Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 75(2) May 2025
Editorial
The German Concentration camp – 80 years on
Dr Adrian Treloar
This
May marks the 80th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War in
Europe and the liberation of the concentration camps. In this issue we
republish an article which this journal originally published in October
1939 [republished in this issue]. It makes compelling reading but caries
one very important message. The gruesome and extraordinary horrors of the
concentration camps were known about in Britain even before the war
started.
Of course in 1939, Britain was in no position to do anything about concentration camps. Simply surviving, and (in 1940) standing alone was the first and greatest task. Eventual victory was, in the end, via the battlefield.
But according to Kristen M. Montague of Antioch University Seattle, the scale of the Holocaust for Catholics tends to be forgotten. She writes that “It is now well known that six million Jews, 220,000 Roma, 250,000 disabled persons, and thousands of homosexuals and Jehovah’s witnesses were murdered in the Holocaust. It is less understood that due to their ethnic identity that approximately, 1. 9 million Polish Catholic citizens were murdered during the Holocaust and that 1.7 million Polish non-Jews were imprisoned in concentration camps in Siberia, 2.0 million were deported as forced labourers for the German Reich and 100,000 were killed in Auschwitz.” [2,3]
Dr Truth spent his time in Dachau and Buchenwald. Dachau was used as the chief camp for Christian (mainly Catholic) clergy who were imprisoned for not conforming with the Nazi Party line. Dachau had a large population of priests: some 95% of the 2,720 clergymen imprisoned there were Catholic. [4,5]
The article we republish makes it clear that all people in the camps suffered. There were special tortures crafted for specific groups and the Catholics were not left out. For example we read that “one day the camp loud speaker announced that Catholics who wished to attend Sunday Mass should report on the parade ground. They did so. Instead of receiving the consolation of the Holy Sacrifice they were made to do punitive drill. The exercises included hopping like frogs and rolling in the mire. They were continued until prisoners collapsed.”
It is unjust that 1.9 million Catholic Poles have been largely forgotten and do not feature in the usual list of victims of the holocaust. They died saving Jews, protecting others and resisting the tyranny around them. St Maximillian Kolbe is a noble exception. Another noble exception (Janine Kubik) was a friend of my wife’s family;- she bore the tattoo on her arm of an Auschwicz prisoner. She was thin, weak and yet a very compassionate and wonderful Catholic. She bore the scars of Auschwitz for the rest of her life.
The German Concentration camps were appalling things. We are proud to find the the Catholic Medical Guardian reported on it back in 1939. We do not know who wrote it. Dr IM Truth is clearly a “nom de plume”. But it is written from first hand experience and smuggled out. Dr IM Truth was there and saw the atrocities first hand.
Let us not forget the sacrifices made by so many Catholics across the world for the freedom we enjoy today. Their gift is our heritage.
References
- Dr IM Truth (1939) The German Concentration Camp.
Catholic Medical Guardian (1939) Vol 17 (2) 77 -89. (See in this issue) - Kristen M. Montague (2012). The Effects of the Holocaust for Six
Polish Catholic Survivors and their Descendants Antioch University –
Seattle.
https://aura.antioch.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=etds - Schwartz, P. T. (2012). Holocaust forgotten: Five million non-Jewish victims. Westlake Village, CA: Terese Pencak Schwartz. Available on Amazon and Kindle
- Dachau Concentration Camp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp Accessed 1.4.25 - Burger, John (14 June 2016). "Last Priest from Dachau
Concentration Camp Dies at 102". Archived from the original on 15 June
2016.
https://aleteia.org/2016/06/14/last-priest-from-dachau-concentration-camp-dies-at-102
Assisted Suicide
Mindful of the sacrifice of so many lives in the Holocaust, we deplore the reality that the UK has seen 10 million abortions since 1967 and will soon start killing the elderly and vulnerable too. Much more to come on this in future editions.