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Priestblock 25487: A Memoir of Dachau

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Priestblock 25487 - A Memoir of Dachau was written by Father Jean Bernard who was a priest from Luxemburg who was arrested by the Nazi (for what he never knew) and placed into Dachau. After the invasion of Luxemburg which was a predominant Catholic country many priest were arrested since they were seen as being too patriotic and as leaders of their communities.

In Dachau the priests and other clergy were separated from the general population and placed in their own barracks. At times they were treated better or worse than the other prisoners and when they were treated better it was done to isolate them and to provoke envy. Many are aware of the stories of Catholics such as Saint Maxmillian Kolbe and Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross who both died at Auschwitz and Blessed Titus Bradsma who died at Daschau where this book takes place. But normally we only have the details of the ends of their lives in the concentration camp and not the daily details.

Reading this book the phrase "The Banality of Evil" coined by Hannah Arendt kept ringing through my head. The details of daily life which mostly grew from bad to worst are chronicled in such a fashion that as much as is humanly possible you really start to see what life in these circumstance was like. The casual violence of the camp guards and the prisoners serving as capos is so hard to fathom. Even the camp photographer who took pictures as the prisoners first came placed a spike in a spring-loaded chair to hurt and to surprise prisoners as they sat down for their photographs. This type of cruel behavior was the norm and not the exception. We might like to think that they managed to find the most cruel human beings to work at such camps, but the reality is how the culture of these camps so easily corrupted those in it. This was a true culture of death and we can see the effects that the current culture of death also has towards human lives.

One of the things best communicated in the book was the constant hunger of the prisoners. Even reading the words it is hard to imagine people living on such small rations and then performing the labor that they did. His description of seeing a Dandelion in a field and his plans to pull it up and eat it can give you some idea about the hunger Prisoners were watched constantly and the guards generally would not let them try to eat anything they might find. He tracked the Dandelion for a couple of days looking for an opportunity to pluck it up which he finally did. But he also knew that several other prisoners were trying to do the same. At one point you read of his joy of receiving just a spoonful of soup. Many people simply did not survive these conditions or became so weak that they were just gassed.

Father Jean Bernard is quite frank about conditions and his own behavior. He doesn't sugar-coated anything to make himself look better, though you quite easily see his life of faith and the simple joys in quite mundane things. Especially poignant is his description of when they were able to get a hold of a Eucharistic host after they had been denied Mass for quite awhile. At first they had allowed Mass but this privilege was soon removed. The Germans often took out punishments on the priests in response to criticisms by the Vatican of the Nazi's and by actions of the German and other Bishops. When the camp guards noticed that prisoners would try to be around a chapel that held the Eucharist - they painted the windows black.

Quite beautiful is his description of friendships with people he knew before and come to know in the camp. The extreme difficulties of both hunger and physical ailments and how the prisoners would sacrifice to help each other out is quite amazing. Prisoners who already were living on a diet that barely sub stained them would give bread or other food to those who were in even more desperate need. In the midst of such cruelty there was also so much love.

I highly recommend this book and while it might seem more like Lenten than Advent fare it is still a good, but at times difficult, read.

This is a truly important memoire to add re: extreme love for God and the dignity of a human being in the midst of the worst horror and persecution. It is a testimony to the priesthood, and to each of us as humans.

This is a book you cannot put down, so well written and so well translated as to be easily readable as it politely, objectively, briefly and even lightly describes the worst abuses against our clergy imaginable.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in his recent Encyclical Letter Saved in Hope: Spe Salvi describes the sufferings of cardinals and priests imprisoned, mainly in Vietnam, and quotes from them. Here we similarly may read as well the chronicle of a priest imprisoned in Dachau with hundreds of other priests from Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, etc., and the ordeals and tortures, torments and disdainful deaths they suffered. particularly upon our most important Feast days.

This book has been filmed as The Ninth Day readily available here, yet we do best to read here the actual words, in able translation, of the Reverend Father Jean Bernard, who suffered a year and a half in Dachau. In the same vein, we may read the testimony of the Reverend Father Delp in Alfred Delp, S.J: Prison Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters), who was not so fortunate as to survive the concentration camps reserved for those courageous Catholic clergy who defied the war machine, serving only the Prince of Peace. We may also read of the life of the great Franciscan Father Saint Maximilian Kolbe, who, having founded a Marian magazine in Nagasaki, died a martyr in Auschwitz, for example in Maximilian Kolbe: Saint of Auschwitz.

