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Thursday, October 9, 1941EE H B PITTSBURGH CATHOLICKL V fe.NCorrespondence Between BishopAnd Nazi Reich Minister(By N.C.W.C. News Service)Lisbon, Oct. S—Herewith are presented three amazing documents comprising correspondence betwten Most. Rev, Clemens August von Qalen, Bishop of Muenster, Germ* ny, and Dr. Lammers, Mn lsteiJ of the Reich and Chief of the Reich fihancelfcry, in vhitch the prelate denounced the persecutory methods employed by the Gestapo, and the Nazi official nuvde known that the protest had been referred to the attention of the head of the very organization against which it w. •slodged:Telegram, July 14, 1811Minister oftheDr. Lammers,Reich, Reich Chancellery, Berlin.“Because the enemy has beenattempting to destroy the city ofMuenster since July 6 by frightfulnight attacks, the secret StatePolice began on July 12 to con-* . ® ______ .flt! »,«,.«««, son this State, German to thefiscate the monasteries and houses .....As far as I can judge, the consciousness of the ‘national community of interest’ with those circles has been destroyed for most of us beyond restoration.“When I say ‘as far as I can judge,’ I venture at the same timeto remind you that I am not only aof (religious) orders in the city “fJ*?.and environs and to take possession of them, with furnishings, for the benefit of the government of the district (Gauleitung). The inmates, blameless German men and women, honorable members of German families, some of whosebut also, asfor centuries,pastor and Bishop, very closelyconversant with the mentality of the local population. As head of a diocese and bishopric containing almost two million German Catholics, I believe that I have a right to speak in their name and torelatives are fighting for Germany .... .as soldiers, are being robbed ,l( | Petition _ the highest officials andtheir homes and their property, thrown into the street, and ban-1 iahed from their home province. I beg the Fuehrer and Chancellor ofbe heard by them!Therefore I am taking the liberty of stating to you, honored Mr. Minister of the Reich, with manlyUNVEILS FOUNDER’S STATUEthe Reich, for the sake of justice 'a',kn^- that the content oi the and the solidarity of the home reply of July 17 1941, not only hasfront, for protection of the free-1 f™;c!y disappointed me but has. ’___, ___ j „ tilled me with the greatest anxietydom and the property of Germans,.....................*from the arbitrary action of the secret State Police and from rob-for our people and fatherland.“In my telegram of July 14, T941, I asked the Fuehrer and Chancellor of the Reich, throughbery for the benefit of the district^^ed: Count Galen. Bishop IW for Protection of the libertyof Muenster,”The Minister of the Reich and CViief of the Reich ChancelleryRk 10451BJuly 17, 1941.Count Galen Bishop of Muenster Muenster, Westph.Re: seizure of monasteries“I have turned over your telegram of July 14 of this year to the Commander of the SS in the Reich and the Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior for further action.Signed: “Dr. Lammers.”and property of German fellow-countrymen against the arbitrary action of the secret State Police and against robbery for the benefit of the district government, referring to very definite acts of the secret State Police and to the weakening of the home front produced thereby.“I must assume that my telegram was ‘turned over to the Commander of the SS in the Reich and the Chief of the German Police forFollowing Pontifical Mass in the Church of Mount St. Sepulchre, Washington., D. C., on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, ArchbishopAnile to Giovanni Clcognanl, Apostolic Delegate to the United States.blesses the life-size statue of Rev. Godfrey Schilling, O.F.M., founder of the famous Franciscan Monastery in the nation’s capital. The work of Juan D’Aniello, the statue portrays Father Godfrey seated with his Rosary between his fingers, as he is remembered by thousands of pilgrims to the famed monastery.G. No. 3552 The Bishop of MuensterMuenster, West., July 22, ’41. “Highly honored Mr. Minister ofthe Reich:I express the most humble thanks for the reply (Rk 10451 B) made on July 17, 1941, to my telegram of July 14, 1941. I had also informed Reich Marshal Hermann Goering, Reich Governor of Prussia, and also the Reich Minister of the Church and the Reich Minister of Justice in the same way of the unjustified acts of violence of the secret State Police and had asked for legal protection of the freedom and property of innocent German people and chivalrous protection for defenseless German women. So far I have not received from any of them even an acknowledgmentof receipt!