CONVENTS, CHURCH INSTITUTIONS
SHELTERED THOUSANDS REFUGEES
(Note to film and TV producers and intrepid entrepreneurs: The following segment covers aspects of the Holocaust that have been grossly under-reported or totally ignored. The material is ripe for a TV mini-series or a documentary film by a resourceful church group, foundation, History Channel or an enterprising individual.)
WHEN THE NAZIS launched their roundup of refugees in Italy late in 1943, Nathan Cassuto, the chief rabbi of Florence, urged Jews to leave town or go into hiding. Several years later, while testifying at the Adolf Eichmann trial, the rabbi's sister recalled: "My brother went from house to house to warn them to hide themselves in convents or in little villages, under false names." Hundreds of Florentine Jews took his advice and survived.
Convents, monasteries, orphanages and other church institutions throughout occupied-Europe were some of the very few "ready-made" safe harbors that Jews could turn to when escaping Nazi raids, arrests or terror. There was "room at the inn" for refugees who found shelter and protection at these church havens that stretched from Poland to Belgium and France, Italy and the Balkans.
SHELTERED THOUSANDS REFUGEES
(Note to film and TV producers and intrepid entrepreneurs: The following segment covers aspects of the Holocaust that have been grossly under-reported or totally ignored. The material is ripe for a TV mini-series or a documentary film by a resourceful church group, foundation, History Channel or an enterprising individual.)
WHEN THE NAZIS launched their roundup of refugees in Italy late in 1943, Nathan Cassuto, the chief rabbi of Florence, urged Jews to leave town or go into hiding. Several years later, while testifying at the Adolf Eichmann trial, the rabbi's sister recalled: "My brother went from house to house to warn them to hide themselves in convents or in little villages, under false names." Hundreds of Florentine Jews took his advice and survived.
Convents, monasteries, orphanages and other church institutions throughout occupied-Europe were some of the very few "ready-made" safe harbors that Jews could turn to when escaping Nazi raids, arrests or terror. There was "room at the inn" for refugees who found shelter and protection at these church havens that stretched from Poland to Belgium and France, Italy and the Balkans.
These religious institutions also provided sanctuary for countless Jewish children whose parents were shipped to labor or death camps. Being hidden in a convent or orphanage, the children were assured of shelter, food and access, when required, to medical attention. Their identities were usually masked with Christian names as a safeguard during Gestapo searches and interrogations
.
MORE ABOUT CHURCH RESCUE EFFORTS IN:
PolandBelgium
FranceItaly
GreeceHungary
UkraineFinal Note
CHURCH INSTITUTIONS in Poland were among the first to open their doors to the flood of children thrust upon them by desperate refugees facing deportation. It is estimated that at least 190 convents in Poland offered asylum to thousands of children of refugees. In Otwock and Pludy, suburbs of Warsaw, the convents of the Sisters of Maria's Family were active in rescue efforts as well as hiding and feeding of many refugees. In other convents, the Ursuline Sisters and the Franciscan Sisters in Warsaw and Laski, took in children from distraught parents. And in Pruzany, nuns rescued scores of Jewish women by disguising them in the habits of their order.
Irena Sendler, the Warsaw social worker who rescued more than 2,500 Jewish children from the ghetto, accomplished her incredible deeds with the active assistance of the church. "I sent most of the children to religious establishments," she recalled. "I knew I could count on the Sisters." Sendler also had a remarkable record of cooperation when placing the youngsters: "No one ever refused to take a child from me," she said.
The vast majority of nuns in convents led quiet if not reclusive lives, insulated from outside forces. But the seven sisters in the small Benedictine convent near Vilna Colony railroad station in Poland were active undercover agents who specialized in smuggling Jews out of the nearby ghetto. Among those who found safe harbor in the convent were several Jewish writers as well as leaders of the ghetto underground: Abba Kovner, Abraham Sutzkever, Ariel Wilner and Edek Boraks.
The convent's mother superior, Anna Borkowska, a Cracow University graduate, together with other nuns, provided the underground with weapons and ammunition. They would visit nearby homes, under the pretense of church business, and instead "borrow" guns, pistols, grenades and knives from the farmers. Philip Friedman, the Holocaust historian, has poetically described their undercover activity in these words: "The hands accustomed to the touch of rosary beads became expert with explosives."
Clemens Loew, born in Stanislawow, Poland, was only five years old when his mother left him in custody of nuns at a convent in Olsztyn, on the outskirts of Warsaw, where he remained hidden for three years. Loew, who later migrated to the United States and became a psychologist, vividly remembers one close call he had during a surprise Nazi raid on the convent.
"The Gestapo officers were actually dragging me away," he recalled. "One was yanking me out the door when a retired bishop living in the convent hobbled down the steps and yelled, 'If you take him, then you have to take me too.'" Loew added that the Nazis could have easily arrested both of them, but for some unexplained reason they left both unharmed.
