Franz Bernhard Loh, the son of Heinrich and Maria Schomacker, practicing Catholics, was born on February 25, 1879 in Nordhorn, a city in lower Saxony, and was baptized the following day, by the Chaplin Albert Mülder, in their parish of Saint Augustine. The regional capital, Nordhorn, is in the former county of Bentheim, in the northwest part of North Germany, near the border with the Low Countries. Franz belonged to a family of artisans. His paternal great grandfather, Bernhard Loh, was a carpenter and a dealer in wood; his grandfather, also called Bernhard (1801-1876), was a shoemaker; his father, Heinrich Loh (1846-1918), was a dyer and was also the sacristan of Saint Augustine. Thus Franz's second name, "Bernhard", was part of the family tradition. His parents both died at the age of 72: his father in 1918 and his mother in 1924. His elder sister, Helene (1876-1954), was a hotel cook and also collaborated in the work of the parish. A younger brother, also called Bernhard (1885-1957), was a shopkeeper. His youngest brother, Johannes (1872-1915), was a corporal and was killed in the First World War.

Franz grew up in a profoundly Catholic family. He received his first communion on "in albis" Sunday in 1893. On September 7, 1898 he was confirmed by Bishop Maximilian Gereon, the Count of Galen. It was during the years of his compulsory schooling, where he had learned the trade of shoemaker, that the vocation to the religious life matured in him. He entered the Dominican monastery of Venlo as a brother, where he continued his craft as shoemaker, but the need to become a priest became increasingly more essential to him. Soon a way opened for him. The missionary seminary in Sittard (Holland) of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus received him as an adult vocation. Here he took up his high school studies and started his novitiate when he was about 28 years old. When his novitiate was finished, on September 25, 1908, he made his first profession in the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart. He continued his studies in philosophy and theology at the Scholasticate in the city of Luxembourg where, on July 25, 1913, he was ordained a priest.

From 1913 to 1919 Loh carried out his pastoral ministry among the workers in the parish of the Holy Spirit in Vienna. During the First World War he was called up for a short time as a sanitary worker. Following his nomination to the post of Rector of the missionary house in Sittard he left Vienna. He returned to the missionary house in Holland where he remained as its Rector from 1919 to 1922. What distinguished him was his profound commitment to the religious life and the humility with which he performed his duties without bringing attention to himself: serving the brethren entrusted to him and taking care of all those who were still in formation at the missionary house. He was a Superior who gave all of them a true example of a lived religious life.

And during the time that he was Rector of the house in Sittard he cultivated the desire to found a religious house in Germany. After many vain attempts, helped by his religious brother, Bonifatius Berger (1871-1937), who originally was from Emsland, he heard about a good possibility in Handrup, near Lingen. Negotiations with the civil authorities soon produced good results. Ecclesiastical permission for the foundation of the religious house was given on April 21, 1920 by the Bishop of Osnabrueck, Msgr Wilhelm Berning. In 1921 Fr. Loh started the construction of the building and as of September 19, 1922 he directed it as its first Rector. On May 22, 1923 the first 25 pupils arrived. As a result of inflation, most of them paid for their keep in kind. In spite of their many external privations this time was splendid and rich with ideals. The consecration of the church, in 1927, was a particularly joyful occasion for the rector, for the religious community and for the local inhabitants. After eight years of activity as the first Rector of Handrup (1922-1929), Fr. Loh, in 1930, was once again called to be Rector in Sittard. During the twenties this school experienced a great interior growth. In 1929 it obtained the authorization to issue graduate certificates. The number of novices increased with the years. But during these years a great economic crisis was occurring, one which caused great anxiety to the Rector of the house.

In 1935 the National Socialists imposed severe currency restrictions on all Catholic religious orders. Since this included the Priests of the Sacred Heart, they quickly found themselves on the verge of financial ruin. They were affected even more than the other communities: since they had come into Germany only a few years before, they found themselves in great contrast with the ideology of National Socialism. Thirteen Priests of the Sacred Heart were tried and punished with imprisonment and heavy fines. The communities of Duesseldorf, Handrup, Neustadt, Freiburg, Bendorf and Krefeld, already partially in debt since they had only recently been constituted, had to take on this added liability.

Fr. Loh found himself even more weighted down with debts when, in 1932, he was nominated Superior Provincial in Germany, a charge he maintained until 1936.

In this way he also became responsible for the very recently founded houses. Houses which, having grown up in the brief period of economic prosperity, found themselves at that time having to struggle desperately for survival. It was the great Community of Sittard which was most severely battered by the heavy German fines. Following the laws on the limitation of the free circulation of money between Germany and other countries, the Sittard house ended up by finding itself in an ever increasingly difficult financial situation. And since all of its resources were to be found in Germany, the house was forced to put up with enormous privations in its daily life. As Provincial Fr. Loh tried to save the house using all legal means. But since he could not in any way use the money coming from their work as printers, due to the hostile attitude of the Congregation towards the existing racist ideology - for other schools abroad which were not run by religious this was possible - the Provincial had no other way to save the house except to get the money by secret means. He was supported by his brethren in this action. It was a dramatic situation for him and he suffered much because of this dilemma, feeling himself obliged to a double and contradictory commitment (the oppressive legal regulations and the support of the Community), in addition to the weight of responsibility he had as Superior of the Province. The tensions of the situation caused him great anguish.

