On this day in 1945, members of the U.S. Army’s 42nd and 45th Infantry Divisions liberated approximately 30,000 prisoners at the Dachau concentration camp. Unfortunately, St. Titus Brandsma and Blessed Hilary Januszewski, prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp, died before this day of liberation.
Other Carmelites from Poland and the Netherlands were also interned in Dachau. Several also died before liberation. Others survived to continue serving our God through their service to others, deeply affected by the horrors of Dachau.
The concentration camp near Munich was opened in 1933, the first of thousands of Nazi camps. Dachau was originally used to detain political prisoners, but as the Nazi regime grew more powerful, other persecuted groups were sent there, including LGBTQ+ people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma, and hundreds of thousands of Jews.
Prisoners at Dachau and dozens of nearby satellite camps were used as forced labor. Those too ill or unable to work were sent to nearby extermination camps. Fr. Hilary volunteered to take care of the prisoners in the camp dying of typhus. He himself died from the disease just a month before the Americans arrived to liberate the prison camp.
Carmelite Titus Brandsma will be canonized on May 15 as a martyr for the Catholic faith. Today, on this anniversary of liberation 77 years ago, we humbly pray asking for another day of liberation for all those who are today victims of war and hatred around the world:
