LIFE OF THE CONGREGATION

OTHER SCJ MARTYRS

Stefan Tertünte, scj

As can be seen from the preceding articles, Pope John Paul II has often recalled the fact that the achieving of martyrdom, as a witness of one’s faith, does not concern only the first centuries of the history of the Church; it is also a “contemporary reality”, and he has invited the world’s local Churches to recover the “memory” of their martyrs.

With the beatification of 233 Spanish martyrs, which took place on March 11-12 2001, this theme has also come very much to the forefront for our Dehonian Family. The reaon is that, among these martyrs, there is also the name of Juan Maria de la Cruz (Fr. Mariano Garcia Méndez), the first “martyr” of the Congregation and the first Dehonian to be proclaimed “blessed”.

When our General Superior presented the news of this “beatification”, he also published a list of other S.C.J. brethren who bore witness to the Gospel to the point of martyrdom (Cf. “Dehoniana” 2001/1, p. 43). The publication of pamphlets or books, more or less voluminous, and also of brief “personal histories” on the internet, has enabled us to become acquainted with some of them.

In the context of the preceding articles, it seemed opportune to present some of these “personal histories” in this issue of Dehoniana, giving space, of course, to some of the less well-known figures. In order to present this information we have made ample use of the publication by Bernhard Bothe, S.C.J., “Martyr Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus”; but also of numerous other sources.

“I am in the hands of God; a Catholic priest must always be proud to carry and share in the cross of Our Master. My consolation lies in prayer and in union with God and, certainly, in your love for me.” (Dachau Concentration Camp May 3, 1942, Fr. Stoffels wrote in a letter to his sister.)

Fr. Joseph Benedict Stoffels (born on January 13, 1895, at Itzig in Luxemburg) and Fr. Nicholas Anthony Wampach (born on November 3, 1909, at Bilsdorf in Luxemburg), were two SCJ priests sent to the Luxemburg Mission in Paris near where the future parish of St. Joseph the Worker would be established. Fr. Stoffels was considered to be the founder of the Luxemburg Mission in Paris, and since pastoral work among his fellow Luxemburgers was expanding his superior sent Fr. Wampach to help out in 1938.

In his booklet on “Martyrs of the SCJs” Fr. Bothe wrote:

“In 1940 after the invasion of Luxemburg by the Germans many fled to Paris where the two SCJs, together with a diocesan priest, helped the refugees, and after the fall of France aided many in their quest to return to Luxemburg. In a journal it is written: ‘In this purely charitable work ... The Gestapo (the Nazi Secret Police) suspected espionage.’ After several interrogations and imprisonments toward the end of 1940 the two priests were finally arrested on March 7, 1941 and sent to Buchenwald and later on transferred to Dachau on September 21, 1941. No longer possessing a personal identity, numbers were tattooed on their arms. Fr. Stoffels was #27179 and Fr. Wampach #27178.” (Bothe, p. 19)

The official story is that they died of bronchitis or angina. Fr. Stoffels family were sent his ashes. As happened in many similar cases, the funerals were held under the surveillance of the Gestapo on August 31, 1942, , almost secretly, without bells, songs or participation by parishioners.

“It’s only after forty years of research that it been learned that the two SCJ priests were gassed at Hartheim Castle in Austria together with two other priests from Luxemburg. Hartheim is about 265 Km [165 miles] from Dachau in a tiny region of Austria called Alkoven, not far from Linz. Here a chamber was constructed to experiment with different types of gas. The trip from Dachau to Hartheim took about four hours. The windows of the van were blacked out and it was officially designated as an ambulance. In the castle the procedures were the same as in other concentration camps. The prisoners were striped of everything. Under the pretext that they were to be photographed they were led to the ‘showers’ in which gas issued from the shower heads .” (Bothe, p. 21)