IN BELGIUM, the La Providence orphanage in Verviers, operated by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, played a major part in sheltering and caring for hundreds of children whose parents had been shipped to concentration camps or were in hiding themselves. Sister Marie (Mathilde Leruth) was in charge and made sure that the Jewish children didn't give away their identity during the many unexpected visits by the Nazis. Once, when a major Nazi raid was expected, Sister Marie had the children put aboard a bus and taken on an impromtu outing to a nearby village for the afternoon. Sylvain Brachfeld, who was one of the children at the orphanage, years later described Sister Marie as "a marvel of love under circumstances which obliged her to risk her life and liberty every day." Sister Marie was elected to the Righeous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Israel.
A Belgian cleric who had a pivotal role in rescuing hundreds of Jewish refugees, including many children, was Father Bruno (Henri Reynders). Working in conjunction with the JDC (Jewish Defense Council), the Benedictine monk used Mont Cesar monastery near Louvain to carry out his vast network of placing children in convents and private families. In addition to insuring the children's safety, Father Bruno provided the host families with food ration cards, false idenities as well as financial aid.
When some of the host families requested his permission to convert the children in their care, Father Bruno responded: "We are responsible for the lives of these children, but their souls do not belong to us." One JDC executive emphasized that Father Bruno personally made all payments for the children in his care. Years later, when he visited Israel to plant a tree at Yad Vashem, Father Bruno recalled his war-time rescue activities: "Three hundred and sixteen Jewish souls passed through my hands, among them 200 children. I can't begin to tell you how many doors I knocked on. I literally wore myself out, but it was all worth it."
Rose Meerhoff, of Brussels, was only seven years old when she was confronted with Nazi deportations. One day in September, 1940, when she returned home from school, a neighbor stopped her at the door and said, "The Germans were here and took your mother away. Don't go upstairs to your apartment." The neighbor then took Rose to the train station and escorted her to Louvain, where the Benedictine sisters operated an orphanage. She remembers that there were Jewish children already there when she arrived and more kept coming. She adds that all were given Christian names. Hers was Christiane DeGraef. "I stayed in that convent for two and a half years," she later wrote, "and I still have a special feeling for Catholics and nuns in particular. They were risking their lives for us."
Lucien Steinberg, in his book Not As A Lamb, which tells about the rescue efforts of Jewish organizations in Europe, describes the assistance they received from church institutions in Belgium: "The protection of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, as well as Cardinal Van Roey and others, including the exiled government, ensured a place for a child in any convent."
Other Belgian clerics, laymen and institutions that took active roles in rescuing and protecting Jewish refugees:
Father Joseph Andre of Namur forsook a life of study and contemplation to devote his energies to saving hundreds of refugees, primarily children. Working in conjunction with the Committee for the Defense of Jews (CDJ), a clandestine Jewish organization, he pleaded and cajoled monasteries and convents in Belgium to house the refugees. When he died in 1973, several of his rescued wards were pallbearers at his funeral.
The Belgian underground was closely allied with convents and monasteries in its rescue efforts. Jeanne de Mulienaere, a Flemish-Catholic newspaperwoman, and her colleague Vera Shapiro, working with the underground, were instrumental in saving over 3,000 Jewish children by dispatching them to monasteries and convents in Belgium.
Louisa Mercier, personnel chief of a manufacturing firm in Louvain, is credited with placing dozens of refugee children in a Catholic institute in Chimay in southern Belgium.
Our Lady of Zion (Notre Dame de Sion) rescued 200 Jewish children from terrified parents facing deportation and hid them in several convents in Belgium.
The Queen Elisabeth Home, a chateau located in the village of Jamoigne-sur-Semois, was transformed into a center for feeble children in 1941under the care of the Sisters of Charity of Besancon. But following stepped up Nazi roundups, it opened its doors to children of fleeing refugees. Of the 75 children hidden at the center, more than 50 percent were Jewish.
IN FRANCE, the legendary Father Marie-Benoit (born Pierre Peteul), a monk in the Capuchin monastery in Marseille, resolved to thwart the Nazis after witnessing frequent roundups of Jewish refugees. Gifted with extraordinary ability as an organizer, he turned the monastery into a far-reaching rescue operation, working with frontier guides who smuggled Jews and anti-Nazi refugees into Spain and Switzerland. In the basement of the monastery, the printing press turned out countless false ID cards, certificates of baptism and other documents needed by the escaping refugees. Affectionately called "Father of the Jews," the Capuchin monk was instrumental in saving untold Jewish lives.
Abbe Joseph Folliet, the Catholic chaplain of Jeunesse ouvriere chretienne (JOC), was a vital cog in assisting dozens of refugees crossing the border into Switzerland. Border escorts or guides directed their charges to Abbe Folliet who arranged for them to stay at church sanctuaries in the department of Haute-Savoie, the women at the convent of Chavanod near Annecy, and the men at the Abbaye de Tamie, north of Faverges.
Jesuit Father Pierre Chaillet, hero of the French resistance and the publisher of an underground newspaper, used to haunt the street of Lyons and countryside looking for abandoned children. During one search, he found four children huddling in a cave and led them to a monastery, where several hundred other refugees were being housed. He also rescued 30 Jewish children from French police stations, where they were being held for questioning.
