Holy Week in Dachau - Once Called "The Biggest Monastery in the World"

Greetings in Jesus and Mary...

I am going to offer something different this Holy Week. If you want a traditional talk on the Passion of Our Lord during this Holy Week, you can go to the archives of my previous years posts. This week I am going to give you meditations on the suffering Mystical Body of Christ during World War II (since we are about to enter into World War III.....this might help to get us ready!) I am going to give you excerpts from a book on a priest who died in Dachau in 1945 just before the war ended. These thoughts are taken from the book, “Martyr of Brotherly Love”. A book about Fr. Engelmar Unzeitig, a Marianhill priest from Germany who was turned in by a German youth for preaching about Jesus Christ but it was interpreted as being against the new regime. He was only 30 years old and only 2 years ordained. At the end of his stay, he volunteered to care for those who had typhus and ended up dying from it himself. Dachau has been called with more truth than irony….the “biggest monastery in the world”. Nearly 3000 clergymen lived and suffered there. 2500 were Roman Catholic priests, 500 were Protestant ministers.

There were 10 Carmelites who died at Dachau. They were..... Blessed Titus Brandsma, Blessed Hilary Januszewski, Szymon Buszta, Leon Koza, Bruno Makowski, Berthold Mejcher, Franeiszek Nowakowski, Rafael Tijhuis, Albert Irabanski and Elizeusz Wszelaki.

What is unique about this book is that it is written by those who survived these priest barracks with Fr. Engelmar and lived to tell the details for all of us to come to understand. Below is a recounting of a miracle allowed by Our Lady for the well-being of her priests.

“A Protestant pastor, Ernst Wilm, comments about the prayer life in the Dachau priests’ barracks: “In the evening, we all, Catholics, and Protestants, prayed together in the dormitory. In the morning after the Communist barracks elder had shouted, “Everyone up”. One of the priests shouted, “Praised be Jesus Christ!” and all answered in unison, “Forever, Amen.” Then began the feverish and torturous day, but we were strengthen by the word of God and our prayer.

The priests addressed many prayers to the Blessed Mother, for one day a statue of Mary turned up in the prison chapel. (It stands today in the chapel of the Carmelite monastery just behind the old barbed wire fence and watchtower.) Fr. Dominikus Hoffmeister, provincial of the Salvatorians, tells how it came to Dachau:

“During the war years, I was superior of our seminary in Jigerndorf (Czechoslovakia). A long time wish was fulfilled when I was able to obtain a wooden statue of Our Lady in Breslau in order to give it a place of honor in our house chapel. Then the parish secretary told me that Bishop Nathan had the opportunity to get an image of Our Lady to the priests in Dachau. I frankly admit that it was not easy for me to part with the statue. We wrapped it in a blanket and pushed it on a sled – there was deep snow – to the rectory. Bishop Nathan saw to the transport of the precious statue to Dachau”.

Msgr Georg Schelling tells how the statue got to the camp, was unpacked there and put up: “The package was brought to the priests’ barracks like all other packages, and was checked there by the barracks leader. The same SS man on duty did not always come for this. When the barracks leader who had to check the packages on that day saw the package, his eyes grew large and he made a remark that it was hardly likely that it was a “food package”. The package was opened and he saw the contents. He was not cross, but he remarked that he could not let the package in because it did not contain food, clothing, etc. I made the suggestion that the package should be put aside until the matter could be regulated. Later I brought it into the chapel “because of lack of space in the living area. Afterwards not one person asked where the statue had come from.”

A prayer to Our Dear Lady of Dachau, written by Fr. Johann Schulz (died Aug 1941)

Although we ourselves are in need of comfort, we beg You: Go on holy pilgrimage and comfort all who need Your help. It is war time, and millions suffer day and night from dangers to body and soul. Show that You are a Mother and strengthen them. Millions have lost house and home and wander around without shelter among strangers. In that suffering which You Yourself bore in Your exile to Egypt, be for them refuge and strength. And in that great pain which You suffered under the cross, comfort the sick and wounded, give strength to prisoners, and in the hour of death stand by those who must sacrifice their blood and their life….Bless and protect the bishops in their difficult office. Protect and support especially our Holy Father, the Pope, whose heart must be very heavy because he is powerless to remove the distress, lessen the suffering, and bring about peace. And when You, dear Lady of Dachau, come to those places where our parents and relatives, our parishioners and pastoral workers have been praying so long for our return, then tell them that You are watching over us in life and in death. Our dear Lady of Dachau, show that You are a Mother where the need is greatest. Amen.

Father Engelmar, who was a great devotee of Mary, said this prayer innumerable times and thought of his mother, his four sisters, his relatives, and his confreres while doing so. For him, Dachau was not only a path of suffering but also a school of prayer.
(Every day of this Holy Week, I will give an account of the life in Dachau)
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Our Lady of Dachau, Sorrowful Mother, pray for us!

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Where Our Lady of Dachau is Now - Carmelite Monastery of the Precious Blood