Posted on 11/04/2006 12:35:33 PM PST by lizol
Monument unveiled to Catholic priests killed in Nazi camps
Nov 4, 2006, 17:23 GMT
Berlin - Catholic priests and monks, the bulk of them Polish, who were killed by the Nazis in a concentration camp near Berlin were commemorated Saturday with the unveiling of a stone sculpture in the presence of Cardinal Jozef Glemp of Poland.
The sculpture is engraved with the names of 96 clergy who died at Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the north-west outskirts of Berlin.
Historians working for the Catholic archdiocese of Berlin have so far documented the names of 711 Catholic clergy from Poland, Germany and other European nations who were incarcerated in the camp, where inmates often died of starvation or disease or were executed.
Hundreds were later transferred to Dachau concentration camp on the outskirts of Munich and other Nazi sites, where they died.
Unveiling the monument, in which a cross has been etched in the stone, Berlin's archbishop, Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky, said the German Catholic Church was grateful that there was now a memorial to this group of Nazi victims, more than 600 of whom were Poles.
One of the surviving inmates, Kazimierz Majdanski, now 90, later went on to become Catholic bishop of Szczecin-Kamien, the Berlin archdiocese said. Glemp, who holds the title of primate of Poland, represented the Polish Catholic Church at the ceremony.
Sterzinsky appealed for continued vigilance against right-wing extremism and racism.
The Nazis opened the Sachsenhausen detention camp in 1936. Thousands more died when the Nazis forced inmates to march away as defeat loomed, but the Red Army was able to liberate 3,000 prisoners at the camp on April 22, 1945.
There were holocaust victims that weren't jewish?
Ping
The majority of victims were not Jewish.
Fancy that!
Wait a minute! To hear the left speak, the Nazis were Christian, and more people have been killed by religion than any other thing. Hmmm.
Catholic ping!
They (as well as other anti Catholic church bashers) also say that Catholic church collaborated with Hitler. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Catholic Church saved the lives of millions of Jews, often at a cost of their own.
Thanks for the ping!
"A Man for Others" is a fascinating testimonial to St. Maximillian Kollbe's life.
The Nazis are estimated to have killed approx. 10 million people in non-combatant situations for racial/political/religious reasons, of which an estimated 6 million were Jews. But again, Hitler was a piker compared to Stalin and Mao, who killed tens of millions more. Oh well, nothing like being a 20th century atheist dictator. We'll see what the 21st century holds....
Nathan Zachary wrote: "They (as well as other anti Catholic church bashers) also say that Catholic church collaborated with Hitler. Nothing could be further from the truth."
How true. The God-haters search for any means to discredit the Catholic church as well as any other Christian organization that isn't totally compromised (for example, by ordaining gay bishops and blessing same-sex "marriages"). They think they can somehow repudiate Christ by trumpeting the hypocrisy of His followers. Nothing is further from the truth.
In fact, all Christians are hypocrites to various degrees. The difference is, we understand we sin, ask for forgiveness, and try to sin no more. Some of us, God bless, are even martyred for the faith. Unlike the Muslims who give their lives to destroy unbelievers, Christians lay down their lives to save unbelievers! Praise God!
I finally did some research into St. Maximilian Kolbe's act, and when I read the details (from the standing all day) to the singing and prayers coming from the death house while they starved, to the final gruesome murder by the prisoner-jailer... Words cannot describe my feelings.
Ok, say it's half. So why does our Holocaust education only emphasize one ethnic group? All the souls weigh the same.
I doubt that there will be any attempt to include the other half of Hitler's victims, since the official story is the Holocaust of the Jews was unique in human history. Clearly, if a second group of the same size is recognized and taught, the official line can't hold.
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