Dachau – the great cemetery of Catholic priests

"Initially, a priest would not live at all for more than a few days. They were clubbed to death in the square... or at some other 'job' designed specifically to torment them. Then – at the beginning of 1941 – following an intervention from Rome, the priests were transported to Dachau..." This is Witold Pilecki's 1943 report from Auschwitz providing valuable inside information for the Polish underground authorities.
A total of 1,780 Polish priests were imprisoned in Dachau, which constituted almost 70% of all Catholic clergy imprisoned there (2,579 – cf. ); 868 died or were killed in the camp. Paul Berben, in his monograph Dachau 1933-1945, quotes the memories of priests from various countries.
Father Francis de Sales Hess was a vicar in Dorfgastein, Austria. In the bell tower of a church under construction, he posted a condemnation of the neo-pagan system of German National Socialism. He was denounced, and in August 1938, he was sent to Dachau. He survived and wrote about his …More