Alphons Spix SSCC

At the age of 25, Walter Spix entered the Congregation of the Arnstein Fathers, where he took the name Alphonsus and was ordained priest in 1925. In 1928, he took over the office of superior in the Johannes monastery in Niederlahnstein. After five years, he was called back to Arnstein in 1933 in the same function. In 1938 he was elected Vice-Provincial of the German Province of the Order.

As head of the monastery in Arnstein, he came into conflict with the National Socialist regime. Not knowing the legal regulations, he allowed Polish forced labourers to attend parish services and allowed them to have breakfast at the monastery gate. He was cautioned by the Gestapo in 1941 and arrested on 19 November 1941 after another, probably unintentional, violation of these regulations. At the beginning of 1942, he was transferred to Dachau concentration camp. There he died on 9 August 1942, allegedly of an intestinal ailment.

In 1999, the Roman Catholic Church included Alphons Spix as a witness to the faith in the German Martyrology of the 20th Century.

On 27 January 2023, all victims of the Holocaust were commemorated for the first time at his grave in the Arnstein monastery cemetery.