Pascha in Dachau
April 16th, 2009
by Gleb Alexandrovitch Rahr – Prisoner R (Russian)
This is my father’s account of how he celebrated the feast in 1945.
The last transport of prisoners arrives from Buchenwald. Of the 5,000 originally destined for Dachau, I was among the 1,300 who had survived the trip. Many were shot, some starved to death, while others died of typhus…
April 28th: I and my fellow prisoners can hear the bombardment of Munich taking place some 30 km from our concentration camp. As the sound of artillery approaches ever nearer from the west and the north, orders are given proscribing prisoners from leaving their barracks under any circumstances. SS-soldiers patrol the camp on motorcycles as machine guns are directed at us from the watch-towers, which surround the camp.
April 29th: The booming sound of artillery has been joined by the staccato bursts of machine gun fire. Shells whistle over the camp from all directions. Suddenly white flags appear on the towers – a sign of hope that the SS would surrender rather than shoot all prisoners and fight to the last man. Then, at about 6:00 p.m., a strange sound can be detected emanating from somewhere near the camp gate which swiftly increases in volume…
Finally all 32,600 prisoners join in the cry as the first American soldiers appear just behind the wire fence of the camp. After a short while electric power is turned off, the gates open and the American GIs make their entrance. As they stare wide-eyed at our lot, half-starved as we are and suffering from typhus and dysentery, they appear more like fifteen-year-old boys than battle-weary soldiers…
An international committee of prisoners is formed to take over the administration of the camp. Food from SS-stores is put at the disposal of the camp kitchen. A US military unit also contributes some provision, thereby providing me with my first opportunity to taste American corn. By order of an American officer radio-receivers are confiscated from “prominent Nazis” in the town of Dachau and distributed to the various national groups of prisoners. The news come in: Hitler has committed suicide, the Russians have taken Berlin, and German troops have surrendered in the South and in the North. But the fighting still rages in Austria and Czechoslovakia…
Naturally, I was ever cognizant of the fact that these momentous events were unfolding during Holy Week. But how could we mark it, other than through our silent, individual prayers? A fellow-prisoner and chief interpreter of the International prisoner’s committee, Boris F., paid a visit to my typhus-infested barrack “Block 27″ to inform me that efforts were underway in conjunction with the Yugoslav and Greek National Prisoner’s Committees to arrange an Orthodox service for Easter day, May 6th.
There were Orthodox priests, deacons and a group of monks from Mount Athos among the prisoners. But there were no vestments, no books whatsoever, no icons, no candles, no prosphoras, no wine…
Efforts to acquire all these items from the Russian parish in Munich failed, as the Americans just could not locate anyone from that parish in the devastated city. Nevertheless, some of the problems could be solved: The approximately 400 Catholic priests detained in Dachau had been allowed to remain together in one barrack and recite mass every morning before going to work. They offered us Orthodox the use of their prayer room in “Block 26″, which was just across the road from my own “block”. The chapel was bare, save for a wooden table and a Czenstochowa icon of the Theotokos hanging on the wall above the table – an icon which had originated in Constantinople and was later brought to Belz in Galicia, where it was subsequently taken from the Orthodox by a Polish king. When the Russian Army drove Napoleon’s troops from Czenstochowa, however, the abbot of the Czenstochowa Monastery gave a copy of the icon to czar Alexander I, who placed it in the Kazan Cathedral in Saint-Petersburg where it was venerated until the Bolshevik seizure of power. A creative solution to the problem of the vestments was also found. New linen towels were taken from the hospital of our former SS-guards. When sewn together lengthwise, two towels formed an epitrachilion and when sewn together at the ends they became an orarion. Red crosses, originally intended to be worn by the medical personnel of the SS-guards, were put on the towel-vestments.
On Easter Sunday, May 6th (April 23rd according to the Church calendar), – which ominously fell that year on Saint George the Victory-Bearer’s Day, Serbs, Greeks and Russians gathered at the Catholic Priests barrack. Although Russians comprised about 40 percent of the Dachau inmates, only a few managed to attend the service. By that time “repatriation officers” of the special “Smersh” units had arrived in Dachau by American military planes, and begun the process of erecting new lines of barbed wire for the purpose of isolating Soviet citizens from the rest of the prisoners, which was the first step in preparing them for their eventual forced repatriation. In the entire history of the Orthodox Church there has probably never been an Easter service like the one at Dachau in 1945. Greek and Serbian priests together with a Serbian deacon adorned the make-shift “vestments” over their blue and gray-striped prisoners uniforms. Then they began to chant, changing from Greek to Slavonic, and then back again to Greek. The Easter Canon, the Easter Sticheras – everything was recited from memory. The Gospel – “In the beginning was the Word” – also from memory.
