Oskar Maria Graf(1894-1967)
- Writer
German novelist Oskar Maria Graf was born in the Bavarian town of Berg
am Starnbarger See in 1894. His father was a baker, and Oskar--like his
five brothers--learned the family business while still a child.
However, he wasn't planning to spend the rest of his life in the
family's bakery, and at age 16 he ran away from home and went to
Munich, determined to become a writer. In 1914, at the outbreak of
World War I, he was drafted into the German army and posted to the
Russian front. A devout Catholic, he took the Fifth Commandment, "Thou
shalt not kill", to heart and refused to carry a gun, and in 1917 he
was thrown out of the army. He returned to Munich after the war, and in
the early 1930s he became aware of the National Socialist (Nazi) party
and its leader, Adolf Hitler. Graf--by now
a successful writer--was horrified by their agenda and beliefs and
fought them at every turn. When Hitler took power in 1933, Graf left
Germany for Austria, and although the Nazis tried to persuade him to
support Hitler and their cause, he absolutely refused. On the day when
the Nazis held a nationwide book-burning of works by authors they
deemed to be "immoral", "anti-German" and "treasonous", Graf sent
Hitler a letter demanding that his books be burned also. The Nazis not
only obliged, but also stripped him of his German citizenship. In 1934
he left Austria for Czechoslovakia, and when the Germans invaded
Czechslovakia he fled to the US and settled in New York City.
