Story of Polish Clergy at the Nazi Dachau Concentration Camp
Time of An Ordeal: The Story of Polish Clergy Imprisoned and Killed at Dachau. Half of the Polish priests imprisoned by the Nazi's died at the Dachau concentration camp. The death of more than 2,000 Polish clergy, including five bishops, at the start of World War II seems to be forgotten by many history books, says a survivor of Dachau. Kazimierz Majdanski, now archbishop emeritus of Warsaw, was arrested Nov. 7, 1939, by the Nazis, when he was in the seminary of Wloclawek. He was arrested with other students and professors, and taken first to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and later to Dachau. In Dachau, he was subjected to pseudoscientific criminal experiments.Archbishop Majdanski: Half of the Polish priests died who were imprisoned in Dachau. I saw so many priests die in a heroic way. All of them were faithful to Christ who said to his disciples: "You will be my witnesses." They died as Catholic priests and Polish patriots. Some of them could have saved themselves, but none of them lowered themselves to such pacts. In 1942 the authorities of the camp offered Polish priests the possibility of special treatment, on the condition of declaring that they belonged to the German nation. No one came forward. When Father Dominik Jedrzejewski was offered his freedom on the condition that he give up his priestly functions, he calmly answered "no," and died. The martyrdom of the Polish clergy during the Nazi inferno was a glorious page of the history of the Church and of Poland. It is too bad that it has been covered by a veil of silence. Kazimierz Majdanski, now archbishop emeritus of Warsaw, will be speaking at the World Congress of Families IV, May 11-13, 2007, Warsaw, Poland
