Dear friends, As God exists out of time and space I have felt called to pray for the soul of Ann Frank at the moment of her death in Bergen Belsen probably February 1945. Only God knows the exact moment. I have always loved her diary she was a very remarkable young lady. I have always felt sad that her family were betrayed and captured only a short time before the end of the war. I pray to for her sister Margot and her mother who also died in the camp from pleurisy. For some reason recently I have been praying for the souls of all those who died in the dreadful death camps like Auschwitz. We Catholics are fortunate because we believe in praying for the holy souls and the communion of saints is such a wonderful blessing.
I've actually had the privilege of hearing and meeting two holocaust survivors through my work as a history teacher. One of them was Tomi Reichental and I have just realised he was in Bergen Belsen 1944 and 1945 as a boy so was in the same camp when Ann Frank died. In 2011 he wrote his autobiography I Was a Boy in Belsen.
I agree Bobby. My father used to feel called to pray for those who died in wars. In the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep he would offer prayers for all who died in the war of 1812. Or the American Civil War. Or the Battle of Agincourt etc. He was a lover of history and often felt this call for those who died in these conflicts.
Such a blessing to be led this way. Garabandal, I love Anne Frank, too. I taught the reading of her diary when I was teaching English. I also showed the movie which was made of her hiding in the attic with family and friends and her little kitty.
Fr Englemar Unzeitig was a Catholic priest who died. I think he was in Dachau. I’m not able to link right now.
I think it was Tomi who said that he and his friends played hide and seek behind the piles of dead bodies they were so desensitized in the camps. Simply horrendous.
What else could the poor children do? It makes me mad that there are some people who are holocaust deniers.
I recall reading an account, many years ago, by a Church of England clergyman about a related encounter. He and his wife were newly arrived at a very ancient parish church in the south of England (originally Catholic, of course). One evening shortly after their arrival when sitting in the vicarage garden overlooking the graveyard, they were astonished to see a man approaching them wearing armour. They initially thought that he might have been involved in some sort of pageant or battle re-enactment and become lost. He walked up to them and said that he had been killed in battle many centuries before but had been permitted to appear to them and to tell them that he needed just one Mass to be finally freed from a long and painful purgatory. The clergyman said, 'Are you saying that the Catholic Church is the true Church?' The soldier replied, 'I am permitted only to say what I have said, will you arrange a Mass for me?' The vicar promised to arrange a Catholic Mass to be said for his soul and did so. Whether the clergyman and his wife eventually became Catholic was not stated but I have always hoped so. I have always had a devotion to the Holy Souls and also a great interest in the horrors of the Holocaust but have never linked the two to my shame, I shall do so.
Years ago I had a Mass in my house especially for the souls of those who had lived in my house in the past or the area. A woman at the Mass saw a soldier with armour standing in the room. Later it was revealed that it was a Cromwellian soldier needing prayers. I live in a very old property. I have had Masses every year right up to covid for the souls from my area. It brought great peace to my home.
My Brother visited the Concentration Camp Dachau in Germany, which is surrounded by forest and of course there are many, many birds. But there is a Legend that birds never fly over Dachau itself. He said when he was there he never saw a single bird fly over the Camp, which is remarkable. This reminds me of Medugorje where during the apparitions of Our Blessed Mother there, the birds fall silent. I was there and it is quite true, before the apparitions there are many, many birds singing but during them complete silence. You can watch this phenomena on Utube itself. It is quite striking. Also this silence is very,very complete, you don't for instance here dogs barking. Beautiful silence. When I visited Auschwitz I fully expected to find many unquiet souls there and a lot of spooky goings on. But it is so beautifully peaceful, almost like a Church. Perhaps this is because so many Catholic Martyrs died there. There were for instance 6,000 Polish priests slain. Some poor souls were actually thrown into the ovens alive, which is breathtakingly horrific; who would do such a thing?
..and Euthanasia. I watched a video poor old English woman who flew over to Switzerland to have herself killed. This was purely voluntary, she wanted them to kill her, so she said to avoid any further suffering. I can understand this from a non Catholic perspective. For them suffering in simply a negative, whereas for Catholics who understand the Cross, suffering has great meaning and purpose. But her deaths seemed so awful. So meaningless. So empty. So dark so sad. They tried to dress it up, but it was simply awful, like putting down some old dog. So sad. I may say that there are significant praeternatural happenings at these death clinics as there are at Abortion Mills. So much so the neighbours started to complain and demand they be moved.
"Padre Pio was asked why he prayed for the happy death of his great-grandfather since he was already long dead. He said, "For the Lord, the past doesn't exist; the future doesn't exist. Everything is an eternal present. Those prayers had already been taken into account. And so I repeat that even now I can pray for the happy death of my great-grandfather. " From the book, The Holy Souls, pages 178-179
Sometimes even those that know the value of suffering find that when they go through it - is more than they can or know how to handle. Those souls need prayers because it is a dangerous mountain to climb. I watch someone daily who suffers greatly and has almost lost faith while I know when they were younger knew abs believed in the power of suffering. I pray for this person regularly that they do not lose the fight
