For my second Essay, I want to highlight the life of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer who refused to swear allegiance to Adolf Hitler when drafted during World War II. What I find very interesting about this case is that this man was not a political martyr, who stood against Hitler in a very publicized way. Rather, he was a very simple man, whose resistance to the Nazi party, during his time, went unknown, and seemed to be a worthless stand against totalitarianism. However, I want to argue that this stance showed an even stronger resistance to totalitarianism because it left a great impact on everyone who met him. His story was later told and became a famous case of resistance, and he was canonized years following his death. He gave up his wife and three daughters all for a cause he believed in, and even during his brutal incarceration, where he was given multiple opportunities to swear an oath to Hitler, he stood true to his beliefs, showing how the Nazi party could never break his faith. This an exemplary case of resistance to totalitarianism because it shows that if the Nazi party could not even break a simple farmer, would they ever hold power over any individual who has free will?
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