Hartheim Castle is a fine example of a Renaissance castle. Under the Nazis it had various uses. It was an integral part of the Nazi euthanasia program, working in conjunction with both Dachau and Mauthausen. Sick and disabled people were sent here for cruel experimentation and then gassed. In this context Fr. Stoffels, who had suffered from a number of illnesses especially respitory infections, was transferred to Hartheim under the pretense that he was an invalid. Later on, the gas chambers at Hartheim served a base for asphyxiation gas experimentation for war use. This fact emerged in a letter from Dr. Rascher (a member of the SS) to Reichsfuehrer Himmler with whom he had spoken at both Dachau and Hartheim (1942):

“Since the invalids transported here always end up in certain chambers” (i.e., gas chambers; ed.), I wonder if it’s not possible to use these chambers to test out on them the effects of various asphyxiating gases. Up until now all we have is the documentation of the animal experiments, as well as the reports of accidents during the production of the gases.”

Fr. Stoffels was murdered in one of the gas chambers on May 25,1942. Fr. Wampach on August 12,1942.

In the church of St. Joseph the Worker, which was under the care of the SCJs until 1990, there is a memorial to the two martyrs which reads:

“In eternal memory .. for those who suffered and died for faith, for country, for justice and for liberty, we will never forget them.” (Bothe, p. 22)

“ Responding to a call rooted in the humiliation of his homeland, he operated in several resistance groups. In May 1944 he fell into the hands of the Gestapo, who took him away forever” (Sint Unum, 1947).

The little that we know about the fate of Fr. Muermans, a member

of the Flemish province, comes from the research of Fr. Bernd Bothe. He was born on March 9, 1909 in Hees Bilzen, Beligum. Kristiaan Muermans made his first profession in 1928 and was ordained a priest in 1933 at Louvain. The following year he was teaching in our school at Tervuren and remained there for several years. At the outbreak of World War II he was called up to active military duty. He became a prisoner of war in 1941 and was released in 1943. He returned to occupied Belgium and took up his work as a teacher at both Tervuren and in Brussels.

According to a letter sent to Fr. Bothe by his brother, Wim Muermans, when Fr. Kristiaan Muermans returned to Beligum he became active in the resistance.

“He was busy with the resistance press and helped many young people to go underground in order to prevent the Gestapo from arresting them and sending them off to labor camps. When the Gestapo learned of this, he was arrested right in front of his pupils’ eyes! After several days incarceration in Brussels he was successively transferred to various concentration camps: Buchenwald, Ellrich, Harzungen and Dora where he died on February 12, 1945, only a few weeks before the camp was liberated by the American army.” (cf. Bernd Bothe, SCJ Martyrs of the XXth Century, p. 31).

We now know that Fr. Muermans died near Blankenburg in one of the 40 sub-camps of the Mittlebau-Dora Concentration camp. From 1943 to 1945 Dora produced arms for the Germany Army: warplanes, antiaircraft batteries, both the V-1 and V-2 rockets. Hitler and the High Command still believed these super weapons had the potential to bring them victory. These arms were produced in an immense underground factory, the largest of its kind up until then. The size of this underground factory is hard to comprehend. An enormous tunnel stretched for 20 km (12.43 miles) and was 30 m (98.43 ft) high. There some 60,000 prisoners from Mittlebau-Dora camps worked as slaves, some 20,000 of whom died, including Fr. Muermans. The circumstances of his death remain obscure.

Even after the war the camp’s sinister history lived on. After the camp was liberated by the American soldiers they took about 100 of the missiles and some of the German engineers to the United States where they began developing the US space and ballistic missile industry. When the Soviet soldiers took over four months after the Americans left, they took possession of the stocks, and in fact continued to produce V-2 rockets there, finally shipping most of the factory back to Russia to become part of the Russian military industrial complex.

