“Unarmed women had faced down the world-conquering Nazis”

Posted on 12 January 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I am presently working through Mark Riebling’s Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler.

I found an interesting anecdote about what happened in Bavaria when the Nazis took Crucifixes out of schools.

In rural Bavaria, there were already flickers of revolt. When party bosses removed crucifixes from rural schools, pious women launched a wave of civil disobedience. Often they marched together to replace a crucifix after a Mass for a fallen soldier. In the village of Velburg, five hundred women pushed into the mayor’s house, pinned him down as he reached for his pistol, and forced his wife to hand over the classroom keys. Women rallied their husbands in other villages, where the public squares filled with peasants brandishing pitchforks. Perceiving “a front of psychological resistance” and “almost a revolutionary mood,” the Bavarian government restored the crosses. Unarmed women had faced down the world-conquering Nazis.

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4 Responses to “Unarmed women had faced down the world-conquering Nazis”

  1. WYMiriam says:
    13 January 2016 at 12:14 AM

    Ah, but I suggest that those women were armed with the courage that comes from faith.

  2. Ann Malley says:
    13 January 2016 at 7:22 AM

    …from a 90+ Bavarian friend of mine who escaped WWII Germany, what Texas is to the United States, Bavaria is/was to Germany! Couple that spirit with the true Faith and watch out!

  3. Joseph-Mary says:
    13 January 2016 at 11:20 AM

    Women with rosaries turned back communism in about 1964 in Brazil if I recall correctly…

    The men in Europe do not seem to be protecting their women or their children for that matter…oh, wait…men in the US are not protecting their unborn are they? And women? Used and abused perhaps like never before although some call it ‘freedom’.

    Ladies need to ‘man up’ too. Enough! Enough porn, enough abortion, enough of being objectified. Enough.

  4. Semper Gumby says:
    13 January 2016 at 8:04 PM

    Great excerpt Fr. Z. Great point WYMiriam.

    During WWII in Paris MI-6 had their secret HQ in the convent of the Sisters of St. Agonie, a branch of the Lazarites. Mother Superior Henriette Frede and the sisters were also couriers. A shortwave was hidden in a small loft over the sacristy.