Father Joseph Graf was born in Volmer.
Father Graf studied theology at the Catholic Seminary in Saratov and was ordained on 25 August 1892. He served the parish in Mariental from 1892-1897 and in Hölzel from 1897 to 1903.
Beginning on 2 October 1903, he served as vicar in the parish Taganrog and served in the coal mine district of Berestovo-Kinsk and Rykovsk. From 1917 to 1918, he served in Simferopol in the Crimea.
According to the French Embassy in Moscow, he was arrested on 19 October 1927 in the Crimea. A Polish newspaper Trybuna Radziecka reported on 9 January 1930 that he had been sentenced to 6½ years because of “hostile and un-antiprolitariate activies.” His exact fate is unknown.
- Bosch, Anton. Lebensbilder russlanddeutscher Märtyrer: Bischöfe und Priester (previously posted by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries).
- Graf Joseph (wolgadeutsche.net) [Online]
- Schnurr, Joseph. Die Kirchen und das Religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen - Katholischer Teil (Stuttgart, 1980), p. 350.