Christian clergy at Auschwitz

Transcript of the podcast

The Germans incarcerated at least 464 priest, seminarians and monks as well as 35 nuns in Auschwitz. Teresa Wontor-Cichy, from the Museum’s Research Center talks about the fate of Christian clergy and religious life in the camp. Some survivors of Auschwitz in their testimonies say that they were greeted in the camp with the speech by the Lagerführer, by the camp manager, who said you arrived here not to the sanatorium but to a concentration camp from where you have no other exit that the crematorium chimney. If someone doesn’t like this there is the electric fence you can us to kill yourself. If there are any Jews they have right to live no longer than two weeks and all the rest, three months. So in this speech the prisoners are divided in those three groups and priests were one of them.

How come we have clergymen in the Auschwitz camp?

The speech really was kind of a surprise for the coming prisoners. And especially the division into two groups. First of all, they did not expect here, representants of clergy being here in larger numbers. The politics towards Polish society was prepared by the Nazis before the attack on September the 1st 1939. And we may see it in many publications, for example: the lawyers of NSDAP issued an article in which they were in one of the titles, they were describing, they were expressing how the politics towards Polish society after the invasion should be conducted. And in these articles they stressed the fact that Polish links with the church, especially Roman Catholic Church, is very strong and it has the historical grounds and by attacking the church and destroying all the structure, starting with the institution itself then coming down to the people would help to stop establishing the resistance movement. They were basically saying that the church organizations, they could be source of building the resistance movement and any kind of opposition in the society. So this is why, when the occupation started in different parts of Poland, different programs were introduced which were to eliminate certain groups of the society. In the western part of Poland which was incorporated in to Nazi Germany, there was the action called “Intelligentzaktion” and that was basically to eliminate: educated people, influential people, known, respected, local activists, teachers, lawyers, journalists, doctors and also the representant of clergy among them. Then, after that in the following years in another parts of the country which was under German occupation and action which was having a code “AB” was introduced and again the target was to eliminate the same groups. Why it was differently? Well, first of all, the politics towards Polish church, Polish clergy was not equal in all the territories which were under German control. The very straight and very drastic actions were introduced, were implemented on the regions which were incorporated into Nazi Germany. So, the north of Poland, the region of Gdańsk, in German Danzig. Then, the territory of so called Great Poland called after during the German period, the Warthegau. The idea was to eliminate the Priests immediate way, so we have in the first weeks or months of the war in 1939, we’ve got the events of executions, we’ve got Piaśnica, we’ve got Lasy Szpąglewskie in the North of Poland, then we’ve got Bydgoszcz and another action against Polish clergy. So the actions were very very drastic, even the property which belonged to the church in terms of buildings, in terms of churches, in terms of even the crosses standing by the roads, they were all gradually taken down and different types of repressions were introduced. It was a little bit different in Silesia region which is also became a part of Germany and that was because the two elements met there, that was the economy and the social structure. Silesia is known as the very industrial area, the most populated area in Poland, so the coal mines and different type of industry which was to be extensively used by the Germans, by the German economy. So this is why the population and cooperation with the German administration, German economy was wildly expected. So the plan was to replace the