And finally, the Homily of Saint John Chrysostom – also from memory. A young Greek monk from the Holy Mountain stood up in front of us and recited it with such infectious enthusiasm that we shall never forget him as long as we live. Saint John Chrysostomos himself seemed to speak through him to us and to the rest of the world as well! Eighteen Orthodox priests and one deacon – most of whom were Serbs, participated in this unforgettable service. Like the sick man who had been lowered through the roof of a house and placed in front of the feet of Christ the Saviour, the Greek Archimandrite Meletios was carried on a stretcher into the chapel, where he remained prostrate for the duration of the service.
The priests who participated in the 1945 Dachau Easter service are commemorated at every Divine Service held in the Dachau Russian Orthodox Memorial Chapel, along with all Orthodox Christians, who lost their lives “at this place, or at another place of torture” (”na meste sem i v inykh mestakh mucheniya umuchennykh i ubiennykh”).The Dachau Resurrection-Chapel, which was constructed by a unit of the Russian Army’s Western Group of Forces just before their departure from Germany in August, 1994, is an exact replica of a North-Russian “tent-domed” (Shatrovyie) church or chapel. Behind the altar-table of the chapel is a large icon depicting angels opening the gates of the Dachau concentration camp and Christ Himself leading the prisoners to freedom. Today I would like to take the opportunity to ask you, Orthodox Christians all over the world, to pass on the names of fellow Orthodox who were imprisoned and died here in Dachau or in other Nazi concentration camps so that we can include them in our prayers. Should you ever come to Germany, be sure to visit our Russian Chapel on the site of the former concentration camp in Dachau and pray for all those who died “at this place, or at another place of torture”.
Khristos Voskrese! Christos Anesti! Christ has Risen! El Messieh Qahm!
Source: OrthodoxyToday.org. See also this article.
Gheorghe Vanau
April 20th, 2009 at 12:44 am
My army unit helped liberate Dachau and I’ve done much research on the event. I’m very interested in learning more about Gleb Alexandrovitch Rahr. From the info provided, I believe he would have left Buchenwald on 09Apr45 in a transport headed for Dachau. That train got as far as Freising from where the prisoners were then marched the 29 kilometers to Dachau arriving 28Apr45. They were liberated the next day, and observed Easter service 06Arp45! Quite a story. Please contact me. Dan Dougherty 01May09 danorma@surewest.net
April 21st, 2009 at 8:23 am
Dear Dan,
You can find Gleb’s Son here:
http://interznanie.ru/en/pages/id/main4.htm#biograf
Regards,
April 21st, 2009 at 8:42 am
Il y a une quinzaine d’années, juste après la Pérestroïka, Gleb Alexandrovitch Rahr, solide basse de la chorale de la cathédrale de Munich fréquentait encore cette cathédrale (située alors dans le plein centre ville). A cette époque, nous la fréquentions également car il n’y avait pas encore d’offices dominicaux au monastère.
Je me souviens qu’il me racontait, les larmes aux yeux, comme il avait été frappé, lors d’un office pontifical à Moscou où célébrait le patriarche Alexis II, par le renouveau commençant de l’Eglise russe. Il était très patriote.
Après cela il se montra un fervent adepte de la réunification de l’Eglise russe, à un moment où ce thème était tabou. Il décida de transmettre à la Russie l’iconostase historique de Souvorov d’une église en Allemagne appartenant à la Fraternité Saint-Vladimir dont il était le président. Cette fraternité étant propriétaire de quelques églises russes en Allemagne (dont Bad Kissingen, Bad Nauheim), il pensait qu’il avait la liberté de le faire.
Ce n’était l’avis de son évêque (qui est aujourd’hui le moteur du processus de rapprochement avec le patriarcat de Moscou) qui, alors que celui-ci s’approchait de la sainte Communion, lui posa la question : Rendrez-vous l’iconostase ? Gleb Rahr répondit non et la communion lui fut refusée. Après quoi il se rendit immédiatement à l’église serbe où il communia. Depuis ce jour, une structure ecclésiastique parallèle du patriarcat de Moscou se développa à Munich, mise en place par son gendre le père Nicolas, ordonné dans le Patriarcat. Un de ses fils, qui avait fait ses études au séminaire de notre Eglise à Jordanville (USA) devint prêtre du Patriarcat en Allemagne.
Début mars, on me téléphona pour prévenir qu’il était mourant. Décédé* le 3 mars 2006, il a été enterré hier au cimetière russe de Berlin.
http://www.moinillon.net/post/2006/03/12/656-gleb-a-rahr-est-decede
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:10 am
Additional Reading on the Liberation of Dachau
“Investigation of Alleged Mistreatment of German Guards at Dachau” made by LTC Joseph M. Whitaker, staff of Inspector General of 7th army, June 8, 1945.