In this book, the Reverend Father Bernard describes carefully and with great insight his daily life in Dachau, clearly and concisely, but with great depth in few words, very evocatively composed. Reading this passion we may ourselves gain the strength and insight to oppose the war machine of today, to serve only our Prince of Peace with head held high and without fear, as did these brave priests up to the ultimate and tormented consequences, described in so many cases here by Father Bernard.

Highly recommended for Lenten lectio divina as we approach the recollection of the Passion of Our Lord, as we here experience the torments suffered still by His Mystical Body Incarnate. Very readable, comprehendible and applicable to our times.

Simply, but beautifully written. An amazing eye for detail, and ability to breathe life into characters and situations. Heartfelt, deeply moving. At times shocking in its violence, but never gratuitously so. It grabbed me from the first page, and did not let go. As one reviewer mentioned, you feel the cold, the hunger, the fear. But what most lingers in my mind after reading this powerful book are the author's words in the Foreword:

''We must never forget what happened there and in many similar places. Forgetting would be cowardice on the part of the people in whose name all these crimes were committed. It would be a flight from their own consciences and from the indictment of the world, showing an unwillingness to make reparations and to atone.

Yet we must forgive. We must forgive while remaining conscious of the full horror of what occurred, not only because nothing constructive can be built on a foundation of hatred--neither a new Europe nor a new world--but above all for the sake of Him who commands and urges us to forgive, and before whom we, victims and executioners alike, are all poor debtors in need of mercy.''

This is a great book, an important book. I highly recommend it.

When we think of martyrs, we normally think of those who have died for the faith. However, the Church also holds the concept of white martyrdom, those who have suffered but have not died. Fr. Bernard exemplifies both, because through his suffering he was at the jaws of death so many times. This is truly a gripping memoir, and a chilling account of the depths to which man's inhumanity to man can sink. Yet the focus is not solely on brutality endured, but rather on how faith and love overcome it. It is the story of a man who truly endured the physical suffering of Christ, and in the midst of it all, was able to bring the presence of Christ to many he encountered. It is chilling to remember, but it is better to never forget.

This book hits the ground running and does not let up. It is in the form of a diary. It chronicles 18 months of the life of a priest become prisoner in a brutal and sadistic Nazi concentration camp. What makes it unforgettable is that it is not a work of fiction but rather true history. The story is not easily dismissed but rather lingers in the mind like smoke on a still evening. This book will change the way you see the world and yourself - at least it did for me.
Very highly recommended for those how understand the value of history to understanding the present times.

This book brings the reader into the daily life of a priest who was imprisoned for speaking out against the Nazis. The cruelty and drudgery of camp life is vividly detailed in this diary and one cannot help but feel the reality of the events documented so well by Fr. Bernard.

Of interest to those who are interested in the role of the Church during this time are the sections where life in the camp becomes harder for the priests when the Pope or a bishop publishes a percieved anti Nazi letter or sermon. This real life witness counters those trendy academic claims of Church complicity.

"Priestblock 25487: A Memoir of Dachau" is the autobiographical writing of Father Jean Bernard, a Roman Catholic priest from Luxembourg describing his experiences while interred at the notorious Nazi German concentration camp. The book is structured in a diary-like form (though actually written some years after his release) and gives the reader an inside look at an often forgotten chapter of Nazi German history; its systematic attempts to undermine and crush the Catholic Christian Church, through the imprisonment, degradation, torture, and murder of thousands of Her priests and religious sisters.

This book is simply incredible... and painfully so. It highlights--though I imagine not intentionally --the heroic virtue and fidelity of a number of Catholic priests who sought to be Christ to each other and even to their captors as they were put through horrible physical and psychological conditions that are beyond one's imagination. Especially for a Catholic, one cannot help be near ashamed at our own cavalier disposition to our regular reception of the Eucharist when Father Bernard describes the "indescribable joy" he and his fellow priests experienced as they consumed a particle of Host which had been smuggled into them.

It is often difficult to offer criticism of an autobiographical writing, as one expects it to be subjective. But the author himself seems to be painstaking in presenting an objective description of what happened, permitting the reader to experience the emotion which he dared not display. One is truly taken by the lack of malice towards his captors, and deep empathy and sacrificial friendship towards his fellow prisoners. One thing I found a bit disconcerting, which perhaps says more about me than the writer, is that Father Bernard could share in a sentence or two about having to go without any food to speak of for days on end, while also being on "snow detail" in sub-freezing temperatures with no shirt or shoes; it can be easy for the reader to breeze over this, without actually imagining how torturous it would be for any of us to do such a thing for more than five minutes, let alone eight hours at a time.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who desires to better understand what it means to be a person of faith even in unthinkable circumstances--an obscure and unknown saint simply living out one's vocation. I especially feel that those in the priesthood will find this story truly edifying and encouraging as they attempt to live out their own "white martyrdom" in their vocation.

