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Priestblock 25487: A Memoir of Dachau |  | Author: Jean Bernard
Brand: Zaccheus Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $10.65
as of 9/10/2010 20:57 CDT details
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New (19) Used (8) from $6.77
Seller: internationalbooks
Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 92100
Media: Paperback
Pages: 197
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5 x 0.7
MPN: 9780972598170
ISBN: 0972598170
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5318092
EAN: 9780972598170
ASIN: 0972598170
Publication Date: November 5, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Praise for Priestblock 25487: ''Stunning... Casts light into dark and previously neglected corners of the horror that was the Third Reich.'' —Richard John Neuhaus, Editor in Chief First Things ''Father Jean Bernard's portrait of survival in a German concentration camp is simple, forceful and vivid and therefore impossible to put down or forget. It ranks with the great 20th Century personal testimonies against totalitarian violence... Priestblock 25487 is a diary of Catholic discipleship under extreme conditions that will deeply move all persons of conscience.'' —Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Denver ''Gripping! This crisp story of the 3,000-plus Christian clergy at Dachau in 1941 forces me to turn pages quickly, in horror... In its understated power, this brief book is unforgettable.'' —Michael Novak, author of Washington's God (with Jana Novak)
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
Never had an idea August 12, 2010
CrusaderMaximus
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Never had an idea that so many priests were sent to the concentration camps. I knew about St. Maximilian Kolbe and Auschwitz, but never the story of the thousands at Dachau. What these priests went through is unimaginable and beyond tragic. It is amazing the torture and beatings that the human body can endure.
Compelling--scary--and you can't put it down May 13, 2010
Jeri Nevermind (Idaho)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Dachau. Even the word sends chills.
In this fascinating book about one of the 3,000 Catholic priests who were sent there, Bernard writes about a place where every moment was fraught with the threat of violence.
"One prisoner chokes out of nervousness and falls behind. In a flash the SS man is on him and slams his fist into the bottom of the cup so violently that the metal rim slices a semi-circle through his lips and cheeks, all the way down to the bone" (p 34).
Father Jean Bernard was sent to Dachau for denouncing the Nazis.
It is an incredible, riveting story, and Bernard tells it at a snappy pace. There is not one paragraph that drags.
And, although it is certainly a dark book, there are moments of small joy as well. For a time, the priests even are allowed to attend a Mass.
As the year goes on, the priests are given so little food that they are happy "being assigned some task that takes us near the compost heap...you can find a lot of things that are still quite edible" (p 123). They fall on bits of boiled bones thrown out from the dog kennels.
I will not give away the ending, but this is one book you will not want to miss.
Outstanding work April 17, 2010
dizzy dean (Philadelphia, PA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Really great work...Fr. Bernard is compelling and brings his narrative to life in excellent prose...maybe one of the best Holocaust narratives I have read. I love his introduction, where he asks God to forgive those who caused his suffering...truly a man for others...
Priestblock 25487:A Memoir of Dachau. January 19, 2010
Jose Lopez (Miami,Florida USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Priestblock 25487:A Memoir of Dachau is an Gripping True story, The book tells of the horrors experienced By Roman Catholic Priest Father Jean Bernard who was arrested and sent to a concentration camp along with thousands of others who were priests or who were Catholic,As Well as Protestants. Very Sad and Gripping book. Even though Catholics were a Small Number, They were Persecuted and some killed. Hitler and his Nazi's Just like the Communists Hated The Church. I Highly Recommend this book.
Painfully Uplifting January 16, 2010
Corban Storm
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
"Priestblock 25487: A Memoir of Dachau" is the autobiographical writing of Father Jean Bernard, a Roman Catholic priest from Luxembourg describing his experiences while interred at the notorious Nazi German concentration camp. The book is structured in a diary-like form (though actually written some years after his release) and gives the reader an inside look at an often forgotten chapter of Nazi German history; its systematic attempts to undermine and crush the Catholic Christian Church, through the imprisonment, degradation, torture, and murder of thousands of Her priests and religious sisters.
This book is simply incredible... and painfully so. It highlights--though I imagine not intentionally --the heroic virtue and fidelity of a number of Catholic priests who sought to be Christ to each other and even to their captors as they were put through horrible physical and psychological conditions that are beyond one's imagination. Especially for a Catholic, one cannot help be near ashamed at our own cavalier disposition to our regular reception of the Eucharist when Father Bernard describes the "indescribable joy" he and his fellow priests experienced as they consumed a particle of Host which had been smuggled into them.
It is often difficult to offer criticism of an autobiographical writing, as one expects it to be subjective. But the author himself seems to be painstaking in presenting an objective description of what happened, permitting the reader to experience the emotion which he dared not display. One is truly taken by the lack of malice towards his captors, and deep empathy and sacrificial friendship towards his fellow prisoners. One thing I found a bit disconcerting, which perhaps says more about me than the writer, is that Father Bernard could share in a sentence or two about having to go without any food to speak of for days on end, while also being on "snow detail" in sub-freezing temperatures with no shirt or shoes; it can be easy for the reader to breeze over this, without actually imagining how torturous it would be for any of us to do such a thing for more than five minutes, let alone eight hours at a time.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who desires to better understand what it means to be a person of faith even in unthinkable circumstances--an obscure and unknown saint simply living out one's vocation. I especially feel that those in the priesthood will find this story truly edifying and encouraging as they attempt to live out their own "white martyrdom" in their vocation.
Other works the reader may find of interest:
The Ninth Day (A film adaptation of Priestblock 25487)
Edith Stein: A Biography/the Untold Story of the Philosopher and Mystic Who Lost Her Life in the Death Camps of Auschwitz
Forget Not Love: The Passion of Maximilian Kolbe
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
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