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Other Opponents of the Nazis
-- by Rev. Vincent A. Lapomarda, S.J.

Among the Blessed

Blessed Vilmos Apor (1892-1945) -- Hungarian bishop (Gyor, Hungary).
Blessed Maria Teresa Fasce(1881-1947) -- Augustinian abbess (Liguria, Italy).
Blessed Rupert Mayer (1876-1945) -- Jesuit priest (Munich, Germany).
Blessed Ildefonso Schuster (1880-1954) -- Italian cardinal (Milan, Italy).
Blessed Karl Leisner (1915-1945) -- A German seminarian, he was ordained a priest at Dachau and died shortly thereafter. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 23, 1996.
Blessed Clement August von Galen (1878-1946), Cardinal of Munster who opposed the Nazis and whose cause was introduced in November of 1959. Beatified on Sunday, October 9, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI said of him: "In the name of God, he denounced the neo-pagan ideology of National Socialism, defending the freedom of the Church and human rights which were being so gravely violated, and protecting Jews and others whom the regime considered as refuse to be eliminated."
Blessed Alojzije Stepinac (1898-1960)-- Croatian cardinal (Zagreb, Yugoslavia). Of him, Louis Braier, President of the Jewish Community in the United States, declared (13 October 1946): "This great man of the Church has been accused of being a Nazi collaborator. We, the Jews, deny it. He is one of the few men who rose in Europe against the Nazi tyranny precisely at the moment it was most dangerous. He spoke openly and fearlessly against the racial laws. After His Holiness, Pius XII, he was the greatest defender of the Jews persecuted in Europe." s been accused of being a Nazi collaborator. We, the Jews, deny it. He is one of the few men who rose in Europe against the Nazi tyranny precisely at the moment it was most dangerous. He spoke openly and fearlessly against the racial laws. After His Holiness, Pius XII, he was the greatest defender of the Jews persecuted in Europe." For more, see Ester Gitman, "A Question of Judgement: Dr. Aloizije Stepinac and the Jews," The Review of Croatian History, vol. 2, no. 1 (2007), 47-72.
Blessed Pavel Peter Gojdic , O. S. B. M. (1888-1960) -- A Byzantine bishop who was beatified on November 4, 2001 by Pope John Paul II and recognized by Yad Vashem, in an announcement of January 28, 2008, as a "Righteous among the Nations" for saving the life of two Jews, one the Rabbi of Kosice in Slovakia.
Blessed Maria Elisabetta Hesselblad (1870-1957) -- A convert from Lutheranism, she was conditionally baptized by John George Hagen, a Jesuit priest who became her spiritual father. A Bridgettine Abbess, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 9, 2000. In early June of 2005, Yad Vashem recognized her for sheltering Jews in Rome during the Nazi occupation.
Eleven Nuns of Nowogrodek -- Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth who were executed by the Nazis, on 1 August 1943, in Belarus and whose causes were introduced on 18 September 1991. On 28 June 1999, Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree for their beatification held on Sunday, March 5, 2000.
Blessed Jozef Pawlowski (1890-1942) -- Polish priest hanged at Dachau for helping Jews in Poland. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 13, 1999.
Blessed John XXIII (1881-1963) -- Pope from 1958 to 1963 (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli helped Jews escape the Holocaust while he was the ApostolicDelegate to Turkey and Greece during World War II). He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in September o 2000..
Blessed Omeljan Kovch (1884-1944) -- Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priest (and father of six children executed by Nazis in the oven of Majdanek for helping Jews and recognized as a "Righteous" in the Ukraine). He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in the Ukraine in June of 2001..
Blessed Kliment Sheptytsky (1869-1951) -- Exarch of the Russian Byzantine Rite in Russia and Siberia, he was the brother of Count Andrei, Metropolitcan of Lviv. He died in a Soviet prison, on May 1, 1951, and is also recognized among the Righteous Gentiles by the Jewish Council of the Ukraine.. He was beatified in the Ukraine by Pope John Paul II on June 27, 2001, with twenty-six other martyrs, mostly victims of the period from 1935 to 1973.
Blessed Nikolaus Gross (1898-1945) -- Involved in the Catholic Worker Movement in Germany, he opposed the Nazis in his underground writings and was associated with the Jesuit Alfred Delp and others in the resistance movement and martyred after the July 1944 plot against Adolf Hitler. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 7, 2001.
110 Polish Victims of Nazism: These were beatified by Pope John Paul II in his visit to Warsaw.
Blesssed Sara Salkahazi (1899-1944), a nun of the Sisters of Social Service, Sister Sara was shot by the Nazis for helping the Jews in Hungary by hiding them in a home for working women. Her body was then thrown into the Danube. At the end of April 2006, her cause for beatification was advanced with a decree on her martyrdom. She was beatified on September 17, 2006 in Budapest, Hungary.
Blessed Franz Jagerstatter (1907-1943), an Austrian layman who was executed as a conscientious objector to service in the army of Adolf Hitler. His cause for canonization was launched, on January 19, 1995, by the University of Linz On June 1, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the promulgation of the decree for hm. His beatification date is October 26, 2007.

