Posted on 04/26/2006 10:37:14 PM PDT by SandRat
DACHAU, Germany (Army News Service, April 25, 2006) – More than 200 Soldiers and family members of the 1st Infantry Division and U.S. Army Garrison Franconia visited the Dachau concentration camp April 20 and experienced one of history’s most horrific landmarks.
The Dachau concentration camp was the first of many the Nazis established, and it stood as a model for those that followed. While not intended to be an extermination camp like the more infamous Auschwitz camp in Poland, documentation shows that approximately 30,000 prisoners were killed in Dachau. Thousands more died from disease, starvation and suicide.
More than 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were imprisoned in Dachau between 1933 and 1945. The camp was not only used to intern Jews, but also Christian religious prisoners. Records indicate that more than 3,000 priests, deacons, bishops, rabbis and other religious leaders were imprisoned at Dachau.
While all but two of the barracks buildings are gone, other parts of the camp – the gas chamber and crematoriums, for example – remain intact.
“My impression was one of astonishment because the history that we’re walking through – the area that we’re standing on – was a site of such anguish and torture,” said Capt. Darrell Otto, commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Command, U.S. Army Garrison Franconia.
“It particularly struck me while I was down by the crematorium,” he added. “I took a little path through the woods, sat on a bench there right near a pistol range where they would execute the prisoners. It’s such a beautiful day today, and just to think a half century ago, people were being tortured and killed – and just the pain and suffering that was going on in this site – it was just very sobering.”
Otto said he required his Soldiers to visit the site for sergeant’s time training because of its historical value.
“It is eye-opening to think that there were dozens of these camps all around Germany, and of the magnitude and volume of people who were shuttled through here – brought in and executed,” said Otto. “I’m glad it’s open to the public like this so that so many people can experience it so history does not repeat itself.”
Visitors also toured the museum, which showcases hundreds of pictures depicting prisoners’ everyday lives, their impossible living conditions and the constant harassment of guards. The museum also houses such items as a locker with a prisoner uniform hanging inside and a desk built by prisoners.
The detention building still stands next to the museum. Known as “the Bunker,” the building was a source of terror for prisoners. Many of those imprisoned there were tortured, murdered or driven to suicide. As one of the first Nazi camps to be liberated by Allied forces – in this case, the 45th Infantry Division – the Dachau concentration camp symbolized to the world the brutality of the Nazis.
“It gives you a sick feeling in your stomach to go through the museum – to go from one part to another and to read some of the stories,” said James Mueller, commander and chief of the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars. “… It’s unbelievable that man could do this to another man, and to thousands and thousands of people … it’s beyond words to describe some of the things that you hear and see in here.”
(Editor’s note: Spc. Stephen Baack writes for the 1st Infantry Division Public Affairs Office.)
by Spc. Stephen Baack
April 25, 2006
A bundle of flowers lay at the foot of one of four furnaces inside the crematorium at Dachau concentration camp. More than 200 Soldiers and family members from the 1st Infantry Division and U.S. Army Garrison Franconia visited the camp April 20.
Let us Never Forget
And reject the revisionists.
Did you know that most of the Christian clergy at Dachau were Eastern Orthodox?
I just read on a web site that the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch and his entire council, plus numerous nuns and monks were interned there.
And over 600 Greek priests, plus many heirarchy of their Church were sent there for helping Jews in Greece... they were killed there.
Yep! Made three trips to Dachau while stationed in Germany.
by: Gleb. A. Rahr/Prisoner R 64923
Dachau concentration camp, April 27th, 1945: The last transport of prisoners arrives from Buchenwald. Of the 5,000 orginally destined for Dachau, I was among the 1,300 who had survived the trip. Many were shot, some starved to death, while others died of typhus...
April 28th: I and my fellow prisoners can hear the bombardment of Munich taking place some 30 km from our concentration camp. As the sound of artillery approaches ever nearer from the west and the north, orders are given proscribing prisoners from leaving their barracks under any circumstances. SS-soldiers patrol the camp on motorcycles as machine guns are directed at us from the watch-towers, which surround the camp.
April 29th: The booming sound of artillery has been joined by the staccato bursts of machine gun fire. Shells whistle over the camp from all directions. Suddenly white flags appear on the towers - a sign of hope that the SS would surrender rather than shoot all prisoners and fight to the last man.
Then, at about 6:00 p.m., a strange sound can be detected emanating from somewhere near the camp gate which swiftly increases in volume... Finally all 32,600 prisoners join in the cry as the first American soldiers appear just behind the wire fence of the camp.