Other works the reader may find of interest:

The Ninth Day (A film adaptation of Priestblock 25487)
Edith Stein: A Biography/the Untold Story of the Philosopher and Mystic Who Lost Her Life in the Death Camps of Auschwitz
Forget Not Love: The Passion of Maximilian Kolbe

Why do we read books anymore, when there are so many different, easier, less time-consuming ways to be equally informed, entertained, moved, or simply distracted? A great movie can do all of the above... in far less time. Priestblock 25487, A Memoir of Dachau by Fr Jean Bernard, and recently published by a small, worthy outfit, Zaccheus Press, was actually made into a very good German film called 'The Ninth Day' that did well at U.S. film festivals, when it came out in 2005, and I'd recommend it, because it's definitely worth seeing.

Jean Bernard wrote what became Priestblock 25487 after his recuperation from the Nazi concentration camp, recovery that took a full year. While a safe distance from the reality the priests and clergy suffered at Dachau, reading Priestblock 25487 allows you to become a part of the book in a way I don't believe any film can do, leaving an impression that remains true, because the book itself is true in every sense of the word. The tale is true, page by page, the power of what is happening is true, as it impresses your mind, and then your heart; the murders, the faith, the hunger, and the brutality is all true, as well. And then, as Bernard recounts various scenes, as it were, of his life at Dachau, the grace one finds there is true and what keeps you reading. The immutable power of print may be, of course, one of the reasons God chose to share critical elements of Who He is with us in the form of the Bible, but it's definitely one of the reasons Priestblock 25487 is a book that, if you're like me, will never completely leave you, if you take the time.

Part of the strange wonder and beauty of reading this book is that it takes no time at all. By that I mean you'll be done before you know it, because this book was a page-turner, a book I couldn't put down once I picked it up, which is rare for me. From the outset, when Fr Bernard confronts the cool, callous pomp of the Nazi Superintendent Hardegen who interrogates him and drives him to the train station at Trier, Luxembourg, where he was taken to Dachau, where, in the comfort of his limousine, the Nazi officer boasts of "the coming victory and ruling the world and how the Church will be destroyed," (p. 5). Priestblock 25487 is full of poignancy, brutality, irony, and heartache.

Quote:
In the last days of February the guards can celebrate orgies of "snow sadism."

It snows without letup. We scrape and shovel, push and carry loads of snow
until some of the priests pass out from exhaustion.

From his window above the entryway the camp commandant watches the merry-go-round with visible pleasure. From time to time he sends a camp runner down to the capos: Tempo! Tempo! Beat them more if you have to!

End of quote (p. 89).

'Night' by Elie Weisel is a book I read at West Point for an English class many years ago. It is a great book. But it is Priestblock 25487 that still moves me to the verge of tears, as I write this. Perhaps, this is, in part, because of the glowing faith of Fr Jean Bernard and his dear, fellow priests, as that faith rose like a lantern and shone itself brave and true in the darkest, most difficult and degrading of circumstances one can imagine. If only there were more priests like the priests one finds in Priestblock 25487 at Dachau, very real, frail and yet good human beings, like that today.

I read Priestblock 25487 over a year ago, and yet, thinking about it, I am still moved to a recollection of a mixture of sorrow and shame, as I consider my own complaints to God regarding my circumstances in life, and then of the world today, more crass and crude than ever. If you buy this book, you will be glad it is on your bookshelf; if you read it, you will be thankful for an experience you will never forget.

I highly recommend this book because it is beautifully, clearly, sparsely written, speaks to us of our strengths and our weaknesses as humans, tells a story of human beings facing severe treatment and dealing with it in so many varied ways, and relects the beauty of the priesthood in its concentration on the centrality of the Eucharist in their lives. Those moments are captured so purely, it raises all of our spirits to read it, to enter their world, even with unimaginable depravity, Christ was the purpose of their lives. An amazingly uplifting book, after I resisted reading it for fear of the depression I would feel from it's subject. I couldn't have been more wrong. I am passing to all my friends.