Auschwitz and Catholic Jews | Dr. Ralph McInerny | Foreword to "Edith Stein and Companions, On the Way to Auschwitz" | Ignatius Insight
Auschwitz and Catholic Jews | Dr. Ralph McInerny | Foreword to
Edith Stein and Companions, On the Way to Auschwitz, by Father Paul Hamans | Ignatius Insight
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2010/rmcinerny_edithsteinfrwd_may2010.asp
Once, in monasteries, religious houses, and seminaries, the Roman
Martyrology was read in the refectory before meals. Each day some of those who
had given their lives in witness to the faith were commemorated by name, and often the tortures they underwent were described. Each day's entry ended with a
sentence beginning "et alibi aliorum plurimorum sanctorum.... " And
elsewhere many other saints. ... This tradition continues in some monasteries.
We may feel sad for all the anonymous martyrs gathered into that commodious
final sentence, but that would be a mistake. They are all entered in the Book
of Life, and the names of each are known to God. For all that, it is important
for us, not for them, that the names and sufferings of some be explicitly known
by us. The saints are put before us as models of the Christian life, and
martyrs are the ultimate models. We need to know more about some of them.
In this remarkable book, Dr. Paul Hamans, Father Hamans, has undertaken the
onerous task of compiling biographies, often accompanied by photographs, of
many of the religious and laity who were rounded up from their various convents
and monasteries and homes on the same day as Saint Edith Stein, August 2, 1942;
most of them were taken to the Amersfoort concentration camp and from there put
on trains to Auschwitz, where the majority, soon after their arrival at the
camp, were gassed and buried in a common grave between August 9 and September
30, 1942. They were all Catholic Jews, and their arrest was in retaliation for
the letter of the Catholic bishops of the Netherlands that was read from the
pulpits of all churches on July 26, 1942.
Over the past few years, in striking contrast to contemporary acknowledgments
and the magnificent book of Jewish theologian and historian Pinchas Lapide,
many authors have accused the Church of silence during the Nazi persecution of
the Jews. None of the counterevidence to this shameful thesis has had any
effect on the critics. The experience of Jews in the Netherlands, particularly
Catholic Jews, is eloquent witness of what could result from public
condemnation of the Nazis. The victims whose stories are included in this book
were told that they were rounded up in direct retaliation of the condemnation
of the Nazi "final solution" by the Dutch bishops.
Elsewhere, as was once acknowledged and celebrated, the Church in many ways,
and in many countries, provided the principal help to European Jews. Indeed,
the Catholic Church, under the leadership of Pope Pius XII, is credited by
Lapide with saving the lives of some 860,000 Jews. These efforts were effective
largely because they were not accompanied by noisy public declarations. With
the appearance of the mendacious play of Rolf Hochhuth, The Deputy, in 1963, the tide turned, and a series of
progressively more intemperate accusations against the Church and Pius XII
began to appear. Some Jews reacted to mention of the non-Jewish victims of the
Nazi persecution as if it were in some way an effort to diminish the tragedy
that had befallen the Jewish people under the reign of Hitler. There were even
objections from some Catholics when Edith Stein was canonized and characterized
as a martyr. Their argument was that she was put to death as a Jew, not as a
Catholic. And some sad souls objected to acknowledgment of what had happened to
Catholic Jews like Edith Stein and her companions. This book is an indirect
reply to such criticisms and will speak to all who have ears with which to
hear.
That the ultimate sacrifice of the Catholic Jews arrested in the wake of the
Dutch bishops' protest should become a cause of controversy is a sad indictment
of these last days. But it cannot touch the nobility and holy resignation with
which they met their end. Pondering the people commemorated in this book should
be an occasion, not for argument, but for edification. Father Hamans has put us
in his debt for having taken on the enormous task of making them
flesh-and-blood persons for his readers. During the ordeal, one nun wrote to
her superior that they had all become numbers to their captors. Lists had been
drawn up with diabolical bureaucratic efficiency by the Nazis, which is why the
arrests were made so promptly.
Thanks to this book, they are no longer mere numbers. Like those mentioned in
the Martyrology, their names have been restored. But, again, the importance of
that is largely for us. They would have been content, like perhaps millions of
others, with the collective mention of the army of martyrs in the Te
Deum Laudamus:
Te martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.
Ralph McInerny
University of Notre Dame
September 2010
Edith Stein and Companions On the Way to Auschwitz
by Father Paul
Hamans
• Also
available as an E-Book
On the same summer day in 1942, Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) and
hundreds of other Catholic Jews were arrested in Holland by the occupying Nazis. One hundred thirteen of those taken
into custody, several of them priests and nuns, perished at Auschwitz and other concentration camps. They were murdered
in retaliation for the anti-Nazi pastoral letter written by the Dutch Catholic bishops.
While Saint Teresa
Benedicta is the most famous member of this group, having been canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1998, all of them
deserve the title of martyr, for they were killed not only because they were Jews but also because of the faith of the
Church, which had compelled the Dutch bishops to protest the Nazi regime. Through extensive research in both original
and secondary sources, P.W.F.M. Hamans has compiled these martyrs' biographies, several of them detailed and accompanied
by photographs. Included in this volume are some remarkable conversion stories, including that of Edith Stein, the
German philosopher who had entered the Church in 1922 and later became a Carmelite nun, taking the name Sister Teresa
Benedicta of the Cross.
Several of the witnesses chronicled here had already suffered for their faith in Christ
before falling victim to Hitler's "Final Solution", enduring both rejection by their own people, including family
members, and persecution by the so-called Christian society in which they lived. Among these were those who, also like
Sister Teresa Benedicta, perceived the cross they were being asked to bear and accepted it willingly for the salvation
of the world. Illustrated
"Father Hamans has put us in his debt for having taken on the enormous task of making
the Jewish Catholic martyrs flesh and blood persons."
--Ralph McInerny, from the Foreword
"An
important, beautiful, heart-wrenching book. These Jewish Catholics, were doubly blessed, for they were martyred twice--once,
when they entered the Catholic Church at the cost of losing their families, their homes, their livelihoods, and a
second time when they were sent to the extermination camp as Jewish Catholics. Martyred for their Catholic faith,
martyred for their Jewish blood. The faith, dedication to God, and love of the Church that they showed as they underwent
this double martyrdom are inspiring reminders of what the true stakes and rewards of our lives as Catholics
are."
--Roy Schoeman, Author, Salvation is From the Jews
Fr. Paul Hamans
is a diocesan priest in Roermond, Netherlands, where he teaches Church history at the seminary there. He has a
doctorate in history from the University of Augsburg, Germany, and is an expert on the Dutch martyrs of the twentieth
century. His other publications include History of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands.
Related Ignatius Insight Excerpts and Essays:
• The Cross and The Holocaust | Regis Martin
• Chapter 1 of Priestblock 25487: A Memoir of Dachau | Fr. Jean Bernard
• The Jews and the Second Coming | Roy H. Schoeman
• Judaism Fulfilled | An interview with Roy H. Schoeman
• Jews Find the Sweetness of Christ | Roy Schoeman
Dr. Ralph McInerny (1929-2010), was a longtime professor of philosophy and director of the Jacques Maritain Center at Notre
Dame. He began teaching at the University of Notre Dame in 1955; he was the author of two dozen scholarly books and many more scholarly essays, as well as
numerous general interest works. He was an expert in the work of Thomas Aquinas,
Soren Kierkegaard, and Jacques Maritain, and wrote and lectured extensively on ethics, philosophy of religion, and medieval philosophy. He also wrote over fifty novels,
including the well-known Father Dowling mystery series and The Red Hat.
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