Stoeffler Eugen & Johanna ; Daughter: Ruth

Stöffler, Eugen Stöffler, Johanna Stöffler, Ruth Eugen Stöffler was the parish priest of the village of Köngen in Württemberg, where he lived with his wife and six children. Stöffler belonged to the dissident Confessing Church, which had seceded from the official Protestant Church, rejecting the introduction of the racist “Aryan Paragraph” into the Church. In Württemberg, the Protestant ministers loyal to the Confessing Church had formed during the war a loose network or Sozietät der christlichen Nächstenliebe [Community of Christian brotherly love] with the express purpose of helping persecuted Jews. The members of the Sozietät coordinated between them the “visits” of Jews on the run. Each stay had to be short so as not to arouse suspicion. In the period 1943-1945 the Jewish couple, Ines and Max Krakauer, enjoyed the hospitality of the Stöfflers three times in all – one time unannounced. Stöffler and his wife Johanna, who was suffering from a heart condition, always received them very warmly, making light of the trouble and the risks involved. Asked how she would be able to make ends meet with the scarce food rations, she replied jovially: “I never worry about that. With God’s help, there will be enough”. The 17-year-old daughter Ruth and the younger children, who shared in the secret, took trouble over the well-being of the illegal visitors. The Stöfflers’ eldest son had died in the war. On March 30, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Eugen and Johanna Stöffler and their daughter Ruth as Righteous Among the Nations.