priests with the German priests and there was a very unique situation in this region that the society was to declare whether they are Poles or they are Germans, so called Volksliste and this was also presented to the clergy. The bishop, the local bishop of this region, Stanisław Adamski, suggested the priests that if they’re some assumptions that they can sign this document, it means that they will stay in this parish, stay with the people, they will try to protect the people there, they should do this. Some of the priests decided to sign this Volksliste what also brought for them different consequences. Bishop Adamski did not sign this document because of his family links, so he was not having any relation family, relation to the German society. This region was in a very special situation, because it was under influences of the two bishops. One was Polish, Stanisław Adamski with his setting in Katowice, and another one was cardinal Bertram and his setting was in Wrocław, at that time called Breslau, that was German bishop. So, all this actions on this territory which was part of Germany and a completely different situation was in part, which was occupied by Germans, so called General Government. The idea was to explore this territory in economical way and to have the society in a kind of cooperation. The idea was also to have the clergy cooperating with the German administration. In what kind of cases? For example; the Polish people where sent, sometimes by force, to slave labor to Germany, but not all of them. Some of them, in the very beginning of this procedure, was the offer of the pose to travel to Germany, and to work there in farms, in factories, in different places. So the priests were to advice, were to recommend, were to encourage people from the parish to travel voluntarily to Germany and start working on German soil for German economy. But they refused, so that was one element of kind of conflict. Another occasion was for example, the farmers, the Polish farmers were to give some of their products to German administration, like the amount of grain, potatoes, whatever they were dealing with, and again the Polish priests, parish priests, they were to remind the farmers, support the farmers, explain that it’s their duty, and in the situation that the poverty, and starvation also started to touch the Polish society even in the agriculture areas, again that was a refusal from clergy, and again that was another element of the conflict with the new German administration. So all these situations were bringing occasions for arrests, as we look at the individuals, situations of the people clergy sent for Auschwitz we may see that the Germans were always looking for some occasions for justification, for a reason, for some event they can have a legal proof that the people were to be arrested. And for example in May 1941, a group of Salesians, Salesian priests were arrested in Cracow. It all started with a leaflet; a leaflet which was given to one of the priests by a man, a carpenter who was a civilian person, who was working on the property of Salesians. So the priest read this leaflet, shared this paper with another priest, and then they were telling to this carpenter in a very innocent conversation about the content. It was a leaflet from the resistance movement, and it was reported then, by this carpenter to the gestapo, that the priests are dealing with illegal papers, and this is why twelve of them were arrested, and sent to Auschwitz. Another situation were consequences of some actions of Polish intellectuals, as I mentioned at the beginning the elimination of the most precious people in the society. There was an action in Cracow called “Sonderaktion Krakau”, and that was when the Polish academics were arrested. They were called for a meeting and then there was not really a meeting but all the people who showed up, over 100 Polish academics were arrested, and most of them sent for concentration camp. Few days later the arrests started in the city among the teachers, and also the Jesuits in the Cracow convict they were all arrested and 21 of them deported to Auschwitz in the transport of 20th of June 1940, so just the very beginning of Auschwitz’s existence.

