Forgotten Priests in a Nazi Hellhole
Dachau concentration camp held the largest
number of Catholic priests—more than
2400—in the Nazi camp system. They came
from two dozen countries, from every
background—parish priests and prelates,
monks and friars, teachers and missionaries.
Over one-third were killed.
Among the survivors was Fr. Johannes Lenz,
who was asked by his superiors to write an
account of what he saw. This book was the
stunning result. An immediate sensation, it
was quickly translated into English, French,
Spanish and Italian. Catholic reviewers and
churchmen alike were awestruck.
A very small sampling of the story and lessons:
“Fall out, Jews and priests!”: special treatment for “the scum
of the camp”
Fr. Lenz’s astonishingly bold and prophetic words about
Hitler to his interrogator, upon his arrest—duly recorded in
official records
The many peculiar “reasons” priests were sent to Dachau:
works of Christian charity—but crimes in the eyes of the Nazis
Preparing to face martyrdom: “Would I bear it holily? When
would it end and how?”
“To break a man spiritually you must first break him
physically”: how this Nazi doctrine was put into practice
Two priests sent to Dachau for refusing to give the Hitler
salute to Hermann Goring—and how they died
The small group of leading Austrian Catholics that quickly
became “an active center of spiritual power” within the camp
“Sister Pia”: the female Nazi—and ex-Catholic—who tried to
convert the Dachau priests to Hitler’s creed
The underground resistance committee by which news and
forbidden parcels were smuggled in—including altar wines
and breads
The brutish “capos” (bosses): prisoners who won special
privileges by selling their souls
Defending the Faith to a drunken SS officer—and nearly
getting shot on the spot for it. “That took guts!” commented
the communists who witnessed the exchange
“Unless you have known what hunger in a concentration
camp is like, you cannot know what real hunger means”. How communist and atheist fellow-prisoners “conspired to
make our life a Hell”
Roll-call: “standing our way to Heaven” for hours on end, in
all extremes of weather
How the worst treatment of priests was reserved for Sundays
and Feast Days, particularly Feasts of Our Lady—and its
hidden spiritual significance
The Dachau townspeople: “Hitler’s willing executioners”?
Quite the opposite: how many of them—including their parish
priest—risked their own lives to assist the camp inmates
An ordination in Dachau
“The most shattering but at the same time
uplifting book I have read in my life.”
—Archbishop Michael Buchberger of Regensburg (1960)
“A ledger of Faith, as well as of crime.…Soberly, with deep feeling he
shows the Catholic Church the only steadfast fighter against the
Nazis.…He tells of heroism which never has come to our ears; the
agony and martyrdom of Catholic priests, the physical and mental
torture, the little things—and the tremendous. He tells of
unspeakable things and of goodness.…These men and women, those
who were murdered by the thousands in Dachau, and those who
survived, were, as it were, missionaries in Hell.”—World Mission (c. 1960)
“Shattering, yet at the same time most touching.…These events can
well be placed alongside those of the first three centuries of
Christianity for use in apologetics and religious instruction.”—
Cardinal Franz Konig, Vienna (1960)
“A fascinating narrative and mine of historical information on Camp
Dachau. As such it is not a pretty story.”—Review for Religious
“A book proclaiming the victory of the Church and the heroism of
her priests.”—Vatican Radio, 1960
Writes Fr. Lenz: “Christ in Dachau aims to answer in the light of
faith the countless vital questions with which we were constantly
faced in Dachau.…This is a book written for everyday people
about everyday people. It is a book about life, about priests in the
service of God.”
80 rare and historic photographs
Hardcover