Venerables and Servants of God

The first grades on the way to canonization are Venerables and Servants of God and a number of Catholics are in one or the other of these categories:

The Corra Brothers of Verona, whose cause was introduced in September of 2000 because Flavio (1917-1945) and Gedeone (1920-1945) had resisted the Nazis as members of the Catholic Action Youth Association and ended up dying in Flosenburg.
Nicola Placido Cortese (d. 1944), a Franciscan Conventual who was tortured by the Nazis for helping Jews and others and died at Dachau. His cause was introduced by the Bishop of Trieste on January 28, 2002.
Victor Dillard (1897-1945) a Jesuit priest (a sociologist, he had criticized the Nazis on the Jews and died at Dachau on 12 January 1945) and forty-two other martyrs of the Nazi era, whose causes were publicly opened, on 14 September 1988, by the Archbishop of Lyon.
Odaardo Focherini (1907-1944), a newspaper man associated with Avvenire, he has been recognized by Yad Vashem for helping to save 105 Jews. Arrested by the Nazis, he was imprisoned in Flossenberg and Hersbauck. His cause for beatification was introduced by the Diocese of Capri on May 31, 2003.
Fritz Michael Gerlich (1883-1934), a journalist who died a Dachau in July of 1934, has already been inaugurated.
Giuseppe Girotti (1905-1945), a Dominican priest (an Italian theologian, died of a lethal injeciton at Dachau, on 2 April 1945, where he had been sent for helping Jews in the area of Turin), whose cause was introduced in 1988 and is being advocated by his order's promoter of causes.
Johann Gruber (1889-1944), known as the "Saint of Gusen", a concentration camp, his cause of beatification was initiated in 1988 by those who survived him.
Titus Horten (1882-1936), a Dominican priest, whose cause was introduced in 1984, had died in prison for alleged currency violations.
Pere Jacques (1900-1945), Carmelite Priest, made famous by the movie Au revoir les enfants, whose cause was introduced on August 31, 1990. He had risked his life to save Jews from the Nazis.
Eugenio Pacelli (1876-1958), under his leadership as Pope Pius XII (1939-1958), the Catholic Church was responsible "in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000, Jews from certain death at Nazi hands" (p. 214, from Pinchas Lapide's Three Popes and the Jews, published in 1967). Many of the avenues of escape through which Raoul Wallenberg (1912-19??), the Swedish diplomat, was able to send Jews to safety had been opened up by Pius XII (and by Francisco Franco of Spain who also helped to save thousands of Jews). The cause of Pius was introduced by Pope Paul VI on November18, 1965, approved investigation for "venerable" by Pope John Paul II on September 2, 2000, and title of "venerable" approved on May 8, 2007 by the Congregation on the Saints, but Pope Benedict XVI has yet to act on this unanimous vote.
Giovanni Palatucci (1909-1945), a police commissioner in the Italian area of Fiume and the nephew of the Franciscan Bishop Giuseppe Palatucci of Campagna , he helped 5,000 Jews escape the Nazi and was sent to Dachau where he died as a result of being treated with cruelty. His cause for beatification has been under consideration since June 17, 1999.
Count Andrei Sheptytsky (1865-1944), another opponent of the Nazis was the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv who, following the advice of the Pope, protected Jews against the Nazis and is recognized among the Righteous Gentiles and as an apostle of church unity. He was associated with a number of the Ukrainian martyrs beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 27, 2001.
The Ulma Family: The cause of this family whose father and mother (Jozef and Wiktokria) and six children (two girls and four boys) were executed for shelerting Jews in Markowa, Poland, was introduced by the Archdiocese of Przemysl.
Martyrs of the Apostolate, at least fifty persons, clergy and laity, from France died in Nazi concentration camps (more than a third at Buchenwald): their cause was collectively introduced in the 1980s.
Other Martyrs: Of 110 laymen which the Catholic Church in Germany has listed in its Martyrologium Germanicum, the beatification process for them is listed in this work.