It means that the clergy were among the prisoners, from the very beginning of the camp’s history?

The clergy in fact were in the very first transport, there were two of them, the transport from the 14th of June 1940, the first group of Polish political prisoners. A larger group, the 21 Jesuits were brought in the transport six days later, so the 20th of June 1940, and then in the next transport where there were individuals or sometimes groups. It depends on the situation, it depends on the transport it was from. Sometimes the arrests were consequences, as I mentioned before the reports, and there was a very well known situation in a small parish by Cracow, small because there was only the parish priest and the vicar there. At the end of 1939 they were also joined by another priest who’s having his parish in Michalcze, by Dniestr, and he had to leave the parish, because of the progress of the soviet force in September 1939. So there were three of them, and they were having the radio on the parish. The radio was forbidden for the people, they were to give the German police, and the priests were listening to this radio. And one day the priest was sharing some information with a local person and they were reported. The two young priests were arrested by the gestapo. The parish priest not knowing what is going to happen with the two young men, visited the local police station, and he was arrested as well, and three of them were brought here to Auschwitz.

How many clergymen and clergywomen, all together, were deported to the camp?

The research is showing that at least 464 priests, monks and friars were deported to Auschwitz and in terms of the female, there were 35 nuns. Most of them were from the territory of Poland, but there were also some groups brought here from Holland, from France, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, so today it’s Czechia. Some of them were arrested, because of their links with the resistance movement, for example a group of priests from France were brought, because of their link and cooperation with the resistance movement. Some of them, like father Jaroslav Bendl from Prague from the Hussite church, he was a great support for the local community, for the parish, a very brave person. In his speeches he very often related to what is happening in the situation, and again, he was reported, arrested and brought here to Auschwitz. There was also the father of the Georgian Orthodox Church, deported here Georgi Peradze. He was a well known scientist, academic, he was the professor of theology. He was known for his great dedication for the literature as well. He was arrested in Warsaw, some of the testimonies, some of the studies are saying that he did have some contact with the resistance movement, but real circumstances are not clear, and he died in Auschwitz. There was also a group of the clergy which was arrested, because of the fact that they were of the Jewish origin. The most important person we should mention is Edith Stein. She was Jewish, she was German. In 1922, in her 30’s she became Christian and then in 1933 she entered the Carmelite Convent in Germany in Cologne. She stayed until 1938 when the nuns decided about moving her to safer place which was at that time a Carmelite Convent in Echt, in Holland. She was there until 1942, when the persecution of the Jewish people in occupied Holland was also introduced, the arrests, the elimination from public life and the churches in Holland, the Protestant which is a majority in Holland, and also Catholic church issued official protests, as the replied German authority order that all the clergy of the Jewish origin which were in different convicts in Holand, they are to be arrested and also sent for the detention camps. So this is how Edith Stein together with her elder sisters Rosa, she was not a nun, but she was living with the nuns in Echt, they were deported first for displaced and then both to Auschwitz, and they died in the gas chamber. With the same group and with the same circumstances, the six siblings of Löb family were deported. They were also Dutch, they were also of the Jewish origin, and they became Christians before the war, and six of the siblings entered the Trappist monastery in Tilburg. As the consequences of the same situation in 1942 when the churches were protesting, all these monks and nuns were sent for detention camps and then eventually to Auschwitz. It is also important to mention another person who was not really living a religious life, in terms of being nuns, but she was a missionary for the Church of Scotland. This is Jane Haining. She was Scottish and she was for many years involved in the work for the Church of Scotland in Budapest. The Church of Scotland was having their house, a huge building which was a school, the origin of the school comes from the 19th century when the Scottish builders were sent there to building the bridges over the river in Budapest. So the builders left, but the property was still there and the school existed. It was run by the Church of Scotland. I It was a very prestigious institution, and it was a girl’s school, known for its standard of a good quality of education. Jane Haining was the mother of the house since the late 30’s. In 1944 Jane Haining was offered to leave the place which was in danger at that time, but she decided to stay, and as the person who was in charge, she was helping many people who were in danger of arrest, so some members of the resistance movement. She was also protecting the Jewish students of the school. There were girls of different religious backgrounds, but especially those girls were in a huge risk in 1944, so knowing her cooperation and her good attitude for these groups she was arrested in April 1944. After interrogation she was sent to Birkenau exactly. She was non Jewish, so from the platform she was sending immediately for the female camp, and two months later she died in Birkenau. After the war she was considered as Righteous Among the Nations, it’s the reward given to the non Jewish people helping the Jews at the Holocaust time. Some events around the monastery in Niepokalanów, not far away from Warsaw, also lead to the arrest of five Franciscan friars. This monastery that was established, was run by Father Maksymilian Kolbe, and in February 1941, the gestapo appeared by the monastery, because they were receiving notes from some people about the friars, that they are letting some people to enter the monastery and most probably they are members of the resistance movement, that they may have contact with some resistance movement. They were not very precise, they were not very clear, but actually that was enough for the German police to arrest. Five of the brothers were arrested, and they were taken for Warsaw prison in Pawiak. Four of them were sent very shortly after to Auschwitz camp, father Maximilian Kolbe was kept there for a little bit longer, a few months longer. He was deported to Auschwitz in May 1941. In the camp he was considered as all the clergy, so just ordinary prisoner who was sent for work like many others. He was heavily beaten during the work, what affected his abilities to work. He was sent for the hospital, and not fully recovered he was again back for the camp. At the end of July 1941, as we know during the selection, he gave his life for another prisoner. This selection was after another prisoner was trying to escape so that was the revenge that was used by the camp administration. Father Kolbe was kept with other prisoners in the cell, a so called “starvation cell” in the basement of block number 11, and on the 14th August of 1941 he was killed with the injection, what caused his death here in the camp.