Eager For Duty – History of the 157th Infantry Regiment (Rifle) (45th Division), 1945, Chapter 15 is on Dachau. Out of print.
Dachau and Its Liberation by Felix L. Sparks, 1990, 45th Infantry Division Museum, 2145 NE 36th, Oklahoma City OK 73111, $2 plus $3.25 S&H per order. The author led the 45th Division attack on Dachau on April 29, 1945.
Dachau – The Hour of the Avenger by Howard A Buechner M.D., 1986, Thunderbird Press, 300 Cuddihy Drive, Metairie, LA 70005, $14.95. The author was a battalion surgeon in the 45th Division and the first doctor into Dachau on April 29, 1945. Most people believe he greatly exaggerates the number of guards shot that day.
Deliverance Day – The Last Hours at Dachau by Michael Selzer, 1978, J. B. Lippincott Co. This book alternates chapters on the SS guards, the prisoners, and the U.S. Army on the day of liberation. This is a very confusing story because it attempts to merge the conflicting accounts of the 45th and 42nd Infantry Divisions. Out of print.
The Liberation of KZ Dachau by James Kent Strong, 1990, James Strong, PO Box 1914, Cary NC 27512, $34.95. This is a 95-minute video of oral histories by the officers and men of the Third Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Division, who helped liberate Dachau on April 29, 1945.
Sparks – The Combat Diary of a Battalion Commander (Rifle) WW II by Emajean Buechner, Thunderbird Press, 1991, 300 Cuddihy Drive, Metairie, LA 70005. Felix Sparks led the 45th Division attack on Dachau and Chapters 16 & 17 deal with the event.
Surrender of the Dachau Concentration Camp 29 Apr 45 – The True Account by John H. Linden, 1997, Sycamore Press Limited, 780 Elm Grove Road, Elm Grove WI 53122, $25. The book describes the formal surrender of Dachau to 42nd Division troops and disputes the account of Felix Sparks.
Dachau 29 April 1945 – The Rainbow Liberation Memoirs, Edited by Sam Dann, 1998, Texas Tech University Press, Box 41037, Lubbock, TX 79409-1037, $33.95 including S&H. Memoirs of veterans of the 42nd Division who helped liberate Dachau.
The Rock of Anzio – From Sicily to Dachau: A History of the U.S. 45th Infantry Division by Flint Whitlock, 1998, Westview Press. Chapter 13 describes the liberation of Dachau.
Convoi De La Mort Buchenwald-Dachau (7-28 avril 1945) by Francois Bertrand, 2000, (paperback in French), Hercules. This first hand account by a survivor serves as a primary source of information about the infamous Buchenwald-Dachau Death Train.
Second Platoon is a newsletter published and edited by Dan Dougherty for members of C Company, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Division. Many issues carry articles on the liberation of Dachau in which members of this rifle company participated. A complete set can be found in the files of the 45th Division Museum Library.
The Day the Thunderbird Cried by David Israel, 2005, emek press. Israel has done much research on the liberation and the 85 pages of Book Three deal with the event.
Dan P. Dougherty
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:39 am
My father, Gleb Alexandrovitch Rahr, was born on October 3rd, 1922 in Moscow into a family of “hereditary honourable citizens of Russia». As officer of the Russian army his father, Alexander Alexandrovitch, had been imprisoned in the first Moscow concentration camp, the Andronikov monastery. In 1924, the family was expelled to Estonia but soon moved to Latvia. Then, due to the German-sounding surname (which actually is of Scandinavian origin), the Rahrs left Latvia together with German immigrants on one of last ships to flee the Red Army.
In 1942 my father studied at the Breslau University where he organized an orthodox community. At this time he joined the National Labour Union (NTS). This organization, founded by young White Russian emigrés in 1930, struggled against two tyrants – Stalin and Hitler. In order to suppress their influence on the Russian Liberation Movement, the German authorities started to arrest members of the NTS, including my father. In consequence he was imprisoned in the concentration camps of Gross-Rosen, Sachsenhausen, Schlieben, Buchenwald, Langensalza and, finally, Dachau. Here it was liberated by the American armies on April 29th, 1945.
After the wa, our family moved to Hamburg where my father took an active part in church life and was secretary to Bishop Nafanael (Prince Lvov) of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in the British Zone of Germany. In 1947 he joined the emigrant publishing house “Posev” in Frankfurt/Main. From 1949-1950 he lived in Morocco, where he worked in an architectural bureau, organised parish life and participated in the youth movement as chief of the African Department of the Organization of Russian Young Scouts (ОРЮР).
