Background
Lenzel was born in 1891 in Breslau (now Wrocław) in Prussian Silesia.
Lenzel was born in 1891 in Breslau (now Wrocław) in Prussian Silesia.
University of Wrocław.
In 1911, he started his theological studies at the University in Breslau, and was ordained as a priest on 3 June 1915 in Breslau Cathedral. He became a vicar in Wołów immediately after this, and in 1916 became a vicar in Berlin-Pankow. In 1929, he became a rector, then a titulary provost of Street Mary Magdalene’s parish in Berlin-Niederschönhausen.
During the Second World War, he helped Polish obligatory workers in his parish.
His help was viewed unkindly by local Nazi authorities. In January 1942, during his preparations for a mass for maltreated Poles, he was arrested by the Gestapo and then sent to the Dachau concentration camp.
He died there on 3 July 1942 from ill-treatment and exhaustion
Commemorative plaque in a cript of Saint Hedwig"s Cathedral,
Commemorative plaque on a symbolic tomb in memorial of Josef Lenzel, in front of Street Mary Magdalene’s parish in Berlin-Niederschönhausen
Street named Pfarrer-Lenzel-Straße in Berlin-Pankow.