Johann Nobis was born to a farmer in the Holzhausen municipality St. Georgen bei Salzburg. As a Jehovah's Witness, he refused to take the oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler. He was arrested, and on 23 November 1939 was sentenced to death by a Reich's court-martial, for diminishing the state's defensive power.
He was imprisoned at Plötzensee Prison on 20 December 1939, where he was executed on 6 January 1940. On the day of his execution, five other Jehovah's Witnesses from Salzburg were also executed.
His farewell letter to his mother is archived at the DÖW, donated by Gertrud Feichtinger-Nobis.