There was also a particularly happy event. In 1935 the second Superior General of the Congregation, Fr. Philippe, was nominated Coadjutor Bishop of the Dioceses of Luxembourg. And, after his consecration as a bishop in Rome, he came to Sittard to ordain the deacons of the German province as priests. But the next day, when the new priests had hardly finished celebrating their first Holy Mass, the house received some terrible news: the German criminal police had discovered everything they had been doing. A German brother, who worked in the Community's printing works, and who was in sympathy with the National Socialists, had betrayed them. They were still not aware of it, but the police had been informed of each detail; it was no longer possible for them to arrive at a positive solution. The joy of the feast was transformed into stark terror. Some brothers returned to Germany, but most of them - above all the Rectors - remained in Sittard. Fr. Loh did not return to Germany either. In April 1936 a trial took place in Krefeld: all the priests that had been accused, and some of those who had already been put in prison, were condemned.

Since he was a considered a fugitive, Fr. Loh attracted the interest of the public prosecutor. In the opinion of the law an innocent German should be able to present himself to any German judge without fear of punishment. The public prosecutor demanded that he be condemned to five years of prison, to four years stripped of all honors and to a fine of five hundred thousand marks. The responsibility for the fines imposed on Loh and the other accused fell on the shoulders of the Community of the Priests of the Sacred Heart. The actual sentence was milder than the punishment which had been requested: Fr. Loh was to spend three and a half years in prison, four years stripped of all honors and to pay a fine of 80,000 marks. According to the judgement of the tribunal he, insofar as he was the Provincial Superior, was considered ultimately responsible. In truth, as was happening in other trials in that period, the main reason for the condemnation was the undisguised intention to defame the Catholic orders in Germany.

For Fr. Loh these sentences, issued in Krefeld, against the Fathers of the Sacred Heart were a deep shock, one which he never managed to overcome. For him they clearly meant the ruin of the German Province of his Congregation. For the following years Fr. Loh lived in the S.C.J. religious house of Fünfbrunnen (Luxembourg). When the Second World War broke out he was advised to go to North America, where the German Brethren had already founded numerous houses. But he preferred to take refuge in a convent of nuns in Luxembourg. It was not long, however, before that country was also invaded by the war. On December 10, 1940 Fr. Loh was discovered and arrested. Thus began his Via crucis. He was first taken to the prison of Rheinbach, near Bonn. After a period there he was transferred to the infirmary of the prison of Duesseldorf, on the hill of Ulm. His journey there was made under double surveillance on an ordinary train. Since he was wearing his religious habit and was therefore recognizable, he found himself in a very humiliating situation. This was the worst part for him, because in this way the Church, the priests and his Congregation were also being attacked. Knowing his great sensitivity, one can only imagine how much he suffered. He could not physically endure prison: the harshness of life there, together with diabetes, soon brought about his death. Only a few days before, the religious community had managed to find out where he was held and to learn of the serious condition of his health. His successor as Provincial Superior, Fr. Peter Schunck, obtained permission to visit him, together with the Rector of the Duesseldorf house, when he was dying. They were not allowed to stay with him long. Deeply distressed they left him with tears in their eyes.

Fr. Loh died on March 20, 1941. After his death the body was restored to the brethren. Fr. Schunck had him dressed and deposited in his coffin wearing red vestments. He was also in charge of Fr. Loh's burial in the tomb of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, in the cemetery south of Duesseldorf. He was joined by the heartfelt participation of the brethren of the German S.C.J. Province. Any eulogy was forbidden. Two gestapo agents were on guard near the tomb to insure that this prohibition was observed. The atmosphere which reigned was truly spectral. The brethren left the place of burial in deep distress.

Shortly before he died Fr. Loh himself had confided to the brethren who visited him that he wanted to offer his lonely death for the communities of the Institute. During the whole of his religious life he had always been worried about the Congregation. In his long suffering and in his death for it he fulfilled the word of the Lord in an exemplary way: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" (Jn 15:13). Twenty years after his death, as also for all the brethren who had been condemned together with him, he was absolved. On May 18, 1961 his sentence was reversed in conformity with the decision of the Krefeld Court of Appeal.

Thus was fulfilled, for this martyr of the faith, that which his brethren had written: "Birth is the beginning of death, death is the radiant beginning of life!"

(From the volume "Zeugen für Christus" - "Witnesses to Christ" -, Helmund Moll, Paderborn 1999).