Blessed Bernard Lichtenberg, Righteous among the Nations

On the November 9, 1938, 63 year-old Monsignor Bernhard Lichtenberg, then Vicar of the Catholic Cathedral in the center of Berlin, was shocked about what he could see happening openly in the streets of Berlin. Jewish shops were being attacked and demolished and synagogues were set on fire. On the same evening, he opened his prayers in the cathedral denouncing the inhuman Anti-Semitism of the Nazi German Government. He used strong words, seldom if ever heard by a Catholic priest in Germany before: “Outside, the Temple is burning, and this too is a house of God!” And, “The Jews are my brothers and sisters, also created with an immortal soul by God!” Father Lichtenberg had earlier been appointed as a Vicar for the Catholics of Jewish origin and helped many of them hide from persecution. But from this day on, he made clear that his commitment was to protect the life and dignity of all Jewish people living under the terrible threat of the Nazi regime. From that day on, Bernhard Lichtenberg continuously offered his public prayers in the cathedral for all those being persecuted.

In October 1941, Father Lichtenberg was arrested and later sentenced to two years in prison, because he was “misusing his office while preaching” and thus causing “turmoil and unrest among the German people,” terms and phrases well known from any dictatorial government.

While in prison with his health already very poor, his bishop offered him an opportunity to be freed, on the condition that he would remain silent afterward. Bernhad Lichtenberg instead told his bishop that he was happy to stay there as a prisoner of Christ, and was ready even to die for this. He asked the German authorities to send him to Lodz, a town in Poland, where the Nazis had set up a Jewish Ghetto.

After having finished his prison sentence the German Central National Security Office would not let him go free because they feared, “this old stubborn priest” would certainly continue with his criticism of the State’s activities. They decided to send him to Dachau, the concentration camp near Munich. But Father Lichtenberg did not survive this long trip together with other prisoners. On November 5, 1943, on his way to Dachau, he died in a hospital run by Protestant sisters in the town Hof, only a few hours after being released due to his condition. Because he died outside of a concentration camp, the Church was able to take his body back to Berlin where he is now buried in the crypt of the St.Hedwig’s Cathedral.

In June 1996, on his visit to Berlin, Pope John Paul II, beatified Bernhard Lichtenberg as a martyr. He is commemorated each year on November 4 in the diocese of Berlin when his story is retold; the story of the time of persecution of the Jewish People in Germany and the story of one brave man of the church, risking his life trying to help them. On the July 7, 2004, Bernhard Lichtenberg, was honored as a “Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem.