During the Second World War, there would be a huge amount of civilians who were killed
and executed by the Germans or the SS.
Inside of the concentration camps there were millions of people who were sent to camps
such as Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz, and many would not make it out alive.
A huge number were persecuted during the war, and the Nazis sought to punish those who’s
religious beliefs called them to question Hitler and his politics.
Inside of Dachau Concentration Camp, there were a number of priests who were sent to
the camp because of their roles in the clergy and their congregations, and the priests of
dachau were treated awfully.
One man who was sent to the camp, but would never make it out alive was Titus Brandsma,
a Dutch Carmelite friar and priest who was also a professor of philosophy.
He was an incredibly well read man and intelligent person, however inside of Dachau he was brutally
killed.
Join us today as we look at the story of the Saint of Dachau, and remember to support our
channel please make sure to subscribe.
Born Anno Sjoerd Brandsma, it was actually his father who was known as Titus.
He was born in a small village in the Netherlands, in 1881 and his parents ran a small dairy
farm and they were committed and devote Catholics who were very strict in their religious devotions.
He had a number of siblings, and all of them except one sister would enter religious orders.
At the age of 11, Brandsma studied at a secondary school in Megen, and at a Franciscan run minor
seminary for boys, who were considering a vocation as a priest.
However he then entered the Carmelite Friars in Boxmeer on the 17th September 1898 at the
age of 18, and he then took on the religious name Titus in honour of his father, and he
was then known as Titus Brandsma.
He took his first vows in October 1899, and was then ordained as a priest in 1905.
Titus was a doctor of philosophy also and he was awarded this in Rome, and then from
1909 to 1923 he lived in Oss and worked as a teacher and writer.
He also worked on translations into the dutch language, and he then became the head of a
secondary school.
In 1921, he was involved in sorting out the controversy regarding a Belgian artists depiction
of the Stations of the Cross, and it’s clear that he was considered a powerful and important
member of the church.
He helped also to found the Catholic University of Nijmegen, and he then worked there as a
professor of Philosophy and also was an expert on the history of mysticism.
He continued to be available for everyone, and was known for being a man who always had
time for everybody.
Titus also worked as a journalist and an ecclesiastical advisor, and he regularly stayed at a friary
where he learned English.
He completed a lecture tour of America and Canada, and would speak to different orders.
Titus Brandsma even visited Niagra Falls, and he wrote of the falls, ‘I not only see
the riches of the nature of the water, it’s immeasurable potentiality, I see God working
in the work of his hands, and the manifestation of his love.’
His life before the Second World War seemed great and peaceful, but as then war broke
out his life would be shattered along with thousands of other key religious figures.
Following the invasion of the Netherlands by Nazi forces, and subsequent occupation,
Titus Brandsma’s work the turned to fighting agains the Nazi ideology, and he wrote about
it in great deal.
He warned of the evils of Nazism, and also was in opposition to the limits they placed
on education and also the newspapers and press.
This brought some unwanted eyes onto Titus’ work, including the Gestapo who were keeping
a close eye on him.
However in January 1942, he decided to deliver by hand a letter from the Conference of Dutch
Bishops, to the editors of Catholic newspapers which the Bishops ordered them not to print
Nazi documents.
A new law had been brought in that said they had to publish Nazi documents and propaganda,
but by signing this he incurred the wrath of the Nazis.
Titus managed to visit 14 other editors, before on the 19th January 1942 he was arrested at
the Boxmeer Monastery.
He was held as a prisoner of the Gestapo, and was imprisoned in various different towns,
before he was then transferred to Dachau Concentration Camp.
Dachau had a history of imprisoning priests, and a total of 2720 clerics and priests were
held there, and it became a focal point for church prisoners and priests of the Nazi regime.
The SS to begin with allowed a local priest to celebrate mass on Sundays but then this
was discouraged.
Clerical prisoners to begin with were held in the punishment blocks when they arrived,
and they would be then distributed amongst other blocks., But then other members of the
church were transferred to Dachau, and they even managed to make a chapel there.
It was called ‘Our Lady of Dachau,’ and it was said, ‘The patient work by clergy
and lay people alike had in the end achieved a miracle.
The chapel was 20 metres long and 9 wide and could hold about 800 people, but often more
than a thousand crowded in.
The walls were painted with light green crosses alternating with lilies.
Special care was taken over the decoration of the east end behind the altar.
The windows... had been made to look like stained glass... but in September 1941, when
German clergy were separated from the others, the windows looking out on Block 28 were covered
in a thick coat of white paint.’
Religious activity outside of the chapel was banned, and the treatment of the clergy was
disturbing at dachau.
They were forced to work incredibly hard and had hardly any food, and many gave food away
as they believed they would help others to live.
Of the 2720 priests who were sent to Dachau, over 1000 were killed there, and one of them
would be Titus Brandsma.
Whilst he was at Dachau a number of months, he would have interacted with the priests
there.
However he soon became ill, and his health began to quickly fail.
He may have succumbed to disease and caught illness such as typhus which was common at
the camp, but because of his health, Titus was transferred to the camp infirmary and
hospital.
However the problem was that once inmates went here, they were usually killed straight
away or within a few days, and they were given very little care.
On the 26th July 1942, a nurse on his ward would administer his execution and killing.
She approached Titus and then she administered a phenol injection which killed him.
This was common inside the concentration camps, as nurses and doctors sought to liquidate
and kill prisoners who were very ill.
They did this to prevent disease spreading, and then following this, Titus was then cremated.
It’s believed that the nurse killed Titus Brandsma as part of their program of medical
experimentation on prisoners, and he could have been subjected also to a horrific autopsy.
However today Titus Brandsma is considered to have been a martyr within the Catholic
Church, and he was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1985.
However further praise would come as Pope Francis recognised a miracle linked to Titus
who ‘was killed in hatred of the faith,’ and for this advancement was made to make
him a saint.
The canonisation ceremony was made for the 15th May 2022, and more than 50,000 people
saw the Pope canonise Titus Brandsma and 9 other saints at a mass in St Peter’s square.
Today Titus Brandsma is considered the Saint of Dachau, and his actions before the war
were in line with his religion and he was incredibly devoted to his faith.
He saw the Nazis as an attack on his faith, and he would try all he could to oppose them
in any way he could.
But ultimately the Gestapo would catch up with him, and he was sent to a terrifying
concentration camp, and he was ultimately murdered and killed by an SS nurse.
His story is one which deserves to be remembered.
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