How were the clergy men treated in the camp, what was their jobs. Karl Fritzsch, camp manager in fact said that they had the right to live only for approximately a month, so do we see this different treatment of priests, when we look at how the camp operated?

The priests in the camp were treated as the other prisoners. In terms of registration, in terms of sending them for work, however there were some incidents which prisoners remember as the moment, they could recognise the priests among them, for example at one of the transports from Warsaw there was a priest, and when the group was entering the camp some of the SS were calling: “who is the priests? Pfaffen aus”. And one of them, the father stood forward not really knowing what is going to happen. He was having a hat on his head, and the SS just in order to humiliate this person, he pulled down his hat, breaking the hat, and he was also slapped on his face. He was put aside so the other were entering the camp and just this way humiliated priest had to wait until the end, and this is how he entered the camp. They were registered here and given red triangle, which was the symbol of political prisoners, and in the first months, the first years actually of the camps existence, there was a very intense building here on the site. So most of the prisoners were sent here for carrying building material, doing some work with the ground. Most of them were sent for this job. However they remembered that one morning they called all priests and Jews to stand forward. “Alle Juden und Pfaffen raus”. So they waited and they made of them just a very special unit penal company, “Strafkompanie”. So the union with was sent for the hardest work, and it was hard not only because of the fact that they were sent to a some kind of territory, or the duties were heavy, they sent very brutal supervisors. The other prisoners, who were treating them so brutally, they were abused, they were beaten, like for example they have to pull a tool which was to flatten the streets of the camp and the supervisor Ernst Krankenmann used to sit on this very heavy, metal, large tool, to make it even more heavier. So for the weak prisoners who were constantly under nourished that was even more difficult to continue the job. And they were in this unit for some period of time and a few weeks later because of some reason which is not very clear, all of them they were released from this unit, it means that they could be sent for another work not necessarily this heavy and hard. Another situation when larger groups of priests was again sent for penal company was May 1941, when they brought here from Cracow a group of Salesian priests. They were different age, some of them were elder men, and the work they were doing was to transport the gravel, which was being taken from the gravels around the camp, very heavy work again. And during this work 5 of these priests were actually murdered by the functionary prisoners. Then commandant Höss one day visited this unit and he released the Salesians, those who were still alive were to be sent to another work. What’s surprising is that many survivors remember the fact that many of the priests were in penal company, reading the memories, publications by the survivors we very often may find information that there were many priests in the penal company, there were some incidents that there were more of them in this unit, but then if we look with great attention to what we have in the documentation, and the memories written by the priests, by the survivors, we may see that they actually were being sent for many other units, for many other places. Some of them were taken for administration, because for example of their skills of keeping some records. Some of them were known as good organizers, and for example survivors remember Vorarbeiter which is a position of the functionary prisoner which was held by father Boniecki. He was very friendly for the prisoners, and they remember some of the very difficult situations for him for example, they were stealing some food from the kitchen, what in the camp stealing food became kind of normal situation, that was the way of surviving. The rations they were given were absolutely not enough for working hard people, so to get some extra food was kind of obligation for the prisoners if they wanted to survive. So the prisoners were stealing the food from the kitchen, and bringing for the unit, and they were cooking some soups or some other things to eat, and they noticed that father Boniecki at the beginning was a little hesitant to the fact it’s something that they stole from the others. So it means that the others won’t have what they should have. So they had to explain, talk and work well with the father Boniecki, to eventually accept the fact that they will all share this soup, extra soup they are having because of this stolen food.

Did during the registration, because as you say prisoners didn’t have any additional marks on the uniforms, they basically had red triangles of political prisoners, but is it marked in their registration documentation or any other documents that in fact they were clergy men or clergy women?