“In the meantime the secret State Police has continued to rob of their modest possessions blameless and highly regarded German men and women, members of the best German families, without investigation and court decision, solely because they belong to Catholic Orders, and to drive them away from home within a few hours, without means, and to expel them from their home Province and also from the Rhine Province. I will refrain from submitting to you details which would cast morelight on the roughness and peremptoriness of this procedure.'But I can assure you our Westphalian people would have been Untrue to themselves and would not have been worthy of their noble ancestors if they had not been gripped by the greatest indignation and the deepest bitterness against the enforcing officials snd those who gave them the orders, and also against those whobenefitted bv these nets of vinlpnppBISHOP VON GALENfurther action' by direction of the I Fuehrer.“It was just this secret State Police under the leadership of Mr. Himmler against which I had asked for protection for the freedom and property of innocent German fellow-countrymen. Now if the same Mr. Himmler is to ‘pass on’ the fate of the complaint made to tiie Fuehrer and Chancellor of the Reich against the action of the secret State Police, it is certain, to start with, that my interpositionfor liberty and justice, my efforts for maintenance of the home front, will remain without any result. For in that case the person who gave the orders to tin* secret State Police, that is. the one who is chiefly responsible for their acts, is made judge in his own ease! In that case then the rule of terrorof the secret State Police will also continue to bear upon all fellowr-countrymen as a frightful burden.“In that case it will also in future arbitrarily dispose of the freedom and property, as well as the physical safety or even the life of German fellow-countrymen; in that case it will not be prevented in future either from taking the property of honorable German men and women whom it dislikes and who perhaps have been ca-luminated by some cowardly informer, from banishing them from home, keeping them prisoner in its cellars and concentration camps, or even killing them, for ‘reasons of state policy,’ which are never explained more in detail.“In that case that will also remain unfulfilled in future, which Dr. Frank, Minister of the Reich, declared to be the indispensable requirement for every National Socialist defender of the law: ‘The law must afford to the individual the legal possibility for defense, for clearing up the facts, and hence for protection against despotism and wrong. ... It is impossible to combine the legal structure with condemnation entirely without defense, etc.’“Highly honored Mr. Minister of the Reich: It must be clear to every intelligent person that the Fuehrer, Chancellor of the Reich and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, is so engaged with matters of foreign policy and war that he is not in a position to act on and settle himself all petitions and pleas that are addressed to him. On this assumption, I was not able to decide in the past to give my vote, at the election held for the purpose, for the two offices of President of the Reich and lt;’han-lt; el lor of the Reich. I knew that Adolf Hitler is not a divine being who, exalted above any earthy limitations, would be capable of keeping everything in mind at once and directing everything. To the duties assumed by him at that time there was later added thepost of Commander-in-Chief ot theArmed Forces, which alone would today fully engage and keep busy bevond measure the most talentedgenei a 1“But when, m consequence of this heaping up of work for theresponsible Fuehrer, matters go so far that the secret State Police without hindrance shatters the home front of the German people now, in the midst of the war, by the secret State Police winningIvIIfidanger-free victories in the German fatherland over unarmed German men and unprotected German women, while our soldiers are fighting for Germany, and by the district government enriching itself with the easily acquired property of German fellow-country-men; when in this w'ay, without interference from the officials obligated to protect the legal order, safety under the law is destroyed, consciousness of right is buried, and confidence in the national government is destroyed, then I feel myself called and in duty bound, as a German man, as a chosen representative and defender of German law and German freedom, as the responsible Bishop over almost tw'o million German Catholics, to raise my voice aloud, regardless of the consequences that may ensue for me personally, complaining against the domestic enemies who are ruining people and fatherland, giving warning in order to recall the people and its government from a course which, according to the experience of history and its necessary consequences wrill lead to ‘our German people and fatherland being ruined by inner rottenness and decay, despite the heroism of our soldiers and their glorious victories.’