The item about the Catholic priest is a bit lacking in historical accuracy, isn’t it? Perhaps some of the experts here can help sort the wheat from the chaff.
Starting with the easiest, Dachau wasn’t a death camp. Over it’s span, it had a death rate somewhere between 20% and 25% from all causes. It was the first concentration camp, but it certainly wasn’t a death factory.
It’s been a while, but it is my recollection from a visit there some years ago that they didn’t use the gas chamber there.
I’d also question the alleged cause of the arrest. There was likely more to it than being arrested ‘for his faith’. The fact that he was a Slavic intellectual probably had a good bit more to do with it.
If one is making ‘saints’ for political reasons, I guess it’s ok to stretch the facts.
Here's a rather famous photo photo taken during the liberation of Dachau in 1945.
The chamber had a bin mechanism for the use of Zyklon-B like was similar to one used at Auschwitz.
This was the delousing room which is complete with venting and fake shower heads suggesting that it could have been used on humans.
Finally, there is this letter that can be found in the Bundesarchiv in Koblinz which suggest the chamber was being used and even suggested expanding its purpose (Dr. Sigmund Rascher was an SS Doctor at Dachau who was executed after the war in the same camp for his medical experimentation on inmates at the facility):
Dr. Sigmund RascherMunich
Togerstr. 56
August 9, 1942
Esteemed Reichsführer!
As you know, the same installation as in Linz is to be built in Dachau. As the 'invalid transports' terminate in the special chambers anyway I wondered if it would be possible to test the effects of our combat gases in these chambers using the persons who are destined for those chambers anyway. The only reports which are available so far are for experiments on animals or of accidents in the manufacture of these gases.
(signed)
S. Rascher
If this actually happened is anyone's guess.
Heretic!
Oh, sorry. I forgot this is an ecumenical thread.
I tried looking up more information on the saint in question but didn't find much. I then contacted the publisher (it is a periodical called Magnificat, a fact I should have included in the reply) and relayed the three points for which you question the accuracy. If I get a response I will pass it along.