Johann KENDLHOFER was born in Salzburg on December 9, 1908 and was baptized Catholic in his home community of Gnigl. He was the third of the four sons of Maria and Leopold KENDLHOFER.

The family lived at 11 Turnerstraße in Gnigl, which was an independent community until it was annexed to the city of Salzburg in 1935, and they all had local citizenship rights there. Johann’s father was a railroader, a conductor for the Austrian National Railway. Johann’s older brother Franz was 23 years old when he was killed in an accident.

Johann KENDLHOFER was unable to complete an apprenticeship and moved out from his parents’ home when he was 19 – proceeding to live a troubled life with frequent moves. In Salzburg he seems to have gotten in trouble with the law and he was temporarily banned from the city for a while after he turned 21.

The police registration files indicate that after the beginning of 1936 he had a sleeping place in the city of Salzburg’s hostel for down and out residents – mostly the unemployed and homeless.1 The official record of his departure from the hostel was stamped May 6, 1938 – was it a return to his parents’ house, or was it flight, persecution and a violent end to a troubled life?

The lack of judicial records and witnesses makes it difficult to get a very clear picture of his life under the Nazi regime. We do know that Johann KENDLHOFER was drafted into the German army in March 1941 and that a Vienna court martial of the 177th Division of Military District XVII sentenced him to death.

On June 2, 1942 33 year old Johann KENDLHOFER was shot to death on the military firing range in Kagran. Before his death he surely learned that his 21 year old brother Oskar had died »for Führer, Volk and Fatherland« during the attack on the Soviet Union in July 1941.

Alois, the oldest and last of the four brothers, survived the terror years — as did his parents Maria and Leopold KENDLHOFER.

1 it is now the Haus der Stadtgeschichte, the Salzburg city archives, at 8 Glockengasse.

Sources

  • Salzburg city and state archives
Author: Gert Kerschbaumer
Translation: Stan Nadel

Stumbling Stone
Laid 14.11.2016 at Salzburg, Glockengasse 8

<p>HIER WOHNTE<br />
JOHANN KENDLHOFER<br />
JG. 1908<br />
KRIEGSDIENST VERWEIGERT<br />
ERSCHOSSEN 2.6.1942<br />
IN WIEN-KAGRAN</p>
The symbol of the Nazis' civil and military courts: A sword and scales of justice combined with the Nazi Party eagle and swastika

All stumbling stones at Glockengasse 8