When 19-year-old Betty Dornfest and her mother were being sheltered in a convent in Correze, France, the mother superior made it possible for them to practice their religion. Sister Marie-Gonzague Bredoux provided them with candles and oil from the church which they in turn used to welcome the Sabbath on Friday evenings. When the High Holy Days neared, Mother Marie supplied them with the necessary ingredients and special pots and dishes to prepare their food in the convent's kitchen. According to Mordecai Paldiel, the research chief of Israel's Yad Vashem: "There are few instances (certainly none before the Holocaust period) of Jews helped to practice their religion inside Catholic convents."
Other French clerics and religious who were instrumental in rescuing or sheltering refugees in church institutions:
Monseigneur Paul Remond, the bishop of Nice, supplied a letter of introduction to Moussa Abadi, a Syrian Jew of the OSE child rescue network, that opened the doors to local Catholic institutions when placing Jewish youngsters. The bishop also provided Abadi with a private office within his residence.
Mother Maria of Notre-Dame de Sion in Melun is reported to have saved more than 500 Jewish children by directing them to nearby convents and schools.
Reverend Father Superior Charles Devaux, head of the Fathers of Our Lady Zion, a Catholic missionary organization, is credited with saving more than 400 Jewish Children and 500 adults by finding them shelter with workmen's families and in convents and monasteries.
Shatta and Bouli Simon, indefatigable workers for the Jewish Boy Scouts of France, recalled the cooperation they received from Monseigneur Theas: "I must say that Monseigneur Theas opened for us, as for others, the college de Sorreze, that of Saint Antoine de Padoue near Brive, and other religious secondary establishments, where we were able to place a very large number of young people."
Jean-Gerard Saliege, archbishop of Toulouse, gave Georges Garel of the OSE, a personal letter of introduction and encouraged him to place Jewish children in the church's boarding schools, orphanages, hospitals and youth hostels. Garel later remarked: "From my first contact with him, I knew I was in the presence of a superior person. That man, I can and I must say, had the stuff of a saint."
Joseph Bass, colorful founder of Service Andre, a clandestine network that hid over 1,000 refugees in Le Chambon, also worked with Father Regis de Perceval, who provided the group with quarters in a monastery in Marseille for their operations. To conceal his identity, Bass disguised himself as a Dominican monk, conducted meetings and enlisted the aid of resident monks.
IN ITALY, the Catholic Church, with its vast network of convents, monasteries and allied institutions, actively participated in the rescue of Jews. Mordecai Paldiel, research chief of Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, has made this powerful observation: "There can be little doubt that the rescue of 85 percent of Italy's Jews can be safely attributed to the massive support extended to fleeing Jews by the overwhelming majority of the Catholic clergy."
The numerous convents and monasteries that dotted the length of the Italian boot proved to be virtually impregnable havens that not only provided shelter for the refugees, but food, clothing and false documents.
In her recently published book, Yours Is a Precious Witness, Margherita Marchione writes that after interviews with members of church-related institutions in Rome during World War II, she was repeatedly told that, "at the request of Pope Pius XII, doors of convents and monasteries were opened to save the Jews when the Nazis occupied Italy."
Rebutting the charge that the Pope remained silent about the deportation of Jews during the Holocaust was the surprising revelation after the war that 450 Jews were hidden in the Vatican's extensive enclave of convents, monasteries, seminaries and institutes during the Nazi occupation.
Among the countless Italian Jews who were offered safe haven in church institutions was Carlo Sestieri, who with his brother and a cousin, were hidden by the Jesuit Fathers in the Convent of the Gesu in Rome, where they joined 50 other refugees. Sestieri later recalled: "Mine was not an isolated personal experience, since I am aware of numerous friends and relatives who received hospitality in convents, monasteries and hospitals conducted by religious."
To point up the magnitude of refugee assistance provided by the Catholic Church in Rome alone, Renzo De Felice, Italian historian, in 1963 compiled a list of the participating church institutions. The compilation revealed that a staggering 155 institutions - ranging from convents and monasteries, orphanages and seminaries, and institutes and hospitals - opened their doors and hearts to refugees seeking shelter and protection from the Nazis.
The 155 institutions were honey-combed with 4,339 Jewish refugees, with the Franciscan Fathers at St. Bartholomew's on the Tiber heading the list with 400 guests. Seven of the monasteries and convents had over 100 refugees each, while the average number of guests in the other institutions averaged about 25.
Among the high-level church officials who encouraged this large-scale hospitality was Father Calliste Lopinot, the apostolic visitator in Rome. Lopinot, who oversaw 200 female convents, issued this statement: "I recommended to the superiors of religious houses that they accept the Jews with charity and make every effort to hide those in danger of being arrested by the Germans." His order included cloistered convents where he had directed 99 Jews to seek asylum.
Also in Rome, the legendary Maria Benedetto (known as Father Marie Benoit when he was in Marseilles) converted his Capuchin monastery in the Via Sicilia into a way station and rescue center to aid hundreds of Jewish and anti-Nazi refugees. When Delasem, the highly-efficient Jewish service agency, had to go underground during the Nazi occupation of Italy, it carried out operations from Father Benedetto's monastery, using it to store archives, hold meetings, process refugees and provide hiding places. In just 12 months, the number of refugees receiving shelter and meals at the monastery swelled from a few hundred to over 4,000.
