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We only spent a short time in Poland; we listened to the eyewitness accounts of wholesale massacre of these brave people, first by the Communists, then by the Nazis, and again by the Communists. We can't help but wonder what kind of brainwashing had to be done to the troops of the Nazi and Soviet Union armies, to get them to believe that everyone else in the world except them was so much garbage, to be discarded at will, and slaughtered in any cruel and inhuman manner. We do know that Hitler instituted an indoctrination program for the Nazi military, claiming that they were the Aryan race, and better than anyone else. By comparison, the rest of the world was just so much trash. Brother Joseph of our Ministry brought to our attention just recently that Poland had always blocked Germany from Russian attacks just by the nature of its geographical location. When the Russians would attack the Germans, or vice versa, the battles always wound up being fought on Polish soil. A statistic we read about World War II maintains that close to 30,000,000 people were killed during that war, and over half of them were civilians. So much for the reported skill and bravery of those crack Nazi troops. It doesn't take much of either to mow down unarmed, defenseless people with machine guns. They did their best work against unarmed men, women and children. And let us not forget our priests and nuns. They were not only unarmed victims; they even prayed for their attackers. One of the most outrageous and senseless massacres of the Polish people we have learned about was the slaughter of 11 helpless nuns of the Order of the Holy Family of Nazareth in the woods of Nowogrodek, on August 1, 1943. During the war, this was part of Poland. The Soviet Union took it over after World War II, and is today part of Byelorussia. This also gives you some idea of how these people have been footballed around by tyrannical bullies during this century alone. The Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth were founded for the express purpose of ministering to the family. They are consecrated to the Holy Family. Two Sisters came to Nowogrodek in August, 1929. It had been the prayer of their Bishop, Zygmunt Lozinski, who had been born in the small town. He wanted them to open a school there, and the Mother Superior was more than happy to accommodate him. But there was a slight problem. He was the only one who wanted them in the town. The people didn't want them. It was an uphill fight from the very beginning. They couldn't find a place to call their own. They were blocked by people in power of the town. There were many Protestants and Jews. They were suspicious of the little ladies in black. When they appealed to their superior in Rome, and to the Bishop, they were told to stand their ground, stick with it. These dear Sisters were so filled with the love of Jesus and Mary. They put up with all the distrust, and coldness of the people. They persevered. By October, two more came, and they were given half a house. It was so small, they had to have the kitchen and bedroom in the same room. But they persevered. The Bishop came to bless their humble quarters. When he saw how they lived, he said to them, "Oh, you little flock, you were not accepted in town, you had to seek refuge in the last of the houses outside town as if in a stable. Be glad and rejoice for from here will appear the same Christ of Bethlehem. Through you, little flock, Christ will act and radiate until you enter the glory of the Father. You will return to Jerusalem, your city, and become its glory and adornment. The town will accept you and it will be proud that it possesses you...." That was to prove to be a prophecy. Little by little, the locals could see why they were there, to love and teach as Jesus and Mary did. Gradually, the walls crumbled. The little band was accepted. They were even given a nickname, the eleven prie-dieux. Prie-dieux is a French word for a kneeler. The eleven Nuns would go to the kneelers to the left of the main altar in the Church of the Transfiguration in Nowogrodek and pray. People came to look forward to seeing them there. Over the years, it became sort of a tradition, the eleven prie-dieux, the eleven Nuns praying at the kneeler. If one was missing for whatever reason, great concern was manifested by the townspeople. The question was always raised, "Is she well?" "Should I bring her some hot soup?" Another tradition of the Nuns which became expected of them, was the way they walked up the hill to the Fara, as the Church of the Transfiguration was called. It was a steep incline, but they seemed to glide up the hill, single file, in their black habits, which were down to the floor. "First, several of them cut across the road. Then one after another, they ascended the narrow path to the top of the hill which wasn't high; it was a small elevation. The climb to their destination wasn't easy. Yet, to those who observed them it seemed as though they were gliding along, almost as if they were flying up the hill like birds. Perhaps their wide habits, their pleated collars and their wind-blown veils made them look so picturesque." They came to be a strong part of the community. The fortitude of these nuns would be an important factor for the spiritual and emotional survival of the little village when the war began. September 1, 1939, the Nazis attacked Poland from Germany. While Nowogrodek was in eastern Poland, and the Nazis attacked from the German border into western Poland, the danger was very real. It manifested itself in an unexpected way. On September 17, 1939, the Russians crossed the border into eastern Poland and occupied it. The war had begun for the people of Nowogrodek. The Nuns had to leave their school and their convent. They were not allowed to wear their habits. They had to beg in the town for a place to sleep and board. But they had a motto. "Wherever they were, that was their convent. Wherever they lay their heads, Christ the King was present." Things were so bad under Russian rule, they almost wished the Nazis would come in and take over. That is, until the Nazis did come in and take over. Within two years, the governing of Nowogrodek changed hands, from Soviet butchers to Nazi murderers. By June, 1941, the people of the little village saw what a real threat a crack team of armed torturers could do to unarmed men, women and children. The most immediate and obvious result of the Nazi takeover was the sight of Jews taken out of their homes, brought to the center square, and murdered. That was definitely the Nazi modus operandi. However, the nuns were allowed to put their habits back on. They were able to pray in the Church. Perhaps the Nazis wanted to be able to identify them easily. Right after that, the persecution and atrocities began. In addition to the fifty jews slaughtered in the center of town, while the band played a Johann Strauss' waltz, the Nazis routed out any communist sympathizers, and immediately shot them. Watching executions, something most of the inhabitants of the little town had never witnessed in their lives, was becoming an everyday event. The people became numbed to what was happening. The situation went from intolerable to unbearable as the years went by. Jewish people were arrested for no reason, taken in the back of the Nazi barracks, and murdered. Other arrests of the men of the town, very often took place in the middle of the night. The frightened voices of the men, screaming voices of their wives and the muffled sound of children, all became normal for that little town. The men would be taken off, never to be heard of again. The Nazi nightmare was in full swing. This was the situation on July 25, 1943. A group of men, mostly engineers and factory workers were arrested by the Gestapo. It was pretty well expected that they would be killed. But an unusual thing happened. The Commissar of the town, named Straub, complained bitterly to the Gestapo and SS that his authority was being belittled. He wanted to be the one to pass judgment on local people. Secretly, he wanted to hold them in the palms of his hands in fear, their entire lives depending on his whim. Actually, the Nazis would have understood that. They would have worked with him. But he gave them the excuse that he needed the men who had been arrested to work in the various offices and institutions. He even flew to Minsk to appeal to a higher authority to have the sentence changed, so that he would have these men to work for him. Nobody in the town knew anything about this. All they knew was that husbands and loved ones were arrested. They would either be killed, or sent to far-off concentration camps. A great fear overcame them. Then, when days passed, and the prisoners had not been removed from the town, curiosity took over.
For more information about the 11 Nuns of
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