“I take the liberty, highly honored Mr. Minister of the Reich, of enclosing herewith carbon copies of the two sermons which I, impelled by the need of our people and the sense of responsibility on my conscience, delivered the past two Sundays here in the city of Muenster, most of which has been destroyed by enemy air attacks, with a most humble request for attention and consideration.“With the expression of distinguished consideration,“Most faithfully.Signed: Clemens August Count of Galen.”Devotion of CatholicsIn Air-Raid ShelterEdifies ProtestantsLondon, Sept. 29 (ID -Thirteennon-Catholics who seek refuge in one Liverpool air-raid shelter hav* been so much impressed by the Rosary and night prayers said by Catholics that they have asked for instructions.They attend a converts' class ! conducted by the Legion of Mary.Nazis Warned By Courageous German Bishop(Continued from Page One)prelate embrace a sermon he delivered from the pulpit of St. Lambert’s Church in his See city, and correspondence of protest which he has had with Nazi officials. The letters indicate that Bishop von j Galen has received no satisfactionI!from the Nazi leaders.Priests Dragged From Home*“Already a number of times, and again quite recently,” the distinguished Bishop said from the pulpit of St. Lambert’s, “we have heard of the Gestapo imprisoningirreproachable and highly respected German men, without judgment and without defense, depriving them of their liberty, driving them from the country, and interning some of them. In recent weeks two of my private council, Canons of the Chapter of our Cathedral, have been dragged from their homes by the Gestapo, transported out of Muenster and exiled in places far from where permanent residence has been assigned to them.“To my protest made to the Ministry of the Reich, I have received absolutely no reply. But at least this much has been established through telephonic information from those close to the Gestapo: neither of the two Canons was charged with either a suspicion or an accusation of punishable conduct. Absolutely withoutany fault on their part, or accusation or possibility of defense, they have been banished.”Resent Bishop’s ActionBishop von Galen added that these Canons had been punished “because I had done something that did not meet with the approval of the Government of the Reich. In filling four vacancies inthe chapter of the Cathedral during the last two years, the Government informed me that in three instances the nominations wrere not agreeable. Because, according to the terms of the Prussian Concordat of 1929, the right of opposition on the part of the Government is excluded, in two of the four instances I maintained thenomination.”“Why did they not bring me before the courts if they thought I had acted contrary to law? the Bishop asked. “I am confident that no independent German court would have condemned me for my actions in filling the vacancies of the Cathedral Chapter.”Referred to SS CommanderNext day, Bishop von Galen telegraphed to Dr. Lammers, Minister of the Reich, a protest against the confiscation of monasteries and convents the action which signalized his sermon in St. Lambert’s the day before. In response to this appeal. Bishop von Galen received from Dr. Lammers a communication saying his protest had been referred “to the Commander of the SS in the Reich and the Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior for further action.By Direction of Fuehrer?Replying to Dr. Lammers, Bishop von Galen expressed his assumption that his protest was referred to the Commander of the SS in the Reich and the Chief of the German Police “by direction of the Fuehrer.” “It was just this secret State police under the leadership of Mr. Himmler, the Bishop added, “against which I had asked for protection for the freedom and property of innocent German fellow-countrymen.”(The texts of the amazing correspondence between Bishop' von Galen and the Minister of the Reich are given in another column. The Bishop’s sermon will be the subject of a separate article to be published next week. The daily papers of the United States have carried references to this matter,but only in incomplete form.)
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Pittsburgh Catholic
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US
Thu, Oct 09, 1941
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Muskingum C.
OH, USA 16 Nov 2019
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