Fr. Muermans left us no writings. There was only his commitment in the resistance to young people which cost him his life, as these words by André Jarlan, himself murdered in Chile in 1984, describe:

“Those truly alive are those who offer their life, not those who take it from others. For us the Resurrection is not a myth but a reality. This event we celebrate in each Eucharist encourages us in the conviction that the giving of oneself is worthwhile, and it challenges us to do so!” (cf. 20^thCentury Martyrs, Riccardi, p. 23) [Cf. Bernard Bothe, SCJ Martyrs of the XXth Century, p. 29-35].

The death of 11 Dutch scjs in a Japanese concentration camp at Muntok on Banka Island in Indonesia between 1944 and 1945 is a part of a very complex story.  It is tied up with war crimes of the Japanese against the civil population of occupied countries, the fall of Holland as a colonial power, the rise of an Indonesian independence movement, World War II in the Pacific area, and ? not least ? the life and sufferings of individual scjs.  To be more precise, it is the culmination of many diverse elements coming together interdependently making it difficult to give suitable consideration of the witness given by these scjs.  For these reasons they have often been consigned to oblivion.

On February 15, 1942, Japanese troops overran the island of Sumatra, a part of the Dutch colonial empire and occupied the city of Palembang.  While many Dutch soldiers and European nationals fled to the island of Java all the religious and priests decided to remain on Sumatra to continue their mission of running parishes, schools and hospitals. Initially after the Japanese invasion the mission work continued unimpeded.  This situation changed radically starting on April 1,1942, when all the European nationals (civilians and religious) were interred.  The men were imprisoned in Palembang, while the women and children were quartered in some European homes.   Later on the internees were forced to construct with their own hands two concentration camps, one for women and the other for men.  They were interred there for the next 17 months and began their first steps toward their own cavalry. The principal problem initially was the scarcity of both food and medicine. It was only after the first deaths occcured that they were allowed to be seen by doctors and to receive some medication. In the camps the internees organized their daily lives establishing a school, running meetings, offering cultural and religious activities, etc., but all this was done behind barb wire and under the watchful eye of the Japanese military.

The Japanese looked for ways to ingratiate themselves among the local population and portrayed themselves as allies against European colonialism.  In fact the Sumatran people looked for ways to help many of the Europeans and for the first time Indonesians assumed high administrative positions in order to help Europeans even if it had to be from a distance. In time this strategy of the Japanese contributed in supporting the Indonesian independence movement to a degree neither foreseen nor appreciated by the Japanese. Soon after the end of the war Indonesian independence was proclaimed. Christianity was portrayed by the Japanese as the religion of the European colonialists and encouraged the return to traditional religions.  Priests and religious apart from their religious functions were suspected of being subversive to the order imposed by the Japanese.

In July and August 1943 the Japanese began a policy of vigorously rounding up of persons suspected of collaborating with the allies. Consequently, many Europeans in the concentration camps in Palembang, and among them many religious, were deported to Muntok on the island of Banka.  Muntok is an arid area with a very harsh climate. The daily ration of rice varied from100 to 300 grams. This treatment was the practice in Japanese concentration camps to weaken and slowly exterminate prisoners.  This lack of nutrition led to the elimination of activities such as school, shelter etc.  Often the internees became too weak to attend camp funerals.  In Muntok due to the lack of nutrition 250 out of some 942 men died; similar statistics applied to the women and among children probably greater numbers died.  Among the deaths there were 11 Dutch SCJs who were burred there. They are:

Fr. Heinrich Norbertus van Oort, Fr. Petrus Matthias Cobben, Fr. Franciscus Hofstad, Fr. Isidorus Gabriel Mikkers, Fr. Theodorus Thomas Kappers, Fr. Andreas Gebbing, Fr. Petrus Nicasius van Eyk, Fr. Francisus Johannes v. Iersel, Fr. Wilhelmus Franciscus Hoffmann, Br. Mattheus Gerardus Schulte, and Br. Wilfridus Theodorus van der Werf.

