posits the existence of a set of inherent laws derived from nature and universal moral principles, which are discoverable through reason. In ethics, natural law theory asserts ...

. König would become an important intermediary between the Circle and bishops Grober of Freiberg and Preysing of Berlin. On December 14, 1942 König wrote to Reverend

Robert Leiber Robert Leiber, S.J. (10 April 1887 – 18 February 1967) was a Jesuit priest from Germany, Professor for Church History at the Gregorian University in Rome from 1930 to 1960. Leiber was the private secretary to Pius XII and, according to the ...

, the Pope's private secretary and a liaison to the Resistance, to inform him that his sources had confirmed approximately 6,000 Polish and Jewish people were being killed every day in " SS-

furnaces Furnace may refer to: Appliances Buildings * Furnace (central heating): a furnace, or a heater or boiler, used to generate heat for buildings * Boiler, used to heat water; also called a furnace in American English when used for heating and hot wat ...

" located in an area of what was then German-occupied Poland and is now part of western Ukraine. It also referenced the Nazi death camps at

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

and Dachau. After the failure of the 1944 July Plot to assassinate Hitler, König was pursued by the Gestapo and sought refuge in a coal cellar, where he lived in hiding until the end of the war. König died shortly after the war from the effects of his time in hiding.Lothar König
German Resistance Memorial Centre, Index of Persons; retrieved at 4 September 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konig, Lothar Roman Catholics in the German Resistance German resistance members 1906 births 1946 deaths 20th-century German Roman Catholic priests

See also

References