The Holocaust was a period in history, which has
caused many to question the unperceivable evil and lack of love for humanity
which had taken root in the world. Dachau was the first, of the countless, labor
and concentration camps which were established by Hitler and the National
Socialist government[1].
It was fundamentally a labor camp, where SS officers would go to train in ways
of the Third Reich, later to be dispatched to other camps. There, families were
torn apart, hope was lost and humans of various races, nationalities and religions
went to parish. The atrocities that were experienced within this camp could
only be understood by those who witnessed the horrors first-hand. William J. O’Malley’s
article The Priests of Dachau refers
to the camp as “a hell before which Dante would stand mute”. For even Dante
could not have imagined a circle of Hell at this magnitude.
| This image caught my attention, for it represents the suffering within Dachau, as redemptive suffering-joining with that of the Lord's on the cross. |
Father Jean Bernard, a priest from Luxembourg, was
one of the two-thousand clergymen who were sent to Dachau. Priestblock 25487 is a remembrance of Father Bernard’s time in the
labor camp of Dachau. Priestblock refers to the barracks which the various
religious clergymen were kept, while 25487 refers to Bernard’s identification
number[2].
Father Jean gives his readers a glimpse into the evil that had founded Dachau,
with Bernard’s hope of redemption with Christ through his personal sufferings. Dachau
was a labor camp, but the chores which the prisoners were expected to complete
were near to impossible. Dachau might as well have been a concentration camp,
for thousands lost their lives during their incarceration.
Father Bernard’s story stands distinct from the
crowd, for his story is one of faith, hope and redemptive suffering. Throughout
this novel, Father Bernard sends up his suffering to Christ on the cross. Faith
and love, found thin within the camp, was the foundation of Bernard’s survival.
Father Jean arrived at Dachau on May 19th,
1941. When Bernard first arrived at Dachau, the priests were treated better
than the lay civilians. The priests were initially excluded from chores, got
afternoon naps, were allowed wine rations, along with more adequate and nutritious
meals. Priests were also allowed to send and receive letters from the world,
outside Dachau. However, the “special treatments” were soon to end. In retrospect,
Bernard believes the clergymen were treated significantly better, in hopes the
fellow prisoners would soon turn their backs to the Church. This special
treatment caused envy among the rest, which eventually caused hatred of the
Church and God’s people altogether-another way Hitler attempted the
extermination of organized religion. The priests were signed to carry pails of
soup to and from neighboring barracks, along with shoveling snow under harsh
conditions in the winter season. Bernard remembers the countless blows and
kicks from the SS officers; the physical and mental suffering was unbearable. The tolerance of the celebration of mass came
less often and the cruelty and mockery of God became frequent. Bernard lost colleagues,
friends and family, specifically his mother, throughout his time in Dachau. The
excruciating and demanding work brought physical and mental suffering to those
who were unfortunate to experience it first-hand.
Father Bernard, while in Dachau, received a blessing
from Monsignor Cozal, the bishop of Leslau. Bernard notes this experience as
The bishop’s blessing gives meaning to our suffering,
lifts it above the purely human and joins our small, personal suffering to the
sea of injury and persecution that the church of Christ endures and must
endure. His blessing lets us share in the graces and comforts and sources of
strength that fed the first martyrs[3]
Father Bernard nowhere depicts himself as a hero,
nor a martyr. However, he is able to recognize the grace that is available
through suffering. He meditates on the comfort he receives from the graces
which gave strength to the first martyrs, seeing himself as fortunate to
receive the same grace. He writes of his sufferings being “small”, which I
believe many who suffered through the Holocaust would consider their tragedies
great. The recognition of his personal anguish being small in comparison to the
persecutions which the Church endures shows his readers the strength and faith
that he has in Christ.
Many others grew in faith during the persecution
and extermination carried out by the Nazi Party. Jean Bernard was not alone in
his faith during this time at Dachau, for the sufferings which were present drew
many to seek out God. Despite the hatred of God by the Nazi Party within Dachau,
Karl Leisner was ordained a Catholic priest during his imprisonment in the camp[4].
During the Advent season of 1944, Lesiner was secretly ordained priest by a
fellow prisoner, a French bishop. Karl Leisner was ordained a transitional
deacon by the bishop of Muenster just a few short months before his arrest and
incarceration in Dachau. His arrests were in response to his public
indifference to the Hitler Youth program and the National Socialist Party[5].
He received the bishop’s permission of ordination through his brother, and thus
Leisner was granted permission to become a Catholic priest. However, Father
Leisner was only fortunate enough to celebrate one mass, for eight months after
his ordination he had died. Alongside Father Karl Leisner, Father Bernhard
Lichtenberg was too beatified by Pope John Paul II. Both were beatified as
martyrs during Hitler’s reign in Germany.
 |
| "Fr. Karl Leisner" at Priest Ordained at Dachau Beatified for Defying Nazis. photograph. |
The stories of Fr. Bernard, Fr. Leisner and Fr.
Lichtenberg are only three of the countless stories of faith and hope during
the reign of the Nazi Party. There is no doubt that the Holocaust was one of
the darkest times in world history, but even during dark times, Christ can be
found. The sufferings of these three men were given up to Christ, as the
redemptive sufferings to which Christ took for us on the cross.
[1]“Dachau.” At United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, 4 March 2015, at www.ushmm.org
[2] Erin Ryan, “On both sides
of the Reich,” National Catholic Reporter.
(Oct. 2008) at eds.a.ebscohost.com.
[3] Jean Bernard, Priestblock 25487: A Memoir of Dachau
(Maryland:Zaccheus Press, 2004), 35.
[4] William Downey, “Priest
Ordained at Dachau Beatified for Defying Nazis,”National Catholic Reporter (June, 1996) at eds.a.ebscohost.com.
[5] Downey, “Priest Ordained
at Dachau Beatified for Defying Nazis”.
Priestblock Image: print. http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/
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