Father Josef Paul was born in 1889 in the Volga German colony of Rohleder.
He studied theology at the Catholic Seminary in Saratov and was ordained in 1913. He served the parishes of Neu-Kolonie and Seelmann from 1916-1924.
He was arrested on 12 January 1930 along with a group of Volga German clergy. He was sentenced on 20 April 1931 to the death penalty, but this was commuted to 10 years of labor, and he was sent to the Solovetsky Camp. In 1937, he was arrested again and transferred to prison. On 14 October 1937 he was again sentenced to death, and on 1 November 1937 he was executed in Sandarmokh in the Medvezhyegorsk District.
- Paul Josef - Jr. (wolgadeutsche.ru) [online]
- Schnurr, Joseph. Die Kirchen und das Religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen, Katholischer Teil (Stuttgart, 1980), p. 369.
Prison photo of Father Josef Paul.
Source: Die Martyrer.