Throughout the Second World War and Hitler’s Germany, there were thousands of people who
were executed in a number of ways.
When Hitler seized control, the axe was still being used in Germany as an execution method,
but he would attack dissent and resistance to his Nazi party with brutality and death.
There were a huge number of people who were persecuted and attacked for their heritage
and religious beliefs.
There were some guillotines in Germany which were used to take the lives of those who dissented,
and some executions using this device were performed in just a matter of seconds.
But Hitler would take action against specific religious groups for example Jehovah’s witnesses,
and those who’s beliefs would bring them into conflict with Hitler’s politics.
Jehovah’s witnesses for example refused to fight in the German Army, and many of these
people were sent to concentration camps.
But priests were also attacked and imprisoned, and at Dachau there were scores of priests
who were persecuted and treated terribly by the SS guards there.
There was one priest who belonged to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and he was executed
using the guillotine inside of a German prison as he was declared a traitor.
Join us today as we look at the horrific execution of the priest guillotined by hitler, and remember
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Friedrich Lorenz was born in 1897 and was the son of a postman.
He was born in what today is Lower Saxony, and in 1902 his family moved to Hildesheim.
It was whilst he was here that Friedrich discovered the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
This was a part of the Catholic Church, and they take there traditional religious vows
of poverty, obedience and chastity.
They abstain, and vow perseverance until death.
A superior general in Rome directs the activities and actions of the members who are today found
all over the world.
They go to different areas and conduct missionary works and try to convert people to their way
of life.
It was founded following the French Revolution as the founder wanted to bring back to life
the Church in France, and the Catholic strength and the Pope then grave approval to it in
1826.
Friedrich Lorenz would take part in the actions of the group, and he then went to a boarding
school for the religious group in the Netherlands from 1911 to 1916.
He then also joined the training of others in the church, and he worked at a monastery,
however he was then called into the army.
As the First World War gripped Europe, Friedrich Lorenz regardless of his religious beliefs
was called up to service in the conflict.
He fought on the Western Front in the trenches as a corporal as he rose throughout the ranks
and also fought as a non commissioned officer.
He was rather decorated as a soldier, and for bravery he was awarded the Iron Cross
second class.
But as the war came to an end, he returned yet again to the monastery and took his eternal
vows on the 25th July 1923.
He went further and the year later he was ordained as a priest by the Bishop of Fulda.
But Friedrich and then began his first job inside of the mission, however he found it
difficult to deliver sermons and services, and he was then transferred to a different
region.
However when Hitler came to power inside of Nazi Germany, the Nazis claimed power over
all social activity including religion.
Because of this the Catholic Church suffered persecution, and members of the clergy and
priests were sent to concentration camps.
Catholic schools, catholic trade unions and other organisations were shut down.
Monasteries and Convents were also shut down and were taken control of.
It was said that, ‘The various Christian Churches were systematically cut off from
effective communication with the people.
They were confined as far as possible to the performance of narrowly religious functions,
and even within this narrow sphere were subjected to as many hindrances as the Nazis dared to
impose.
These results were accomplished partly by legal and partly by illegal and terroristic
means.’
Hitler quickly moved to eliminate any political aspects of the Catholic Church, and thousands
of members of the German centre party were arrested.
It was said that, ‘It quickly became clear that [Hitler] intended to imprison the Catholics,
as it were, in their own churches.
They could celebrate mass and retain their rituals as much as they liked, but they could
have nothing at all to do with German society otherwise.
Catholic schools and newspapers were closed, and a propaganda campaign against the Catholics
was launched.’
The Nazis also ordered their steralization law which was seen as deeply offensive by
the Catholic Church in Germany, and there were many executed during the pure of the
Night of the Long Knives.
There was a fair bit of Catholic resistance, and Himmler tasked his SS with attacking the
Catholic Church.
But as mentioned the Clergy, nuns and others were targeted and many were rounded up on
false charges, with priests being watched closely and then deported to camps.
In 1940, there was a dedicated priests barracks at Dachau concentration camp, and there was
mass intimidation of the clergy, with some cardinals even being fired and shot at.
So Hitler was at war with the Catholic Church, but Friedrich Lorenz as the Second World War
broke out had to return to the military.
Despite the fact he was a priest, he was drafted back as he was seen as a skilled soldier from
the First World War.
He would perform admirably in the German military again, and was given the Iron Cross again
for bravery.
But in 1940, he returned to his congregation, it’s not known if he escaped and fled from
his regiment, but then back home he took part in acts of resistance.
Here he became part of the Wednesday Circle, which was a resistance group made up of men
from the Stettin parish.
Here they would speak about defiance to the Nazis and Hitler, however having meetings
like these was seen as treason in the eyes of the Nazis.
There were other groups such as the Kreisau circle who held similar meetings, and many
of these were rounded up and were imprisoned and sent to concentration camps.
However on the 4th February 1943, the Wednesday Circle’s meeting was stormed by the Gestapo
and their many officers arrested around 40 people who were attending the illegal meeting,
and one of those arrested was Friedrich Lorenz.
He was sent to prison and was interrogated for information about his actions, and he
was then sent to Torgau, where he was placed on trial.
He was accused of a number of crimes, such as undermining the fighting forces, helping
the enemy and listening to enemy broadcasts, and for this his sentence was already decided
before he even entered the courtroom.
The People’s court would sentence many to death for their defiance and refusal to conform
to the Nazi beliefs, and this courtroom usually resulted in Nazi judges screaming in the fact
of the defendants.
But Friedrich Lorenz despite the fact he had served Germany well in two world wars was
sentenced to death and was to be executed.
He did appeal this but this request for clemency was rejected in September 1944, and he was
left in prison for a number of months before he was to be executed.
Friedrich was held inside of Halle prison, and one former prisoner described his time
there and the execution chamber as, ‘This prison is huge, it’s a house of correction.
Up to now, life had been fairly easy except for the occasional thump or kick, but now
things changed, you were really in enemy territory.
My job was in a room immediately above the condemned cells and the guillotine, we hat
to count seven pieces of paper and five envelopes and put them in one brown envelope.
These were for the troops.
One morning I was stacking my work by the door when a guard hauled me outside and down
some stairs to get some baskets.
This guard could speak French fairly well, he pointed to some black curtains and told
me I was in for it, he then pulled the curtains and showed me this huge monstrosity, the guillotine,
a shining terrifying piece of machinery.
I was glad to get back upstairs.
The first Wednesday afternoon a hush came over the room at 3pm and then I heard a thump
and counted 21 thumps.
I was told that they were executing…’
It was on this guillotine that Father Friedrich Lorenz was executed.
On the 13th November 1944 at 4pm in the afternoon, he was taken from his prison cell into the
execution chamber.
He was handed over to the executioner’s assistant and he was then quickly strapped
to a wooden board and his arms were secured.
He was then taken over to the guillotine where he was rapidly slid under the blade before
the executioner made a few final checks, and released the blade instantly beheading and
executing the Catholic priest.
Father Friedrich Lorenz was a man who at a number of times in his life went against his
religious beliefs to serve in the German armed forces.
However ultimately he went against hitler and took part in a number of dissenting meetings
in which he was considered treason within Germany.
Lorenz’s story is one which isn’t the most well known, but it is one that certainly
deserves to be known and told.
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