This summer the police questioned him after he preached a series of sermons criticizing Nazi policies and the behavior of the Gestapo in particular. He was released, but continued to challenge Hitler inside and outside church; together with his colleague the Roman Catholic bishop of Münster, he carried on preaching against the Nazi regime. Most recently, he wrote to the Reich chief physician, Leonardo Conti, to protest against the authorities “euthanasia” campaign of killing mentally defective and incurably ill patients. “As a human being, a Christian, a priest and a German,” he wrote, “I demand ... that you answer for the crimes that have been perpetrated with your consent, which will bring the vengeance of the Lord on the heads of the German people.”
Blessed Bernhard Lichtenberg was killed Nov. 5, 1943 on the way to Dachau at the age of 67. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1996. In 2004 Yad Vashem recognized Bernhard Lichtenberg as a Righteous Among the Nations.