Another large rescue effort unfolded in Assisi, a town located on a slope of Monte Subasio in central Italy and renown as the birthplace of St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscan order. Shortly after the Nazis invaded Italy, Padre Ruffino Niccacci, head of the seminary of Saint Damiano, received an unusual assignment from Assisi's Bishop Giuseppe Nocolini: Find lodgings for a large influx of Jewish refugees streaming into Italy to escape Nazi raids and roundups.
Padre Niccacci, a peasant turned priest, made hurried phone calls to church related organizations and managed to have many of the refugees harbored in buildings on the monastery grounds. He also persuaded the Poor Clares, a mendicant order of nuns who operated a guest house at the Monastery of San Quirico, to allow a group of Jews into their cloisters, where no man stepped foot since its founding 700 years earlier. He also provided them with false credentials to speed their journey to other monasteries and convents, where it has been reported the nuns prepared kosher meals for their Jewish guests. Not one of the 300 refugees was captured while being sheltered at Assisi.
In the fall of 1943, the Allied armies, after taking Naples, launched their northwest push toward Rome. Their path to the Italian capital was open, except at Cassino, where the Germans made their stand and offered stiff resistance. The bitterly-fought battle, which included intensive Allied air attacks on the town of Cassino as well as the nearby Benedictine monastery, lasted until the spring of 1944. When the victorious Allied troops finally routed the Germans, they found that the town and the monastery had been completely destroyed by the Allied bombing. They also found the dead bodies of 380 Jewish refugees who had been sheltered in the monastery.
The hand of compassion was also extended to countless refugees in these other Italian cities:
When Cardinal Dalla Costa asked the religious institutions in Florence to admit refugees, more than 20 responded by housing hundreds of Jews escaping Nazi roundups. For example, the Franciscan Sisters on Piazza del Carmine hid 50 Jewish women for several years.
Anticipating a Nazi raid on a housing project with 120 children in Nonantola, leaders of DELASEM, the Jewish welfare agency, turned for assistance to Don Arrigo Beccari, a teacher at the Catholic seminary in the village. Without checking with his superiors, Beccari took most of the children into the seminary compound and arranged quarters for others with friendly villagers.
Monsignor Italo Ciulli of Gambassi provided a safe haven for five Jews, including two children, in an old-age home under his jurisdiction.
In Borgo San Dalmazzo, Don Raimondo Viale, the parish priest, secured hiding places for countless Jewish refugees and frequently escorted them to Genoa. There, with the assistance of Don Repetto, they were given hospitality in seminaries, monasteries and convents.
Mother Donata cared for hundreds of Jews at the Instituto Palazzolo in Milan and helped them cross the border into Switzerland via an extensive network of convents.
That Catholic institutions in Italy played a significant role in saving the vast majority of its Jewish refugees is validated by Mordecai Paldiel of Yad Vashem:
"In no other occupied Catholic country were monasteries, convents, shrines and religious houses opened to the fleeing Jews, and their needs attended to, without any overt intention to steer them away from their ancient faith, solely to abide by the preeminent religious command of the sanctity of life. Through this, they epitomized the best and most elevated form of religious faith and human fidelity."
Other countries where religious institutions offered asylum to refugees escaping Nazis roundups:
IN HUNGARY, Sister Margit Slachta, who oversaw the country's Benedictine Order, played a vital role in saving many Jewish lives. Early in 1943, she traveled to Rome to see the Pope on behalf of the 20,000 Jews living in Slovakia who had not yet been deported to death camps. On her specific instructions, the Benedictine convents and other church institutions in Hungary were thrown open to escaping Jewish refugees.
Other Hungarian church-related institutions that offered assistance:
The sisters of the Devine Savior provided food and lodging for 150 Jewish adults and families in their Budapest convent.
Brother Albert Pfleger, a French-born monk of the Marist order, threw open the doors of the Champagnat monastery in Budapest for 65-70 Jewish families. When the crush of refugees strained the monastery's resources, Brother Albert gave up his tiny room to seven refugees and slept in the hallway.
Father Janos Antal, head of the Salesian Saint John Bosco order in Hungary during the war years, hid 40 Jews in the monastery compound in Budapest.
Thirty Jewish males found sanctuary in a shelter run by the Lazarist Fathers. When Father Koehler raised his voice at a townhall meeting in Hegyeshalom to protest Jews being deported, he was attacked by hooligans who accused him of aiding the Jews. "Shoot if you dare," the brave priest shouted. "I'm not afraid of you."
The Jesuit College in Budapest, under the supervision of Father Jacob Raile, offered asylum for more than 150 refugees.
Dozens of Jews were hidden in the Collegium Theresianum, in the College of St. Anne.
IN GREECE, a one-year-old Jewish child was hidden by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in Calamari. Under the personal care of Sister Joseph, the child was sheltered and fed at the convent during the German occupation. Once during an anticipated Nazi search, Sister Joseph took the child on a boat ride until the coast was clear. After the war, she located the parents in France and arranged for the child to be flown to Paris for a reunion.