After a short while electric power is turned off, the gates open and the American GIs make their entrance. As they stare wide-eyed at our lot, half-starved as we are and suffering from typhus and dysintery, they appear more like fifteen-year-old boys than battle-weary soldiers...
An international committee of prisoners is formed to take over the administration of the camp. Food from SS-stores is put at the disposal of the camp kitchen. A US military unit also contributes some provision, thereby providing me with my first opportunity to taste American corn. By order of an American officer radio-receivers are confiscated from "prominent Nazis" in the town of Dachau and distributed to the various national groups of prisoners.
The news come in: Hitler has committed suicide, the Russians have taken Berlin, and German troops have surrendered in the South and in the North. But the fighting still rages in Austria and Czechoslovakia...
Naturally, I was ever cognizant of the fact that these momentous events were unfolding during Holy Week. But how could we mark it, other than through our silent, individual prayers? A fellow-prisoner and chief interpreter of the International prisoner's committee, Boris F., paid a visit to my typhus-infested barrack "Block 27" to inform me that efforts were underway in conjunction with the Yugoslav and Greek National Prisoner's Committees to arrange an Orthodox service for Easter day, May 6th.
There were Orthodox priests, deacons and a group of monks from Mount Athos among the prisoners. But there were no vestments, no books whatsoever, no icons, no candles, no prosphoras, no wine... Efforts to acquire all these items from the Russian parish in Munich failed, as the Americans just could not locate anyone from that parish in the devastated city.
Nevertheless, some of the problems could be solved: The approximately 400 Catholic priests detained in Dachau had been allowed to remain together in one barrack and recite mass every morning before going to work. They offered us Orthodox the use of their prayer room in "Block 26", which was just across the road from my own "block".
The chapel was bare, save for a wooden table and a Czestochowa icon of the Theotokos hanging on the wall above the table - an icon which had originated in Constantinople and was later brought to Belz in Galicia, where it was subsequently taken from the Orthodox by a Polish king.
When the Russian Army drove Napoleon's troops from Czestochowa, however, the abbot of the Czestochowa Monastery gave a copy of the icon to czar Alexander I, who placed it in the Kazan Cathedral in Saint-Petersburg where it was venerated until the Bolshevik seizure of power.
A creative solution to the problem of the vestments was also found. New linen towels were taken from the hospital of our former SS-guards. When sewn together lengthwise, two towels formed an epitrachilion and when sewn together at the ends they became an orarion. Red crosses, originally intended to be worn by the medical personnel of the SS-guards, were put on the towel-vestments.
On Easter Sunday, May 6th (April 23rd according to the Church calendar), - which ominously fell that year on Saint George the Victory-Bearer's Day, Serbs, Greeks and Russians gathered at the Catholic Priests barrack.
Although Russians comprised about 40 percent of the Dachau inmates, only a few managed to attend the service. By that time "repatriation officers" of the special "Smersh" units had arrived in Dachau by American military planes, and begun the process of erecting new lines of barbed wire for the purpose of isolating Soviet citizens from the rest of the prisoners, which was the first step in preparing them for their eventual forced repatriation.
In the entire history of the Orthodox Church there has probably never been an Easter service like the one at Dachau in 1945. Greek and Serbian priests together with a Serbian deacon adorned the make-shift "vestments" over their blue and gray-striped prisoners uniforms.
Then they began to chant, changing from Greek to Slavonic, and then back again to Greek. The Easter Canon, the Easter Sticheras - everything was recited from memory. The Gospel - "In the beginning was the Word" - also from memory.
And finally, the Homily of Saint John - also from memory. A young Greek monk from the Holy Mountain stood up in front of us and recited it with such infestious enthusiasm that we shall never forget him as long as we live.
Saint John Chrysostomos himself seemed to speak through him to us and to the rest of the world as well!
Eighteen Orthodox priests and one deacon - most of whom were Serbs, participated in this unforgettable service. Like the sick man who had been lowered through the roof of a house and placed in front of the feet of Christ the Saviour, the Greek Archimandrit Meletios was carried on a strecher into the chapel, where he remained prostrate for the duration of the service.
The priests who participated in the 1945 Dachau Easter service are commemorated at every Divine Service held in the Dachau Russian Orthodox Memorial Chapel, along with all Orthodox Christians, who lost their lives "at this place, or at another place of torture" ("na meste sem i v inykh mestakh mucheniya umuchennykh i ubiennykh").