This fact was coming from the deportation moment. The police station which was sending the prisoners to Auschwitz had to provide lists, had to provide documentation and this is why they were writing that they were for example “priester”, what means the priest, “pfarrer” what means the parish priest or “ordensbruder” what means a monk, so this is why immediately after they were received here in the camp, this profession, this “beruf” as it is in German profession, was written down in the documentation. So there was no situation where they could change anything. In few situations happened that there was something else written, for example theology student or philosophy student. They were clerics, they were still on their way to the priesthood, and during the interrogation they were telling that they were students of theology, but at that time in Poland theology was being studied only by the clergy. The lay people were not entering these faculties, so for people those days it was obvious, that if somebody is a student of theology, means it is on some way to the religious life. In terms of nuns being deported to Auschwitz, they were also in the camp from the very beginning. The first transport of women brought here from Ravensbrück it was also with a nun, sister Maria Cecylia Autsch. She was Austrian and she was arrested because of a very innocent conversation she was having, a person from a neighbourhood was sharing the information about the relatives, who were in the army, about the casualties, about the information of death the families were receiving, so generally this conversation was very, very sad. Sister Autsch replied to this information that one day Hitler would be found responsible for all the atrocities he’s bringing to the society, and this comment was reported to the local police, and this is why sister Autsch was arrested. She was first sent for Ravensbrück concentration camp, and then she was deported here to Auschwitz. Then in the next transports there were also Polish nuns deported, for example from a convent which is in Rokiciny Podhalańskie, in the mountains region, sister Helena Staszewska was deported. She was the mother of the house responsible for this community, for this place, and the location here is very important, it’s in mountains region. Many people were trying to cross the border with Slovakia on the way to Hungary, then later on to the west to join the Polish forces. They were having people who were helping them to cross the border, to cross the mountains to moving the mountains which was not so easy and obvious for many of the people. So in this cloister there was like a meeting point for those who wanted to pass, and those who were helping all the leaders, the guides we may say. Then also on the side of this cloister there were children hidden, children from Warsaw and some of the children were Jewish children. So all this were reported again and this is why sister Staszewska was arrested and brought here. In another place which is in Brzozów not far away from Rzeszów, sister Katarzyna Faron was arrested. She was a kindergarten teacher, well known, respected by the local community, very enthusiastic, great in pedagogic. For some reason not really known, she was arrested by the Germans. She was brought for Birkenau camp, and the time she was in the camp there were some teenage girls around her, and seeing these girls she decided that some support is necessary for these young women. So she started to teach them, she started teaching with German, as she was explaining that here in the camp they need to know, need to understand the language, what was really true as their camp language was German, so they had to learn it as quickly as possible. And the other she was teaching them mathematics. She was teaching them counting with a stick on the muddy ground, they were just writing the task, and that was of course for some period of time, a few meeting chance for the girls to have some activities, to have some moral support, some mental support, and was so remembered by the survivors. The sister Faron died in the camp some time later because of the diseases.

What was the role of priests in the community of prisoners, of course as we mentioned they were not marked but certainly at some point they were recognised as priests thus the role of priests in the community is to work with people and their spiritual needs, it’s with somehow with much greater risk, was brought to the camp reality?