IN THE UKRAINE: Metropolitan Andreas Szeptycki, titular head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church in Galicia, issued orders for the convents in his jurisdiction to accept and shelter 150 Jews, most of them children.
FINAL NOTE: With all the above documented citations of clergy and personnel from church institutions who rescued, assisted, sheltered and fed refugees at the risk of their lives - and only a small portion have been included -- one begins to question the integrity of myopic historians who saw only bystanders and perpetrators of evil deeds during the Holocaust.
OTHER HOLOCAUST HEROES PAGES
RELUCTANCE TO HONOR RESCUERS
MAJOR CREDIT FOR THE RESCUE OF ITALY'S JEWS
THE CHURCH WAS MORE VOCIFEROUS IN FRANCE
HOLOCAUST WALL OF REMEMBRANCE (updated Feb, 2000)
HOLOCAUST RESCUE HONOR ROLL
SOME GERMAN CHURCHMEN PROTEST
BONHOEFFER DESERVES TO BE NAMED
VILLAGES OFFERED HAVEN OF PROTECTION
CONVENTS, MONASTERIES PROVIDED
SHELTER FOR THOUSANDS REFUGEES
QUAKERS AIDED THOUSANDS OF REFUGEES
MORE ABOUT CHURCH RESCUE EFFORTS IN:
PolandBelgium
FranceItaly
GreeceHungary
UkraineFinal Note
CHURCH INSTITUTIONS in Poland were among the first to open their doors to the flood of children thrust upon them by desperate refugees facing deportation. It is estimated that at least 190 convents in Poland offered asylum to thousands of children of refugees. In Otwock and Pludy, suburbs of Warsaw, the convents of the Sisters of Maria's Family were active in rescue efforts as well as hiding and feeding of many refugees. In other convents, the Ursuline Sisters and the Franciscan Sisters in Warsaw and Laski, took in children from distraught parents. And in Pruzany, nuns rescued scores of Jewish women by disguising them in the habits of their order.
Irena Sendler, the Warsaw social worker who rescued more than 2,500 Jewish children from the ghetto, accomplished her incredible deeds with the active assistance of the church. "I sent most of the children to religious establishments," she recalled. "I knew I could count on the Sisters." Sendler also had a remarkable record of cooperation when placing the youngsters: "No one ever refused to take a child from me," she said.
The vast majority of nuns in convents led quiet if not reclusive lives, insulated from outside forces. But the seven sisters in the small Benedictine convent near Vilna Colony railroad station in Poland were active undercover agents who specialized in smuggling Jews out of the nearby ghetto. Among those who found safe harbor in the convent were several Jewish writers as well as leaders of the ghetto underground: Abba Kovner, Abraham Sutzkever, Ariel Wilner and Edek Boraks.
The convent's mother superior, Anna Borkowska, a Cracow University graduate, together with other nuns, provided the underground with weapons and ammunition. They would visit nearby homes, under the pretense of church business, and instead "borrow" guns, pistols, grenades and knives from the farmers. Philip Friedman, the Holocaust historian, has poetically described their undercover activity in these words: "The hands accustomed to the touch of rosary beads became expert with explosives."
Clemens Loew, born in Stanislawow, Poland, was only five years old when his mother left him in custody of nuns at a convent in Olsztyn, on the outskirts of Warsaw, where he remained hidden for three years. Loew, who later migrated to the United States and became a psychologist, vividly remembers one close call he had during a surprise Nazi raid on the convent.
"The Gestapo officers were actually dragging me away," he recalled. "One was yanking me out the door when a retired bishop living in the convent hobbled down the steps and yelled, 'If you take him, then you have to take me too.'" Loew added that the Nazis could have easily arrested both of them, but for some unexplained reason they left both unharmed.
IN BELGIUM, the La Providence orphanage in Verviers, operated by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, played a major part in sheltering and caring for hundreds of children whose parents had been shipped to concentration camps or were in hiding themselves. Sister Marie (Mathilde Leruth) was in charge and made sure that the Jewish children didn't give away their identity during the many unexpected visits by the Nazis. Once, when a major Nazi raid was expected, Sister Marie had the children put aboard a bus and taken on an impromtu outing to a nearby village for the afternoon. Sylvain Brachfeld, who was one of the children at the orphanage, years later described Sister Marie as "a marvel of love under circumstances which obliged her to risk her life and liberty every day." Sister Marie was elected to the Righeous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Israel.
A Belgian cleric who had a pivotal role in rescuing hundreds of Jewish refugees, including many children, was Father Bruno (Henri Reynders). Working in conjunction with the JDC (Jewish Defense Council), the Benedictine monk used Mont Cesar monastery near Louvain to carry out his vast network of placing children in convents and private families. In addition to insuring the children's safety, Father Bruno provided the host families with food ration cards, false idenities as well as financial aid.
When some of the host families requested his permission to convert the children in their care, Father Bruno responded: "We are responsible for the lives of these children, but their souls do not belong to us." One JDC executive emphasized that Father Bruno personally made all payments for the children in his care. Years later, when he visited Israel to plant a tree at Yad Vashem, Father Bruno recalled his war-time rescue activities: "Three hundred and sixteen Jewish souls passed through my hands, among them 200 children. I can't begin to tell you how many doors I knocked on. I literally wore myself out, but it was all worth it."
