Eighth Generation

76. Dr. Pio Paolo (Pius) DEJACO Arzt¹¹⁷ was born on 25 Jan 1869 in Cognola, Trento Province, Tyrol (Austria). He died on 29 Apr 1933 in Bressanone/Brixen, Südtirol (Italy). From his obituary: Pius Dejaco (courtly advisor) was born in Cognola on 25 January 1869 from a German speaking family. He became a student at the University of Vienna, and was awarded his degree "sub auspiciis imperatoris", reserved to the young [men] of exceptional preparation. Aurel Zlatarovich, director of the Provincial Mental Hospital-Tyrolean of Pergine, promoted him to Lead Assistant in 20 October 1893. Between 1912 and 1919, Dr. Pius Dejaco held the office of Director of the Mental Hospital in Pergine. After the end of the first world war, he retired to Brixen/Bressanone with his wife Elvira Fontanari and their five children. There he opened a private clinic in the Villa Sabiona, at the convergence of the Rienza and the Isarco Rivers. One of the sons, Valerius, was mayor of Bressanone from 1952 to 1968. Pius Dejaco died at 29 April 1933 in Bressanone.

He lived in Land Tyrol, a crownland of Austria. At the end of the 19th century, nationalism was becoming an explosive force within the Austria-Hungarian empire. Tragically, there could not be a lasting peace. The assassination of the Austrian Archduke in 1914 triggered the conflict, and, when Austria declared war on Serbia, all of Europe erupted. Tyrol would send four rifle regiments, three infantry regiments, two regiments of territorial reserves, and an artillery regiment to the Russian front. They were almost totally wiped out.

Despite a non-aggression pact with Austria, the Italians entered the war in the year 1915 on the Allied side, and invaded Tyrol. Most Tyrolean manpower was deployed on the Russian front, but it pulled together a defensive force which was able to hold until the German Alpine Corps arrived to form the Dolomite Front. Much of the Tyrolean homeland was devastated. Finally, shortages of food and war materials made the defense impossible, and by war's end in 1918 the Italian forces had advanced through the Bozen-Brixen valley as far north as the Brenner Pass.

The defeat of the Axis Powers in the First World War meant the end of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, and Hapsburg rule. At the 1918 Paris Peace Pact, the southern portion of Tyrol, Südtirol, was ceded to the Italians. Only northern and eastern Tyrol (Innsbruck) remained part of Austria. Despite an effort at Italianizing the area by the Fascist government in the 1920s, the cities and places are still identified in three languages - German, Italian, and Ladin. People living there are necessarily trilingual.

Dr. Pio Paolo (Pius) DEJACO Arzt and Elvira FONTANARI were married on 15 Jun 1897 in Pergine, Trento Province, Südtirol (Austria).

Elvira FONTANARI¹¹⁸ (daughter of Marino FONTANARI and Rosina POLA) was born on 10 Mar 1876 in Pergine, Trento Province, Südtirol (Austria). She died on 26 Jan 1953 in Bressanone/Brixen, Südtirol (Italy).

Dr. Pio Paolo (Pius) DEJACO Arzt and Elvira FONTANARI had the following children:

126	i.	Dr. Giovanni Mario (Hans) DEJACO Pfarrer119 was born on 11 Aug 1903 in Pergine, Trento Province, Südtirol (Austria). He died on 20 Nov 1968. From his translated obituary: Pfarrer Dr. Hans Dejaco - After twenty-four years of a fully restless activity, after the shocking hand over [to Italy] of his beloved country and people of his homeland Südtirol, he labored nine years in the parish of Lalling in the Diocese of Passau. Yet the last seven of his forty year old priestly life were in the form of a heavily suffering, speechless invalid. Of earliest childhood he was called to the altar of God. He went to the high school of the Germanikum in Rome, the University of Innsbruck, and the priest Seminary in Brixen. There he became a priest on 28 June 1928 in the [Brixen] cathedral.... He became a priest with the entire power force of impetuous heart - the children who suffer, the fragile, the small and forgotten; in his instructions, in visits, in sermons, in the sociably social, always friendly, cheering up, and always helpful. Again and again with the secular he found causes. With a fiery zeal, momentum and modern methods, and great piety, he worked in Franzensfeste, Bruneck, in Sterzing and Mühlbach and finally in Bavaria. So it was not remarkable that he at that time became friend to the Bishop of Brixen and General Vicar. His life and master work however was the priest of the emigrating refugee and his homeland Südtirol. On the request of his bishop, he became minister of all emigrated Südtirolers that were expatriated [from Germany], the failed, and home sickened. After the war, he led them back safely to Tyrol, in foot marches out of the Bohemia through the hell of threats, and obtained from the government in Munich a pass for all those willing to settle back. He sought aid in America for he believed then the gates of Tyrol were locked for himself. The church of Passau in Bavaria gave home rights to him, where he has been since 1952 in Lalling again with all his gifts. On 5 March 1961, on the return trip of a conference of the Michael's Alliance, he was encountered with a serious illness. The Blessed Lord pressed upon him a most precious honor; his was a thorny crown of unspeakable suffering on his head. After the time of 7 years of misery, a rosary in the hand, he found himself sitting there, quiet, knowing that he given out his entire soul to his God. In the Millander Gottesacker under the blue vault of a clear Südtirol late autumn sky he found his burial place, among friends and all that had known him; and hoped that God rewards according to how his servant has loved. He was buried in Meran, Italy.
+127	ii.	Dr. Mario Marino DEJACO Arzt.
128	iii.	Pia Rosina DEJACO Wagner120 was born on 17 Jul 1909 in Pergine, Trento Province, Südtirol (Austria). She died on 20 Jan 1982. She was buried in Brixen/Bressanone, Sudtirol, Italy.
+129	iv.	Dr. Marino Giuseppi DEJACO Arzt.
+130	v.	Dr. Valerius Giuseppi DEJACO.