?Priestblock 25487? a worthy read, indeed

Intermountain Catholic

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"Priestblock 25487: A Memoir of Dachau," by Jean Bernard, Zaccheus Press, Bethesda, Md. softcover, 177 pages.

Books about World War II are many. Some are very good; others show a noticeable lack of research. One crossed my desk lately that is so small, so personal, and so profound it deserves wide readership.

"Priestblock 25487: A Memoir of Dachau" is the first-person story of Father Jean Bernard’s time in Dachau in a separate prison block for priests and ministers. He was arrested in May 1941 for denouncing the Nazis.

Originally published in 2004, "Priestblock 25487" is published now with an introduction by Seán Cardinal O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, which is a gentle invitation to read about the selfless men who suffered and died for taking a public position against the Third Reich.

Fr. Bernard didn’t die in Dachau. He lived to meet with Pope John Paul II in 1979. He died in 1994. Much of his history in Dachau is mysterious, but he was a man of faith happy enough to leave the mysteries, including his own release from Dachau Aug. 5, 1942, just that, a mystery. The sixth of 10 children, he suspected an older brother had been able to pull strings to get him released to go home and bury his mother months earlier, but he couldn’t be certain. Just in case his brother had pulled strings, there was no question that he must return to Dachau after visiting his family. If he had not returned, whoever pulled those strings might suffer for it.

Was it that same person pulling strings who got him released for good? Fr. Bernard gives no indication that he knew why he was one day in a prison camp and the next on the altar celebrating Mass.

Fr. Bernard wrote simply about even the most dehumanizing aspects of Dachau. For him, the experience was horror enough. No strained adjectives were needed. The result is a book that speaks of the dignity of all human beings – inmates and guards. Throughout, Fr. Bernard tries to understand what kind of pressures each person is living under to make them act, act out, or act inhumanely.

What strength and patience he shows to his brother priest inmates, some of whom are losing their minds and losing their faith and hope. Fr. Bernard makes a point of trying to reach them, pray with them, lift them up. Sentenced to various forms of hard labor, he writes about his experiences with neither anger nor bitterness. He takes each day as it comes, dealing with everything – dehumanization, death, beatings – with constant prayer. Prayer is the one thing he and the others can do by and for themselves, and not get caught.

Most moving in this slender softback book are the few times when the men in "Priestblock" get tiny shreds of the Holy Eucharist smuggled to them. They guard it, they share it. It empowers them to know someone else is thinking of them and going to great danger to smuggle them the Eucharist. How can a reader not be moved?

Published first in German, "Priestblock 25487" was adapted into the award-winning film "The Ninth Day." This 2007 translation (by Deborah Lucas Schneider) is the first time the book has been available in English.

It might take a hasty reader just a day to read "Priestblock 25487," but hastily is not how this book should be read. It should be treated as a meditation, even something read again and again to remind the reader how valuable hope was in Dachau