This story was recounted by Father Ferdinand Schönwälder to Father John Lenz in his book, “Christ in Dachau” (Manchester, NH: Sophia Press Institute, 2023, 219-21).
Many of the priests interred at Dachau, one of the more notorious concentration camps of the Second World War, were used as laborers, including working on a farm that was owned by the SS (the Schutzstaffel, or Nazi Protection Squads, infamous for their brutality). Along the side of the road to this farm was an old, weathered cross. Roadside crosses like this were common in Bavaria and Austria at that time.
Each morning as the priests were marched through the fields on their way to work, one SS officer in particular would kick the cross. Father Schönwälder recalled that this officer seemed to take great pleasure in kicking it every time he passed. “The cross was old, and the wood was rotten,” he said, “and every time the man kicked at it, the cross seemed to groan.”
But then one day, as the group was being marched to the farm camp, one prisoner broke from the line and went directly to the cross with some pegs to repair the base so it would remain upright.
A prisoner breaking the ranks in this way was cause for immediate execution. All the guards raised their rifles and the officer in charge called a halt to the march. Then he screamed at the young man that he would shoot “the swine” if he didn’t immediately get back in line.
The young prisoner, it turns out, was a seminarian. And as the infuriated guard approached the cross ready to trample it, the seminarian raised his arms and declared firmly, “No one shall damage this cross as long as I am here.”
The SS officer froze, completely taken aback.
No one can explain why the young man was not already dead. Officers who shot prisoners who broke the line in this way were rewarded with cigarettes, three days of leave, and 20 marks. But not one of them fired their rifles. The rest of the workday was spent in a kind of stunned and uneasy silence, even among the guards.
Later, the seminarian was called in before the commanding officer. Many of the priests in the camp began to pray for him assuming that he would be executed. Instead, the young man returned to the prisoner barracks and reported his conversation with the officer. He had in fact planned to execute the young man, even chiding him, saying what a pity it would be to die for “something so futile.”
But the seminarian said, “I just told him that it is our duty as Christians to protect the cross even if it means death.” The officer listened and told the young man that the next day he should get the men and supplies he needed and repair the cross, which he did.
What would you do for the cross?
Friends, we cannot sit idly and quietly when our faith is derided and our God is mocked. I hope I would have had the courage of that young seminarian to act as he acted. I pray for that kind of courage for all of us.
Sept. 14 is the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. Let’s join together and “break ranks” as needed and show our friends, neighbors and our world that we take our duty seriously, and we will defend the cross of Christ, no matter the cost, and there is nothing futile about it.
Lord, grant us strength, courage and a deeper fidelity to our faith, that the world would know without a doubt, we belong to you. Amen.
Stanchina is the community leader for Women’s Formation at Bishop Barron’s Word on Fire Institute and the award-winning author of more than a dozen books. Visit her website at LizK.org.