The priests hearing that they are just those who can live here a month, not longer were trying not to risk themselves in terms that not to be, so visible for the functionary prisoners, for the SS guards. But then in the evening, in the buildings when they were having the occasion for informal conversations, they could notice that some of the prisoners are dealing with the camp reality in a very, very difficult way. The atrocities, the mortality, the brutality, the treatment, for some of them it’s very, very difficult mentally, psychologically to deal with, so those who were having these spiritual needs, they were looking for a confession, and we know the story of Władysław Lewkowicz, a young man deported to Auschwitz from Warsaw, who was in a very bad situation in 1941, and he was looking for an occasion to talk to the priests. He was sharing his need with another inmate, and he suggested him to talk to a person, he pointed this person, and that was father Maximilian Kolbe. So one evening after the work, before the final bell to enter the barrack, they were having in the camp just is very important for Lewkowicz a very important conversation, which was a confession, and he was saying that it helped him a lot, it was just a support that he so needed at this moment. Then Lewkowicz is saying that for the next few days he noticed that father Kolbe is having more and more people around him interested in confession, in this time of conversation. The other priests in the camp, they were also trying to be the support, Adam Kozłowiecki, the Jesuit is saying that in December 1940, when the first group of priests was to be deported to Dachau, the prisoners hearing that the priests are going to be take somewhere, were just gathering around for the confessions. For some of them confessions first for many, many years, and the confessions again with the kind of feeling that they don’t know what is going to happen to them, so again very important. We also have testimonies that sometimes the confession was being used as an element of kind of bribe. I mentioned that starvation was enormous in the camp. In some of the testimonies we may also read that the confession was being used as an occasion of obtaining some extra food. We read the information that there were some priests who were expecting some payment for the confession, and for example prisoners were to give a portion of bread. This was of course met with the very bad response among the prisoners, as what was something very spiritual, and here was just brought down to the very material respond and expectations. Then in a workplace some of the priests were also encouraging the other inmates for a prayer. Of course they have to be respectful because not everybody wanted to pray, not everybody could pray, and there were also prisoners of different religions. So not to be very invasive towards the others, respectful. But we may read in the book by Adam Ziemba, one of the survivor priests, that in October which is the month, when the rosary is the major prayer for the Christians. Carrying the bricks in one of the building areas, he encouraged the other prisoners around him to pray with the rosary, and he’s saying that this prayer which is based on repeating the same sentences made them kind of relieved, because of being sort of detached from the heavy work, but also built a sense of community, a sense of support, a sense of being together in this very heavy moment. Priests being in the camp were also trying to organize the masses, and that was with enormous risk, that was very difficult to organize. First of all because that was strictly forbidden. Any religious symbols were not allowed in the camp. So again going through the testimonies and literature, we may in many places find information, that survivors are saying that the mass he was at, was absolutely the only one in the camp. But what’s so interesting is they are pointing different blocks, different locations, what means that in fact they were few masses in the camp, but they were to be organized in a very, very close community, very few prisoners could be informed about it, to be added to the mass, to pray together, and also to be like the guardians, to be around and to check, if they are not being seen. To obtain everything what is necessary for the mass, they were having from the resistance movement outside the camp, some of the people, some of the members from the town, from the villages, they were informed that priests, and they would like to save the mass. So all those elements necessary for the liturgy they were provided for them, of course in a smaller scale, in a smaller size, so they could be easily smuggled to the camp. So there were a few masses set here in Auschwitz camp. In Birkenau for obvious reasons, especially in the female camp, there were known these types of occasions, but the sisters who were in the camp, were again if they were having the occasion, they were trying to organize the prayer. The nun, I mentioned before, Maria Cecylia Autsch, was sent for the kitchen, to work in the kitchen, and one of the inmates in this kitchen was Margita Szwalbowa. She was a doctor, she was Jewish and she was an atheist. When she was sick with typhus, and sister Autsch was to take care of her, just as for entertainment she was sharing with her different stories about saints, about different people she read, she knew, she remembered, and again she was trying to be very gentle in saying these stories, mainly she was focusing on some historical aspects, just to be a good companies for Margita Szwalbowa, her friend in the camp.

What were the circumstances that at some point, majority of the priests are transferred to another concentration camp to Dachau, and why Dachau was chosen to be this central concentration camp for the clergy?

