15 Dec Celebrate the Christmas season with the annual artwork from eye square
Happy holidays and a blessed new year!
In December, we will be focusing not only on our core business of market research, but also on the people who have become victims of the current situation due to their strong beliefs.
One project particularly close to our CEO Michael Schießl’s heart is his series of illustrations depicting Catholic martyrs of National Socialism. These martyrs include clergy and lay people who were persecuted, imprisoned and executed for their faith and resistance to the Nazi regime.
This year, our Christmas motifs once again commemorate those who died for their resistance.
With our Christmas series, eye square wishes you happy holidays and a peaceful New Year!
Our Christmas art series honours two exceptional National Socialism martyrs.
Josef Wirmer
19.03.1901 – †08.09.1944
Josef Wirmer was a Catholic lawyer in Berlin who strongly opposed Hitler. He was part of the Wandervogel movement and joined Catholic student groups while studying in Freiburg and Berlin. By the late 1920s, he became a member of the Centre Party.
After the Nazis came to power, he passionately fought against the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, the persecution and murder of Jewish citizens, and the limitations placed on Christian churches.
Wirmer had been in contact with Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg since 1944. After the failed assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, he was arrested on August 4, 1944, and sentenced to death on September 7 and 8 by the People’s Court, presided over by Roland Freisler.
Immediately after the death sentence was pronounced, he was executed in Berlin-Plötzensee.
Chaplain Herbert Simoleit
22.05.1908 – †13.11.1944
Herbert Simoleit was raised a Catholic by his mother, despite his father’s objections. He was ordained as a priest in 1939. In 1941, he was called to Stettin, where he became a popular youth pastor.
As the local priest, he looked after the soldiers stationed in Stettin and organised weekly discussion groups for them. As well as discussing questions of faith, Simoleit also talks about political issues and the crimes committed by the SS against Jews.
He was arrested in early February 1943 and mistreated during interrogation. On 4 September 1944, he was sentenced by the Reich Military Court, and on 13 November 1944, Herbert Simoleit was murdered in Halle/Saale.
Click here to find out more about the long-term art card project and the artist Ivy Lee.