The Dachau Resurrection-Chapel, which was constructed by a unit of the Russian Army's Western Group of Forces just before their departure from Germany in August, 1994, is an exact replica of a North-Russian "tent-domed" (Shatrovyie) church or chapel. Behind the altar-table of the chapel is a large icon depicting angels opening the gates of the Dachau concentration camp and Christ Himself leading the prisoners to freedom.
Today I would like to take the opportunity to ask you, Orthodox Christians all over the world, to pass on the names of fellow Orthodox who were imprisoned and died here in Dachau or in other Nazi concentration camps so that we can include them in our prayers.
Should you ever come to Germany, be sure to visit our Russian Chapel on the site of the former concentration camp in Dachau and pray for all those who died "at this place, or at another place of torture". Khristos voskrese! Christos anesti! Christ is risen!
My thanks go out to Xenia Rahr of Germany for giving me permission to share this story about her father Gleb. It is inspiring and moving. It represents a true Christ-centered faith amidst great suffering and presecution. She wrote to me saying, " It is indeed very important to remind people that lots of Orthodox suffered by the Nazi regime." May the sufferings of all the holy martyrs bring great consolation to us today and inspire us to bring healing and joy to all those in need of God's mercy and help. Pray for all persecuted Christians throughout the world and all who persecute them. Protect us, save us, have mercy on us, and preserve us, O God, by Your grace. Amen.
Another Account
"In the open air, behind the shanty, the Orthodox gather together, Greeks and Serbs. In the center, both priests, the Serb and the Greek. They aren't wearing golden vestments. They don't even have cassocks. No tapers, no service books in their hands. But now they don't need external, material lights to hymn the joy. The souls of all are aflame, swimming in light.
Blessed is our God...My little paper-bound New Testament has come into its glory. We chant "Christ is Risen" many times, and its echo reverberates everywhere and sanctifies this place.
Hitler's Germany, the tragic symbol of the world without Christ, no longer exists. And the hymn of the life of faith was going up from all the souls; the life that proceeds bouyantly toward the Crucified One of the verdant hill of Stein."
- Metropolitan Dionysios of Trikkis and Stagon, Martyrs, Damascos Publishers, Athens, 1949
PARTIAL LIST OF ORTHODOX CLERGYMEN DETAINED AT DACHAU:
Babich Vilko, priest, born 1910 - survived.
Khadyopoulos Damaskinos, priest, b.1913 - survived
Djorjevich Bronislav, priest, b.1892, Secretary to Patriarch Gavrilo - survived
Galanopoulos Meletios, archimandrit, b.1892 - survived
Doshich Gavrilo, Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, born 1881.
arrested May 25th, 1941 in Belgrade, detained at Dachau since September 25th, 1944 to February 1945, when he was taken to Northern Italy with otherVIP-prisoners and inofficially released at the approaching of Allied troops
Jovanovich Milan, priest, b.1909 - survived
Kizdobranski Milan, priest, b.1914 - survived
Maletich Stefan, hegumen, b.1917 - survived
Velimirovich Nikolai, Bishop of Okhrid, born 1874 brought to Dachau September 25th, 1944, in February, 1945, taken with Patriarch Gavrilo to Northern Italy and released.
Petkovich Milan, priest, b.1889; died at Dachau February 2nd, 1945
Stakich Stefan, deacon, b.1919 - survived
Ilyin Dionisiy, priest, b.1882 arrested November 3rd, 1942 at Marianske Lazni (German occupied Czechoslovakia). In April, 1945, forced to patricipate at the "Evacuation" death march to the Alps region, liberated by Americans April 24th, 1945
Ivanas Vasil, priest, b.1901 arrested May 25th, 1941 in Kanopa, Carpatho-Russia, - survived
Rosokha Tomas, priest, b.1903 Czech from Mukachevo - survived
Vrabec Antonin-Savvatiy, archbishop of the Czech Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Patriarchate, b.1880, arrested May 30th, 1942 in Prague - survived
Stanoylovich Miodrag, priest, b.1908 - survived
Stoyanovich Milutin/Miodrag, priest, b.1907 - survived
Stoyanovich Stoyan, priest, b.1911 - survived
Svitlich Stradinya, priest, b.1912 - survived
Zhiravac Petar, priest, born 1907 - survived
Peteralski Mikhal, priest, b.1920 arrested in Warszawa - survived
-List furnished by Xenia Rahr
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I'd like to visit some of these places if I had the money. I don't particularly believe in ghosts, but I wonder if the people that manage these places or any of the visitors have had any "experiences".
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The fact that they've made such a field trip underscores the basic morality of the American military. I approve.
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