The information about the mass arrests among the Polish clergy were being sent to Vatican, very early on as September 1939, not only the priests from the parish but also bishops, Polish bishops were arrested, some of them were in camps, detention camps, concentration camps, and the Polish Primate August Hlond, he was trying to inform as many institutions in Vatican about the atrocities which the Polish Church is experiencing after September 1939. For some period of time, he was having more contact with the offices in Vatican, but he noticed later on that there’s kind of no result, so he was having the speeches in radio, the Vatican radio, then he was preparing the reports and sharing them in the embassies in Italy, again to focus to inform the world about the situation in Poland. Very shortly it was also clear, that larger groups of Polish priests were being sent for concentration camps. Then some other information were added that not only Polish priests were there, there were many also Czech priests, there were also many German priests, so this situation brought more proof to try the German institution to solve, to debate, to negotiate about the situation of these people. And again, first the bishop Cesare Orsenigio who was the representative of the Vatican in Germany, in Berlin, was having some of the meetings but they were actually with no results. He was addressing his meetings to the minister of the church issues Hans Kerel, then to the minister of the foreign affairs in Berlin Ernst von Weizsäcker, and it was until another person, bishop Heinrich Wienken, the special secretary from the German episcopate joined the talks, that he actually convinced the German authority to isolate all the priests in another place. The first idea was to send them somewhere on the Polish territory, but it was dismissed very quickly. Another option was to send them outside of Europe. The idea was given to South America, but the reply was that especially the Polish priests, they could carry this anti-German attitude, and they could spread in the community, in South America. So eventually Dachau was appointed as the place, which can be the camp for gathering the priests. Talking about church in Germany, we need to stress that the situation of the churches, all churches in Germany in the Nazi time, was completely different comparing to the situation of churches in Poland, and the other occupied countries. As we know, Hitler was paying great attention to keep the very positive relationship with Protestant church which is majority in Germany and also the Catholic church, so we know about the agreement concordat, which was signed between the Nazi Germany and the Vatican. And then all the time, the talks and any kind of issues were to be dealt with very delicate matters. We know from the literature that they were planning to find, to solve the situation with the camp as it was called after the final victory, so it was something what was waiting for being solved. So in Germany Dachau was the very first organized concentration camp with the system of guarding, and in the autumn of 1940 this camp was kind of emptied, because it became a place of training, training for the special SS units. So all the prisoners were in Dachau before, they were sent for the other concentration camps, mainly Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, and in the autumn the training ended, some of the prisoners were already sent there back, but still comparing to the other concentration camps Dachau was a relatively, we may call it, empty camp, so this could be also one of the elements why Dachau was chosen. Another thing, that few times before Dachau became a place where smaller groups of prisoners were being kept there, for example in the 30’s, mid 30’s some groups of Jewish prisoners were being sent just for Dachau and they were kept only there for few months, later on the situation has changed, they were being spread to all the other concentration camps, but it brought a kind of incidental situation, that some separated group can be placed in this camp. And from Auschwitz three transports of priests were being sent. In the beginning of November 1940 this decision was made that this camp is to be for gathering the priests, and on the 13th of December the next month, the first group of 68 priests were selected here in Auschwitz camp and sent there. Another group was sent half a year later in May 1941, and the last group was sent in June 1942. Then the transports stopped and it’s not really obvious from the literature, from the documents which are available right now, what was the reason. Most probably the historians, who are searching now the archives in Vatican, those who are researching the history of the connections or information sent to Vatican about concentration camps, they will find some valuable information. Not only from Auschwitz the priests were sent, the biggest actually group was sent from Sachsenhausen and that was over 500 priests. They were different nationalities, most of them were from Poland, but there were also French priests, there were also Czechs, there were also from former Yugoslavia, they were described, categorized as Yugoslavian. There were also German priests, there were also Austrian priests, also from Holland. The estimation is that 190 000 people were being sent for Dachau, and in this number 2798 were priests of different nationalities, in this number 1087 were Poles, so majority, great majority of the priests were Poles.

Were there anymore priests incarcerated in Auschwitz after the Dachau transport?

This is a very interesting story, because we know that the administration in Auschwitz was so precise, so detailed, they were actually obsessed with all kinds of records, so we may think that there was no chance that priests would be left here, and on the list from the second transport from May 1941 we are having a few priests, who are deported in the very first months of the camp’s existence, so it means that they were kind of skipped during the preparation of the lists. And the same is happening for the third transport, again some of them have been to the camp for almost 2 years. So, it means that the administration was not so tight, and what’s interesting they were even registered as priests so it’s not that they were hiding, simply they were left here. After 1942 still there were transports of the priests deported to Auschwitz camp, so it doesn’t mean that Dachau became specifically for priests and there were no priests in any other camps, no the research is showing that still regularly in the transports from all occupied Poland, the priests, monks and friars were deported to Auschwitz until the end of the camp’s existence.