Nazi German forces murdered 11 Catholic nuns 80 years ago, on August 1, 1943.
Sister Klara Volchek often visits the place where “Blessed Maria Stella and her ten companions” were buried, better known as “the martyrs of Nowogródek” (a town located in what is now western Belarus, in Eastern Europe ).
“The nuns helped save 120 people from death, but they were forced to work in fields,” says Sister Klara, speaking to the BBC by phone from Belarus.
“How they died is obviously an important part of this story,” she says. “But to me they were ordinary women, ordinary nuns, who did something extraordinary. That’s what makes them special.”
On March 5, 2000, Pope John Paul II beatified the nuns, one step short of sainthood.
“Where did these women get the strength to give themselves up in exchange for the lives of the imprisoned residents of Nowogródek?” she said.
However, there is no clear evidence that the nuns were killed in exchange for the prisoners’ release.
Following the trail of facts
The story begins on September 4, 1929, when the first two sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth order settled in the small town of Nowogródek.
The order’s convent changed hands many times over time and was home to some 20,000 people under Polish control at the outbreak of World War II.
In September 1939, the convent was taken over by the forces of the Soviet Union. The nuns were forced to abandon it and move to the houses of the parishioners.
In 1941, Nazi German forces displaced the Soviets and urged the nuns to return to the convent.
Approximately half of the town’s population was Jewish, and the Nazis began to exterminate them.
The first massacre took place in December 1941, killing 5,100 Jews. Another 4,500 were killed in August 1942.
By 1943, several groups were active in the area. The Gestapo, the Nazi secret police, arrested 180 people between July 17 and 19, to try to put an end to this resistance.
Rumors soon spread that all those arrested would be executed.
The story of a priest
Reverend Alexander Zienkiewicz was the only Catholic priest left in Nowogródek by then.
12 nuns made up the congregation. The oldest was Sister Mary Stella, 55, and the youngest was Sister Mary Boromea, 27.
Father Zienkiewicz documented Sister Stella’s reaction to the arrest.
“With her characteristic simplicity, she said: ‘O God, if the sacrifice of life is necessary, accept it from us who are free from family obligations and forgive those who have dependent wives and children. We are even praying for this.'” , wrote.
That testimony was later published by the religious order of nuns.
“There are no records that identify the persons or means used by Divine Providence to interfere in the plans made for the execution of the prisoners,” added the priest.
A week later, the nuns were summoned to the police station.
Father Zienkiewicz met with Sister Stella on July 31. He sensed “anxiety and apprehension” in her, in what turned out to be her last meeting with her.
Sister Stella told him that she hoped they would be sent to Germany for forced labor.
Later, Sister Stella asked Sister Małgorzata to stay behind, while the other ten nuns accompanied her to the police station.
The next day, Father Zienkiewicz celebrated mass, but he noticed the empty space that the nuns used to occupy and felt a “sense of mourning”.
As she prepared to hear the confession, she learned that the nuns had been murdered that morning of August 1, 1943.
The reason was not clear to him. The priest heard speculation that it was a case of mistaken identity. The Gestapo had wanted to kill members of a different religious order, suspected of helping Soviet guerrillas.
Father Zienkiewicz went into hiding. In March 1945, after the Nazis had been defeated in this area, he led the exhumation of the nuns’ bodies and reburied them near their church.
contested evidence
The priest’s account is consistent with the research of Tamara Vershitskaya, who founded the Museum of Jewish Resistance in Nowogródek in 1992.
After retirement, she continues to be involved in Holocaust research.
In 2011, he worked with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to do video interviews of eyewitnesses and survivors.
“Maria Karavaiska was the only first-person source to tell me the story. Her two brothers were among the Poles sent to Germany,” says Vershitskaya.
The investigator discovered a list written in German in the files. It contained the names of 95 Poles who were sent to Germany, probably on July 24, 1943.
María, for her part, said that there were 112.
In the interview, Maria spoke about the arrest of her brothers.
“Three of my brothers were arrested, but one managed to escape,” he said. “They were accused of running an underground partisan organization. The Germans planned to execute them. They even dug their graves.”
Initially, 180 people were detained by the Gestapo. The arrests occurred when the officer in charge, Wilhelm Traub, was absent. He came from a family of landowners in Germany.
As soon as he heard about the arrests, he traveled to the capital, Minsk, and pleaded with his superiors to send the prisoners to work on his farm, Vershitskaya says.
“Maria told me that Traub spoke to his brothers in Polish and asked them to return home for one night to bring the necessary things for the trip. The next day all the prisoners were asked to go to the train station.”
“It is absolutely true that after the arrest, Polish families went to church and asked for help,” says Vershitskaya.
“The nuns prayed. It is very possible that the eldest said during the prayer that if there was to be a sacrifice, it would be her life. I think that could be true,” he adds.
But there is no evidence to suggest that there was any negotiation between the nuns and the Nazis over the fate of these men, he adds.
“It does not seem that the reasons for the arrest of the nuns were related to the release of this group of Poles,” he says.
a higher vocation
All the people brought to Germany for forced labor survived the war, Vershitskaya notes.
Sister Amabilis is the head of the Holy Family of Nazareth congregation and released Church documents about the event.
“All the witnesses to the lives of the sisters are convinced that they sacrificed their lives guided by faith and love for God and neighbor,” the document says.
Asked by the BBC by email about the lack of independent evidence, Sister Amabilis said: “The sacrificial words were spoken by the sisters and we believe that God accepted their sacrifice.”
As the religious community declines in Nowogródek, Sister Klara remains steadfast in her faith.
“I believe in the sacrifice of our sisters that saved the prisoners,” she says.
“I know that human logic can interpret the facts differently, but the Lord listened and accepted his sacrifice.”
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/c25ge85we2vo, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-08-05 18:10:10
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