Fr Hermann Scheipers, who died on June 2 in Ochtrup, Germany, lived for more than 70 years after surviving a Nazi death march.

He spent more than four years at Dachau after being arrested in 1940, reportedly for supporting Polish forced labourers.

"Here, you are defenceless, without dignity or rights," Fr Scheipers recalled being told on arriving at the Nazi camp.

The priest was one of around 2800 clergy sent to Dachau during World War II.

More than 1000 priests died at Dachau.

Of 200,000 prisoners at the camp, more than 41,500 were killed.

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Commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Dachau, near Munich, in 1945 run from April 30 to May 3.

A spokesman for the Polish bishops, Msgr Józef Kloch, said Dachau was the main camp for priests from all over Europe.

More than half the priests imprisoned in Dachau came from Poland, he said.

Dauchau started in 1933 as a camp for political prisoners.

By the end of World War II, more than 200,000 people from all over Europe had been imprisoned there and in its subsidiary camps. Of these, 41,500 were murdered.

Among the prisoners were 2794 priests, with 1773 of these from Poland. Of the Polish priests, 865 lost their lives.

"We want to highlight this as we remember the camp's liberation by the US Army, paying tribute to those who died, as well as to their spiritual achievements in such appalling conditions," Msgr Kloch explained.

About 800 priests and 30 bishops from Poland were expected to attend the commemorations in southern Germany.

Many priests who survived Dachau were harassed as suspected American spies by the secret police when they returned home after the war to Communist-ruled Poland, Mgr Kloch told the US Catholic News Service.

Despite the sufferings of the Polish clergy, their story remained little known.

Mgr Kloch said he was shocked to discover that virtually all of Dachau's buildings had since been demolished.

"Unlike at Auschwitz, where much still remains, there's now hardly any trace of Dachau at all. It's as if history itself has been erased there," he said.

On the final day of the Dachau liberation commemorations, the president of the German bishops' conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, will take part in an ecumenical service.

More than 100 survivors of Dachau and its satellite camps will attend the commemorations, as will veterans from the US Seventh Army, which liberated the concentration camp on April 29, 1945.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Comite International de Dachau
• Kz-gedenkstaette-dachau
• Sunday Catholic Weekly
• Image: Wikimedia Commons

Blessed Giuseppe Girotti, OP, was beatified in Alba, Italy, the day before the canonisations of St John Paul II and St John XXIII.

In 1995, Israel's Yad Vashem holocaust memorial declared him "righteous among the gentiles".

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