Rose Meerhoff, of Brussels, was only seven years old when she was confronted with Nazi deportations. One day in September, 1940, when she returned home from school, a neighbor stopped her at the door and said, "The Germans were here and took your mother away. Don't go upstairs to your apartment." The neighbor then took Rose to the train station and escorted her to Louvain, where the Benedictine sisters operated an orphanage. She remembers that there were Jewish children already there when she arrived and more kept coming. She adds that all were given Christian names. Hers was Christiane DeGraef. "I stayed in that convent for two and a half years," she later wrote, "and I still have a special feeling for Catholics and nuns in particular. They were risking their lives for us."
Lucien Steinberg, in his book Not As A Lamb, which tells about the rescue efforts of Jewish organizations in Europe, describes the assistance they received from church institutions in Belgium: "The protection of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, as well as Cardinal Van Roey and others, including the exiled government, ensured a place for a child in any convent."
Other Belgian clerics, laymen and institutions that took active roles in rescuing and protecting Jewish refugees:
Father Joseph Andre of Namur forsook a life of study and contemplation to devote his energies to saving hundreds of refugees, primarily children. Working in conjunction with the Committee for the Defense of Jews (CDJ), a clandestine Jewish organization, he pleaded and cajoled monasteries and convents in Belgium to house the refugees. When he died in 1973, several of his rescued wards were pallbearers at his funeral.
The Belgian underground was closely allied with convents and monasteries in its rescue efforts. Jeanne de Mulienaere, a Flemish-Catholic newspaperwoman, and her colleague Vera Shapiro, working with the underground, were instrumental in saving over 3,000 Jewish children by dispatching them to monasteries and convents in Belgium.
Louisa Mercier, personnel chief of a manufacturing firm in Louvain, is credited with placing dozens of refugee children in a Catholic institute in Chimay in southern Belgium.
Our Lady of Zion (Notre Dame de Sion) rescued 200 Jewish children from terrified parents facing deportation and hid them in several convents in Belgium.
The Queen Elisabeth Home, a chateau located in the village of Jamoigne-sur-Semois, was transformed into a center for feeble children in 1941under the care of the Sisters of Charity of Besancon. But following stepped up Nazi roundups, it opened its doors to children of fleeing refugees. Of the 75 children hidden at the center, more than 50 percent were Jewish.
IN FRANCE, the legendary Father Marie-Benoit (born Pierre Peteul), a monk in the Capuchin monastery in Marseille, resolved to thwart the Nazis after witnessing frequent roundups of Jewish refugees. Gifted with extraordinary ability as an organizer, he turned the monastery into a far-reaching rescue operation, working with frontier guides who smuggled Jews and anti-Nazi refugees into Spain and Switzerland. In the basement of the monastery, the printing press turned out countless false ID cards, certificates of baptism and other documents needed by the escaping refugees. Affectionately called "Father of the Jews," the Capuchin monk was instrumental in saving untold Jewish lives.
Abbe Joseph Folliet, the Catholic chaplain of Jeunesse ouvriere chretienne (JOC), was a vital cog in assisting dozens of refugees crossing the border into Switzerland. Border escorts or guides directed their charges to Abbe Folliet who arranged for them to stay at church sanctuaries in the department of Haute-Savoie, the women at the convent of Chavanod near Annecy, and the men at the Abbaye de Tamie, north of Faverges.
Jesuit Father Pierre Chaillet, hero of the French resistance and the publisher of an underground newspaper, used to haunt the street of Lyons and countryside looking for abandoned children. During one search, he found four children huddling in a cave and led them to a monastery, where several hundred other refugees were being housed. He also rescued 30 Jewish children from French police stations, where they were being held for questioning.
When 19-year-old Betty Dornfest and her mother were being sheltered in a convent in Correze, France, the mother superior made it possible for them to practice their religion. Sister Marie-Gonzague Bredoux provided them with candles and oil from the church which they in turn used to welcome the Sabbath on Friday evenings. When the High Holy Days neared, Mother Marie supplied them with the necessary ingredients and special pots and dishes to prepare their food in the convent's kitchen. According to Mordecai Paldiel, the research chief of Israel's Yad Vashem: "There are few instances (certainly none before the Holocaust period) of Jews helped to practice their religion inside Catholic convents."
Other French clerics and religious who were instrumental in rescuing or sheltering refugees in church institutions:
Monseigneur Paul Remond, the bishop of Nice, supplied a letter of introduction to Moussa Abadi, a Syrian Jew of the OSE child rescue network, that opened the doors to local Catholic institutions when placing Jewish youngsters. The bishop also provided Abadi with a private office within his residence.
Mother Maria of Notre-Dame de Sion in Melun is reported to have saved more than 500 Jewish children by directing them to nearby convents and schools.
Reverend Father Superior Charles Devaux, head of the Fathers of Our Lady Zion, a Catholic missionary organization, is credited with saving more than 400 Jewish Children and 500 adults by finding them shelter with workmen's families and in convents and monasteries.