Other Christian Opponents

     In the spirit of Pope John Paul II's plea to honor Christian martyrs during the Jubilee Year 2000, one should recall that other Christians too had their heroes. There was Martin Niemoller (1892-1984), the Lutheran pastor who preached against the Nazis and was imprisoned in Dachau from 1937 to the end of the war. There was Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), the Evangelical pastor who opposed the Nazis, especially on their treatment of the Jews, and was hanged at Flossenburg. There was Kaj Munk (1898-1944), the Danish pastor and dramatist killed for his resistance to the Nazis. There was Paul Schneider (1897-1939), the apostle of Buchenwald, who died a martyr in that concentration camp for his opposition to the Nazis.
      There were rescuers Andre Trocme (1901-1971), the pastor of the Hugenots in Le Chambron-sur-Lignon, France, who risked his life to save 5,000 Jews. There was Dr. Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885-1954), the Portuguese Consul-General in Bordeaux, France who saved the lives of 30,000 people by issuing them visas to neutral Portugal against the orders of Portugal's dictator. And, others like Stefania Podorska and the Schindlers, Oskar (1908-74) and Emilie (1907-2001), not to mention Father Anton Weber and Giorgio Perlasca, helped to save Jews.
      Morever, the Catholic clergy was involved. Pierre Marie Benoit (1895-1990) , a Capuchin
monk (baptized Pierre Peteul and known as Padre Maria Benedetto in Italy), rescued 4,000 Jews, not to mention Dom Bruno (Henri Reynders), a Belgian Benedictine monk who died in 1981 and who had helped to protect at least 300 Jewish children from the Holocaust by providing them with false identification papers.
John Patrick Carroll-Abbing (1912-2001), the Irish Monsignor, was involved in the resistance in Rom, and Hugh O'Flaherty (1898-1963), about whom J. P. Gallagher wrote in The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican (1967) was instrumental in saving Jews and others during the Nazi occupation of Rome. . The late Pietro Cardinal Palazzini (1912-2000) was honored by the State of Israel in 1985 for risking his life to save Jews during the war (see papal homily at his funeral). Vincenzo Cardinal Fagiolo (1918-2000) was also recognized as one of the Righteous. Among the prominent Catholic leaders who defied Adolf Hitler there were Catholic bishops like Iuliu Cardinal Hossu of Romania (1885-1970), Clemens August Graf von Galen of Munster (1878-1946) not to overlook Johann Baptist Dietz of Fulda (1879-1959) and Konrad von Preysing of Berlin (1880-1959), Jan de Jong of Utrecht (1885-1955), Joseph Ernest van Roey of Belgium (1874-1961), and Adam Cardinal Sapieha of Krakow (1867-1951).   Not too well known are certain other bishops. Quite outspoken in his opposition to the Nazis for their treatment of the Jews in his part of Italy was Bishop Antonio Santin (1895-1981) of Trieste. In Poland, for example, in addition to Sapieha, the following bishops either risked their lives to save Jews or encouraged their clergy to do so: Romuald Jalbrzykowski of Wilno, Teodor Kubina of Czestochowa, Jan Kanty Lorek of Sandomierz, Stanislaw Lukomski of Lomza, Karol Niemira of Pinisk, and Boleslaw Twardowski of Lviv (this prelate was the one who had consecrated Eugeniusz Baziak,the archbishop from whom the future Pope John Paul II received his episcopal consecration on the 28 September 1958). Among the Salesians, two were honored by the State of Israel on May 6, 1997, for helping Jews: Francesco Antonioli and Armando Alessandrini. Of course, one cannot overlook Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) helped Jews and there is a move to place him among the Righteous Gentiles.
    On October 25, 2001, ANSA, Italy Daily, reported that Father Giuseppe Carozzi (d. 1958), acting on direct instructions from Pope Pius XII, intervened with Leonardo Marinelli (d. 1981), who headed the Aprica internment camp in the northern part of Italy, to save Yugoslav Jews. Due to this intervention on September 12, 1943, 300 Jews were able to exit Italy and enter Switzerland thereby being rescued from the Nazis who had taken over Italy.   In Milan today, there is a street named for Carozzi.
    One of the most unusual opponents of the Nazis was Dr. Charles Schepens, a specialist in retina surgery, who helped to rescue many people from the Nazis in Vichy France. While a member of the Belgian resistance, he was working in the Pyrennes with a shephered, Jean Sarochar (1892-1975) and this story is related in the book by Meg Ostrum, The Surgeon and the Shepherd (2004), He was honored by the French consul with the French Legion of Honor in Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 21, 2006.

