- Karl Leisner
Karl Leisner (
February 28 ,1915 –August 12 ,1945 ) was aRoman Catholic priest interned in theDachau concentration camp . He died oftuberculosis shortly after being liberated by theAllied forces . He has been declared amartyr and was beatified byPope John Paul II onJune 23 ,1996 .Life
Karl Leisner was born in Rees and moved with his family to
Kleve when he was six years old. He attended school and completed his college-preparatory school in 1934. He studiedtheology inMünster , where he founded illegal youth groups to resist the Nazis. With these groups he travelled to theBenelux countries to have camps outside of Nazi control. He was also named official diocesan youth leader by BishopClemens August von Galen in the same year. When forced to become a worker under theThird Reich , he organized Masses for himself and the other workers. His home and papers were searched by theGestapo .On
March 25 ,1939 , Galen ordained himdeacon . Due to his criticism ofAdolf Hitler , he was arrested onNovember 9 ,1939 , by the Gestapo while on a vacation inSt. Blasien for his health. He was imprisoned in theSachsenhausen concentration camp initially, but was moved to theDachau concentration camp onDecember 14 ,1941 . (Most Catholic prisoners were kept in that camp.) OnDecember 17 ,1944 , a fellow prisoner, FrenchBishop Gabriel Piguet , ordained him apriest . At the time, Leisner was already suffering from thetuberculosis that would later claim his life. The newly ordained priest only celebrated a single Mass. When Dachau was liberated onMay 4 ,1945 , Leisner was taken to the tuberculosis hospital inPlanegg nearMunich . He died there a few months later, onAugust 12 ,1945 . Leisner's body was taken toKleve and buried in the cemetery onAugust 20 ,1945 .In 1966 his remains were exhumed and reinterred in the crypt of
Xanten Cathedral.Beatification
On a visit to
Berlin in 1996, Pope John Paul II recognized Leisner as a martyr for the Catholic faith and beatified him, together withBernhard Lichtenberg , another Nazi resister. Hisfeast day is August 12.His
canonization process has not yet been completed. The postulator can be reached at Karl-Leisner-Kreis e.V. Kleve, Leitgraben 26, 47533 Kleve-Kellen, Germany.References
* Haas, Wilhelm. "Christus meine Leidenschaft. Karl Leisner. Sein Leben in Bildern und Dokumenten." 3rd edition. Kevelaer, Butzon und Bercker, 1985. ISBN 3-7666-9425-1
External links
* [http://www.karl-leisner.de/ Home page of the Karl Leisner Kreis] (in German)
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