In February 1945 the prisoners were transferred one last time to another camp at Belalua in South Sumatra where the conditions were better, but due to the tortures endured at Muntok another 96 men and 59 women died.

On August 24, 1945 after 40 months of internment the Japanese camp commander announced the Manila armistice ending World War II in the Pacific.  An scj wrote: “For some moments all remained silent.  Then a huge “Hurrah!” exploded and everyone offered well wishes to one another.  In the block where we priests were staying we spontaneously sang the Te Deum after praying the rosary.  What a wonderful Thanks be to God!”

In his reflections on a new understanding of what constitutes a ‘martyr’ Andrea Riccardi wrote: “Why are they martyrs? The reasons are different and vary from one country to another depending on its historyÉ Politics and strategies come together in anticlerical or anti-religious sentiments, or in simple outbreaks of violence, banditry, or the desire to crush freedom.  In the end, the story of martyrs is not a book of heroes, but the story of many Christians living by faith and cut down by violence.”

Sources: De Missiepost, December 1945/January1946, p. 11-18; Andrea Riccardi, Il secolo del martirio, Mondadori 2000; Bernd Bothe, MSrtyrer der Herz-Jesu-Priester; etc.

In many parts of Africa during the period after the Second World War the continent was shaped by very different routes to the independence of individual countries. Cameroon was divided into two UN trust territories, one under British, and the other under French administration.

Between 1945 and 1960 in the French part of Cameroon alone over 100 political parties were formed. The independence movement became a powerful force during the 1950’s leading to the outbreak of violence. In 1958 France granted Cameroon autonomy for their internal affairs and two years later French Cameroon attained complete independence and become a member state of the United Nations.

Fr. Héberlé, a French SCJ who had spend 25 years in the Cameroon, understood the local situation well: “The Cameroon people are very much aware of their national interests.  They want to arrive at full emancipation.  Their current problems did not come out of simple growth crises, but out of a fundamental  incapacity, a vicious usurpation by the occupying power.  Every Western social and cultural activity is labeled as misdirected colonialism and, because of its self-interest,  is blamed for everything that happens.  The Catholic Church has adapted to this situation and has turned over more and more responsibility to the local clergy. The Church had distanced itself from Western politics and has denounced  the devastating consequences of western laicism and materialism (from Vie Catholique, 28 August 1960).”

P. Héberlé supported the independence movement. In the same newspaper he was called ‘a strong defender of African liberty.’ Nevertheless, along with two other Priests of the Sacred Heart (Fr. Musslin and Br Sarron),  he became a victim of the violence which accompanied the independence movement.

In 1959, while on vacation in his native France, he was urged by many not to return to the Cameroon in view of the dangers there. In a letter sent in September 1959, he described why,  despite all the dangers due to general violence and rabid nationalism as well as the advice given him by friends,  he returned to his mission: “I had to struggle with myself, against my entire family’s feelings and my own, up until the very  end. In such a situation we become aware that we must die to self and renounce everything  in order to follow Our Lord and carry his cross. If I returned to my mission, it was solely to do the will Jesus Christ and to be united to the souls which he entrusted to me and for whom I am responsible before God. In the present situation one must have an imperturbable faith, absolute confidence and unblemished love... It is the moment of trial for us as priests and for us as Christians. God tests us with fire and blood; may his will be done.  This requires us to offer ourselves in his service and to be united ourselves with his sacrifice, the cross (September 9, 1959.)”

On August 30, 1959, Fr. Musslin was murdered at his mission station. On November 29, 1959 the mission station at Banka Banfang was attacked. Early on, Fr. Héberlé was shot and then beheaded.  Br. Valentin Sarron tried to flee, but was caught and also beheaded.  Additionally, another Cameroon priest and a catechist also died during this attack on the mission.