Shatta and Bouli Simon, indefatigable workers for the Jewish Boy Scouts of France, recalled the cooperation they received from Monseigneur Theas: "I must say that Monseigneur Theas opened for us, as for others, the college de Sorreze, that of Saint Antoine de Padoue near Brive, and other religious secondary establishments, where we were able to place a very large number of young people."
Jean-Gerard Saliege, archbishop of Toulouse, gave Georges Garel of the OSE, a personal letter of introduction and encouraged him to place Jewish children in the church's boarding schools, orphanages, hospitals and youth hostels. Garel later remarked: "From my first contact with him, I knew I was in the presence of a superior person. That man, I can and I must say, had the stuff of a saint."
Joseph Bass, colorful founder of Service Andre, a clandestine network that hid over 1,000 refugees in Le Chambon, also worked with Father Regis de Perceval, who provided the group with quarters in a monastery in Marseille for their operations. To conceal his identity, Bass disguised himself as a Dominican monk, conducted meetings and enlisted the aid of resident monks.
IN ITALY, the Catholic Church, with its vast network of convents, monasteries and allied institutions, actively participated in the rescue of Jews. Mordecai Paldiel, research chief of Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, has made this powerful observation: "There can be little doubt that the rescue of 85 percent of Italy's Jews can be safely attributed to the massive support extended to fleeing Jews by the overwhelming majority of the Catholic clergy."
The numerous convents and monasteries that dotted the length of the Italian boot proved to be virtually impregnable havens that not only provided shelter for the refugees, but food, clothing and false documents.
In her recently published book, Yours Is a Precious Witness, Margherita Marchione writes that after interviews with members of church-related institutions in Rome during World War II, she was repeatedly told that, "at the request of Pope Pius XII, doors of convents and monasteries were opened to save the Jews when the Nazis occupied Italy."
Rebutting the charge that the Pope remained silent about the deportation of Jews during the Holocaust was the surprising revelation after the war that 450 Jews were hidden in the Vatican's extensive enclave of convents, monasteries, seminaries and institutes during the Nazi occupation.
Among the countless Italian Jews who were offered safe haven in church institutions was Carlo Sestieri, who with his brother and a cousin, were hidden by the Jesuit Fathers in the Convent of the Gesu in Rome, where they joined 50 other refugees. Sestieri later recalled: "Mine was not an isolated personal experience, since I am aware of numerous friends and relatives who received hospitality in convents, monasteries and hospitals conducted by religious."
To point up the magnitude of refugee assistance provided by the Catholic Church in Rome alone, Renzo De Felice, Italian historian, in 1963 compiled a list of the participating church institutions. The compilation revealed that a staggering 155 institutions - ranging from convents and monasteries, orphanages and seminaries, and institutes and hospitals - opened their doors and hearts to refugees seeking shelter and protection from the Nazis.
The 155 institutions were honey-combed with 4,339 Jewish refugees, with the Franciscan Fathers at St. Bartholomew's on the Tiber heading the list with 400 guests. Seven of the monasteries and convents had over 100 refugees each, while the average number of guests in the other institutions averaged about 25.
Among the high-level church officials who encouraged this large-scale hospitality was Father Calliste Lopinot, the apostolic visitator in Rome. Lopinot, who oversaw 200 female convents, issued this statement: "I recommended to the superiors of religious houses that they accept the Jews with charity and make every effort to hide those in danger of being arrested by the Germans." His order included cloistered convents where he had directed 99 Jews to seek asylum.
Also in Rome, the legendary Maria Benedetto (known as Father Marie Benoit when he was in Marseilles) converted his Capuchin monastery in the Via Sicilia into a way station and rescue center to aid hundreds of Jewish and anti-Nazi refugees. When Delasem, the highly-efficient Jewish service agency, had to go underground during the Nazi occupation of Italy, it carried out operations from Father Benedetto's monastery, using it to store archives, hold meetings, process refugees and provide hiding places. In just 12 months, the number of refugees receiving shelter and meals at the monastery swelled from a few hundred to over 4,000.
Another large rescue effort unfolded in Assisi, a town located on a slope of Monte Subasio in central Italy and renown as the birthplace of St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscan order. Shortly after the Nazis invaded Italy, Padre Ruffino Niccacci, head of the seminary of Saint Damiano, received an unusual assignment from Assisi's Bishop Giuseppe Nocolini: Find lodgings for a large influx of Jewish refugees streaming into Italy to escape Nazi raids and roundups.
Padre Niccacci, a peasant turned priest, made hurried phone calls to church related organizations and managed to have many of the refugees harbored in buildings on the monastery grounds. He also persuaded the Poor Clares, a mendicant order of nuns who operated a guest house at the Monastery of San Quirico, to allow a group of Jews into their cloisters, where no man stepped foot since its founding 700 years earlier. He also provided them with false credentials to speed their journey to other monasteries and convents, where it has been reported the nuns prepared kosher meals for their Jewish guests. Not one of the 300 refugees was captured while being sheltered at Assisi.