From 1950 on Gleb Rahr worked for NТS in Germany and in 1954 participated in the Conferences of the Allied Forces in Berlin and Geneva, he also was delegated to the III Congress of the «Interamerican Confederation on Continent Protection» in Lima.
On October 6th, 1957 he married Sofia Vasilevna Orekhov – Captain Vasili V. Orekhov’s daughter, a participant of the White Movement and publisher of “Chasovoi« (platform of communication of the Russian officers in exile).
From 1957 to 1960 my father headed “Radio Free Russia“ in Taiwan, from 1960 to 1963 he supervised the Russian language programs on the Japanese National Radio and also lectured at the Far East department of t e «University of Maryland». In 1963 our family returned to Europe, where Gleb Alexandrovitch took an active part in the erection of the Orthodox St. Nikolai church in Frankfurt. Supporting the freedom of his compatriots, my father was one of the founding members of the International Society for Human Rights (МОПЧ) (1972).
From 1974 to 1995 he worked for «Radio Liberty» in Munich where he supervised the religious broadcasting, and also hosted programs like «Baltic Beacon», «Russia Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow» and «Not by Bread Alone». In the days of the cold war for many people in Soviet Union his programs were the only source of authentic informtion on religion and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Apart from his extensive journalistic activity, hypodeacon Gleb Alexandrovitch was also a renowned church historian. For many years he was a member of the Diocesan Council of the German Diocese (ROCOR), the parish councils in Frankfurt and Munich, one of the major activists of the «Pravoslavnoe Delo» – an orthodox movement, founded by St. John of Shanghai, a.o. and a founding member of the world famous Swiss institute «Belief in the Second World» (Glaube in der 2. Welt). My father was a delegate at the III Vsezarubezhnyi Sobor in 1974 in New York – all over the world he held lectures on the state of the Church in the USSR.
Since 1983 my father was Chairman of the St.Vladimir Brotherhood (Bratstvo) – the oldest Russian society in Germany, founded in 1888 at the Russian embassy in Berlin for rendering assistance to orthodox people in need and for erecting and maintaining Russian churches in Germany. When in 1995 our Bratstvo was forced to close the church in Hamburg, my father, at the request of His Holiness, The Patriarch of Russia Alexii II, restored to Russia the famous „Memel iconostasis“ (in front of which General Suvorov prayed during the 7-year war in Prussia). According to my father’s request, the iconostasis was installed in the lower church of the newly build cathedral in Kaliningrad, a church dedicated to the memory of all Russian soldiers who lost their lives during the wars with Prussia, Napoleon and both World Wars.
Following the Millenium of the Baptism of Russia (1988.), the Russian Church gradually freed herself from the control of the authorities, and my father began to stand up for the reunion of ROCOR with the Mother Church. In 1990 he vigorously opposed the uncanonical creation of ROCOR parishes on Russian territory. In August 1991 he participated in the Congress of Compatriots in Moscow where has was received by the His Holiness, Patriarch Alexii II, who through him addressed the ROCOR hierarchy with the proposal for reunion. Since this offer had been rejected, my devoted his further activity to the interests of our Mother Church.
In Dachau, on the territory of the former concentration camp he, a former prisoner, initiated the building of an orthodox chapel in memory of all orthodox victims of nazism. This chapel, erected in 1995 and consecrated by His Holiness, became the first parish of the Moscow Patriarchat in Munich.
Gleb Alexandrovitch Rahr died on March 3, 2006. The first panikhida was served immediately over his remains by his son, Archpriest Mihail (rector of St. Maria Magdelena church in Weimar) and his son-in-law, Archpriest Nikolai Zabelitch (rector of the parishes in Munich and the Resurrection chapel in Dachau). He lies on the Bratstvo cemetery in Berlin-Tegel.
Vechnaya pamiat’! Memory eternal!
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Dear Mrs. Rahr-Zabelitch,
Many thanks for your kind complementary notes. Could you possibly send us a some digitized photos from your personal collection? I would gladly publish them with your notes. Although I am not a supporter of the Moscow Patriarchate, I cherish the ROCOR memories and if you could share any of these with our Romanian and international audience I would feel privileged. Also, do you have any older radio shows from the taiwanese Radio Free Russia, for example? Or a photo of your father and Bishop Nafanael? I have several questions about a ROCOR ceremony in Munchen in cca 1950, do you have any idea who could help me with an answer?
My best wishes,
Your in Christ,
Gheorghe Vanau
Editor of http://www.crucea.ro
April 25th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
[...] sometime in the 1946-49. Bishop Nafanail is celebrating, the young hypodeacon with the trikirion is Gleb Alexandrovich Rahr. The young archimandrit holding the icon is Father Vitalii Ustinov, later Metropolitan Vitalii. [...]