In December of the year 2000 the Dehonians received the following invitation:

“The Mayor of Tamandaré (Pernambuco, Brazil), Paulo Guimarães dos Santos, is honored to invite you to the concelebration which will be held on December 15 of this year [2000] at 18.00 hours in the Colonia dei Pescatori (Colony of the Fishermen) on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the death of Fr. Paulo Punt. After the Mass there will be the dedication of Piazza Fr. Paulo Punt and the inauguration of the monument”.

Who was this brethren whose memory is still so alive among the inhabitants of Tamandaré? Here is the testimony of Frs. Luis Carlos M. Sousa and Pedro Neefs of the BS Province. It is a text which brings us closer to the example of one of our brethren who gave his life in solidarity with the poorest of the poor. It is necessary that we find out more about him in order to emphasize the value of the witness he bore and, starting from the information we have received from his own brethren, we will be able to spread knowledge of this witness.

He was born in 1913 in Holland and left his homeland in 1936 to strengthen the S.C.J. presence in the Northeast of Brazil. After his ordination in 1941 and his ministry in various parishes, in 1968 “Fr. Paulo started a new work in the district of Tamandaré... and here he also began to practice the trade of fisherman in a professional manner. Sensitive to the difficult situation in which the fishermen and the poor were living, Fr. Paulo helped them to organize themselves and founded a professional cooperative, of which he became president... Since Tamandaré was a port city, the practice of contraband, of drinks and domestic appliances, was very wide spread. Fr. Paulo came to know about this and, seeing that the fishermen, even though they might be guiltless, could find themselves involved and also accused, he often denounced the situation - this action brought about the enmity and persecutions which arose against him.

In the efforts to drive him away from the town he was accused of being a Communist, an accusation which at that time, given the military dictatorship of the country, was very serious. But the various organizations involved in national security recognized that such accusations were groundless.

On several occasions the then Fr. Provincial, Pedro Neefs, fearing for Fr. Paulo’s life, tried to persuade him to leave Tamandaré. However, although he knew the deadly risk he was running, Fr. Paulo was convinced that this was the place where he should be...

Fr. Paulo also became involved in improving the educational level of the people of Tamandaré; he helped to rebuild the public school there and was, in fact, its principal for many years.

Committed above all to life, Fr. Paulo did not perceive the plot which was grimly being contrived against him... In order that his death should not appear to be an pre-planned act - especially to those who saw and felt the presence and the aid which Fr. Paulo was giving to the fishermen, above all along the lines of organizing them and teaching them to be aware of their situation - the assassins convinced an ex-police officer that his wife was betraying him with the priest and, in addition, that the priest had fathered one of his two children...

December 15, 1975... was a feast day. The end of the local high school’s scholastic year was being celebrated. At the end of the day, after the conclusion of many solemn ceremonies, the killer resolutely walked towards Fr. Paulo and shot him point blank with three murderous bullets, bringing about the end of his earthly life.

Strangely enough, the authorities of the local police took it upon themselves to declare it a crime of passion. But, in the memory of the people, everyone knew that Amara (the name of the murderer) had been used to silence the voice of Fr. Paulo.

In the story of this life entirely dedicated to the poor, to the simple and to the lowly, it is important to realize that those murderous bullets did not succeed in eliminating Fr. Paulo from the memory and the affectionate heart of the people of Tamandaré. This is shown by the fact that on December. 15, 2000, that is, 25 years later, the people have once again joined together to celebrate the time that Fr. Paulo was among them. As a sign of gratitude, the prefecture of the town had a square built and in it he placed a bust of Fr. Paulo. And, in order to express what Fr. Paulo represented for the city, a Holy Mass was celebrated within the very enclosure of the Fishermen’s “Cooperative”. A clergyman of the Protestant Churches was also present at the celebration and at the end of the rite he bore an unexpected witness to Fr. Paulo. He told the people that he had not been in Tamandaré very long and that, in order to get to know the community which he was to serve and also to learn the history of the town, he would like to know more about Fr. Paulo; because the members of his Church also remembered him with affection.