******

A Native of New England Executed
for Helping Jews Escape the Holocaust

Wladyslaw Deszcz
(1915-1941)
A priest of the Diocese of Tarnow in Poland and a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, he was killed in Biegonice, on 21 August 1941, because he gave out birth certificates to help Jews escape the Holocaust.

Also Noteworthy:

Rinaldo A. Ribezzi (1915-2001), a native of Udine, Italy, and a Stigmatine Father, he concealed some 150 from the Nazis, among them American pilots and refugee Jews, at the Church of Santa Croce in Rome, where he was assistant pastor, during the Nazi occupation. Coming to the United States in 1947, he spent the rest of his life in the western part of Massachusetts (The Springfield Union, June 27, 2001, and The Boston Globe, June 28, 2001).

Monsignor Walter C. Bayer (1912-2002), a friend close to Pope John Paul II. He had hidden some fifty Jews when the Nazis occupied Poland and migrated to the United States where he spent most of priestly life (The Boston Globe, February 28, 2002).

Monsignor John P. Wodarski (1905-2002), a native of Salem, Massachusetts who was known in Connecticut as "Mr. New Britain." He had helped to liberate the priests at Dachau while an Army chaplain in World War II (The Boston Globe, October 17, 2002).

Romuald-Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel

On Martyrs: Bibliography When one recalls that millions of Catholics were martyred by the Nazis, these constitute just a fraction of them. For an idea of how large is that number, see such sources as the documents of the Nuremburg War Crimes Trial and such studies as James F. Dunnigan's Dirty Little Secrets of World War II (Morrow, 1994); Martin Gilbert's Final Journey (Mayflower, 1979); Nerin E. Gun, The Day of the Americans (Fleet, 1996); Louis S. Snyder's Historical Guide to World War II (Greenwood, 1982); and Bohdan Wytwycky'sThe Other Holocaust (Novak Report, 1980). Other important works inclukde Josse Alzin's Martyrologe 40-45 (Editions Fasbender, 1947); Ulrich von Hehl's Priester unter Hitlers Terror (Matthias-Grunewald, 1984); Bedrich Hoffman's And Who Will Kill You? (Pallottinum, 1994); Wiktor Jacewicz's Martyrologium Polskiego Duchowienstwa (ATK, 1977-81); Benedicta Maria Kempner's Nonnen Unter der Hakenkreuz (Naumann, 1979); Eugen Weiler's Die Geistlichen in Dachau (Missionsdruckerei St. Gabriel, 1971-72); and Waclaw Zajaczkowski's Martyrs of Charity (St. Maximilian Kolbe Foundation, 1987-1989). And, works on martyred conscientious objectors like Franz Jagerstatter, Brother Maurus, Brother Michael, Josef Mayr-Nusser, Max Josef Metzger, Franz Reinisch, who were victims of the Nazis should not be forgotten.

While visiting this web site you may also want to read. "Five Heroic Catholics of the Holocaust" and "The Cardinal of the Persecuted Jews" both by Rev. Vincent A. Lapomarda, S.J. For a recent study of the Church in helping the Jews, see Gerald Arboit, "Le Saint-Siege et la Questioni Juive en Europe Centrale pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale (1939-1945)," Archivum Historiae Pontificiae, 37 (1999), 161-190.

Adam Cardinal Kozlowiecki (b. 1911), a Jesuit who spent World War II in concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau, has written his own work on the Jesuits who died in those camps and is listed in the bibliography below. At the same time, Alois Cardinal Grillmeier (1910-1998) was a Jesuit serving in the German Army during World War II. For other priests in the German Army, see Hans Jurgen Brandt's Priester in Uniform (Pattloch, 1994).

A Bibliography of Works on Catholic Priests in Nazi Prison Camps is also available online.


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