In the fall of 1943, the Allied armies, after taking Naples, launched their northwest push toward Rome. Their path to the Italian capital was open, except at Cassino, where the Germans made their stand and offered stiff resistance. The bitterly-fought battle, which included intensive Allied air attacks on the town of Cassino as well as the nearby Benedictine monastery, lasted until the spring of 1944. When the victorious Allied troops finally routed the Germans, they found that the town and the monastery had been completely destroyed by the Allied bombing. They also found the dead bodies of 380 Jewish refugees who had been sheltered in the monastery.
The hand of compassion was also extended to countless refugees in these other Italian cities:
When Cardinal Dalla Costa asked the religious institutions in Florence to admit refugees, more than 20 responded by housing hundreds of Jews escaping Nazi roundups. For example, the Franciscan Sisters on Piazza del Carmine hid 50 Jewish women for several years.
Anticipating a Nazi raid on a housing project with 120 children in Nonantola, leaders of DELASEM, the Jewish welfare agency, turned for assistance to Don Arrigo Beccari, a teacher at the Catholic seminary in the village. Without checking with his superiors, Beccari took most of the children into the seminary compound and arranged quarters for others with friendly villagers.
Monsignor Italo Ciulli of Gambassi provided a safe haven for five Jews, including two children, in an old-age home under his jurisdiction.
In Borgo San Dalmazzo, Don Raimondo Viale, the parish priest, secured hiding places for countless Jewish refugees and frequently escorted them to Genoa. There, with the assistance of Don Repetto, they were given hospitality in seminaries, monasteries and convents.
Mother Donata cared for hundreds of Jews at the Instituto Palazzolo in Milan and helped them cross the border into Switzerland via an extensive network of convents.
That Catholic institutions in Italy played a significant role in saving the vast majority of its Jewish refugees is validated by Mordecai Paldiel of Yad Vashem:
"In no other occupied Catholic country were monasteries, convents, shrines and religious houses opened to the fleeing Jews, and their needs attended to, without any overt intention to steer them away from their ancient faith, solely to abide by the preeminent religious command of the sanctity of life. Through this, they epitomized the best and most elevated form of religious faith and human fidelity."
Other countries where religious institutions offered asylum to refugees escaping Nazis roundups:
IN HUNGARY, Sister Margit Slachta, who oversaw the country's Benedictine Order, played a vital role in saving many Jewish lives. Early in 1943, she traveled to Rome to see the Pope on behalf of the 20,000 Jews living in Slovakia who had not yet been deported to death camps. On her specific instructions, the Benedictine convents and other church institutions in Hungary were thrown open to escaping Jewish refugees.
Other Hungarian church-related institutions that offered assistance:
The sisters of the Devine Savior provided food and lodging for 150 Jewish adults and families in their Budapest convent.
Brother Albert Pfleger, a French-born monk of the Marist order, threw open the doors of the Champagnat monastery in Budapest for 65-70 Jewish families. When the crush of refugees strained the monastery's resources, Brother Albert gave up his tiny room to seven refugees and slept in the hallway.
Father Janos Antal, head of the Salesian Saint John Bosco order in Hungary during the war years, hid 40 Jews in the monastery compound in Budapest.
Thirty Jewish males found sanctuary in a shelter run by the Lazarist Fathers. When Father Koehler raised his voice at a townhall meeting in Hegyeshalom to protest Jews being deported, he was attacked by hooligans who accused him of aiding the Jews. "Shoot if you dare," the brave priest shouted. "I'm not afraid of you."
The Jesuit College in Budapest, under the supervision of Father Jacob Raile, offered asylum for more than 150 refugees.
Dozens of Jews were hidden in the Collegium Theresianum, in the College of St. Anne.
IN GREECE, a one-year-old Jewish child was hidden by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in Calamari. Under the personal care of Sister Joseph, the child was sheltered and fed at the convent during the German occupation. Once during an anticipated Nazi search, Sister Joseph took the child on a boat ride until the coast was clear. After the war, she located the parents in France and arranged for the child to be flown to Paris for a reunion.
IN THE UKRAINE: Metropolitan Andreas Szeptycki, titular head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church in Galicia, issued orders for the convents in his jurisdiction to accept and shelter 150 Jews, most of them children.
FINAL NOTE: With all the above documented citations of clergy and personnel from church institutions who rescued, assisted, sheltered and fed refugees at the risk of their lives - and only a small portion have been included -- one begins to question the integrity of myopic historians who saw only bystanders and perpetrators of evil deeds during the Holocaust.
OTHER HOLOCAUST HEROES PAGES
RELUCTANCE TO HONOR RESCUERS
MAJOR CREDIT FOR THE RESCUE OF ITALY'S JEWS
THE CHURCH WAS MORE VOCIFEROUS IN FRANCE
HOLOCAUST WALL OF REMEMBRANCE (updated Feb, 2000)
HOLOCAUST RESCUE HONOR ROLL
SOME GERMAN CHURCHMEN PROTEST
BONHOEFFER DESERVES TO BE NAMED
VILLAGES OFFERED HAVEN OF PROTECTION
CONVENTS, MONASTERIES PROVIDED
SHELTER FOR THOUSANDS REFUGEES
QUAKERS AIDED THOUSANDS OF REFUGEES
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