Crucea.ro

Statement of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church

We – the Bishops, clergy and laity of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, feel compelled to call as much attention as possible to the following statement.

At the present time, the enemies of Orthodoxy – the Moscow Patriarchate, together with its subservient bureaucrats in the Russian Government – are doing everything possible to completely destroy the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church.

This persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church has been going on since the very beginning of our open existence.

During the 1990’s, across Russia, the authorities sought to physically repress any attempt of the faithful who had freed themselves from the pro-Communist and Sergianist Moscow Patriarchate to obtain for their religious needs even a small number of the buildings that had historically been Orthodox churches and had survived the Communist period, in the sole place in Russia where the Russian Orthodox Church was able to organize itself in freedom from lies, betrayals, and heresy – the small city of Suzdal. These authorities illegally took churches away from us, refused to allow us to incorporate our dioceses and parishes, beat our clergy and parishioners up, and slandered us in the press and over the airwaves.

Then, an attempt was made to destroy our Church morally, by slandering and trying our First Hierarch in court. Since there was nothing with which to accuse us, they began to broadcast lies and slander through the mass media to make people who would believe such accusations turn away from our Church. This attempt had some partial success, but our Church remained.

Now, the Vladimir Office of Rossimushchestvo (Russian Federal Property Office), and those who stand behind it, have decided to use the courts to take our churches in Suzdal away from us, in order to deprive us of the possibility of preaching and holding Divine Services in public.

At one time, in the beginning of the 1990’s, when the Communist Party and its stranglehold on power in our country came to an end, the churches began to be returned to people of faith – those who had survived the Soviet meat-grinder; the descendants of those who had built these churches, in the first place. We received all of these churches in accordance with the law, and most of them were in deplorable condition when we received them. And now, after our parishioners have invested so much of their time and money into bringing them into proper shape and embellishing them, the bureaucrats have decided to sue them away from us so that they can give them to the Moscow Patriarchate and use them for their own common purposes.

Our communities of faithful believers are the only lawful proprietors of these buildings, to whom the government had simply returned that which had previously been taken away from them by force – their own inheritance that had been stolen away from them by the Bolsheviks. The faithful were the ones who received them back, they are the ones who restored them, they are the ones who preserved them for the government, and they are the ones who use these churches and maintain them in proper manner. These facts should have been the deciding factor in the courts of the legality of our using these churches. But instead of handing down a fair decision and leaving these churches with the faithful, the courts trampled upon their civil rights, as well as their religious sensibilities, and the Constitution of their own government. Could this happen anywhere else in the world but in Russia?

What this means is that the time has not come to an end in Russia when the authorities, like thieves, acting in opposition to their own people, can appropriate for themselves all of the Orthodox churches they want, deciding the fate of our holy things in accordance with their own whims, can make a mockery out of the religious feelings of people of faith, and dispose of anyone that they don’t happen to like. Now, we are witnesses to a repetition of the past. The tyranny of the bureaucrats continues on who, in the name of government, lord it over the people, and decide the fate of the inheritance that the nation has received from its ancestors. Instead of preserving the nation, instead of preserving our Faith, instead of preserving the government, instead of safeguarding the people, the authorities, in order to please the modern-day Pharisees of the “official church,” exile Orthodox Christians who are guilty of doing nothing wrong, and annihilate the last shreds of religious liberty.

However, their war is not with us. Their war is with Almighty God, Who will quickly repay His enemies for their evil deeds.

Together with the Prophet and King David, our response is, “Our God is refuge and strength, a helper in afflictions which mightily befall us” (Psalm 45:1). Let our oppressors prosper in their luxuries and power. Let them rejoice in their high-sounding titles. Let them “devour widows’ houses” (Matt. 23:14), let them amass their comforts in the bosom of the bureaucracy. We, however, will follow the path of the New Martyrs of Russia – the straight and narrow path of Christ.

We know that very soon, in the churches that belong to us, we shall see the bailiffs of the courts and the militia (OMON), which will beat us up and chase our clergy and people out of their churches. In a word, we shall see the repetition of the same things that took place in our unfortunate country during the horrendous years of the 1920’s and the 1930’s.

In conclusion, we wish to say, not to the district attorneys and judges, but to those people who are standing in the wings behind them and directing this repression against us: We understand that you do not believe in God, but why do you have no fear of bringing yet more shame upon your country?

President of the Synod of Bishops Metropolitan Valentine of Suzdal and Vladimir.

Members of the Synod of Bishops:

Archbishop Theodore,

Archbishop Seraphim,

Archbishop Viktor,

Archbishop Hilarion,

Bishop Timothy,

Bishop Irinarkh,

Bishop Andrew,

Bishop Yakov.

http://www.rpac.ru/article/225/

http://www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=news&id=70295&topic=574

“Trebuia”, nu-i asa, sa ne “civilizam”:

Stire din Adevarul

Cu o oră înainte de debutul concursului, copiii s-au înghesuit la start, organizatorii fiind nevoiţi să apeleze la iepuraşi pentru a-i distra pe micuţi.
Odată cu apropierea startului, copiii cu vârste cuprinse între trei şi opt ani s-au bulucit în preajma „terenului de joacă”, iar momentul în care organizatzorii au dat drumul distracţiei, au pornit vânătoarea de ouă.
„Înarmaţi” cu o punguliţă, copiii au căutat să o umple cât mai repede cu câte cinci ouă, iar apoi să ajungă la iepuraşul care le-a oferit premii primilor zece campioni ai vânătorii de ouă. Odată încheiată competiţia celor mici, copiii mai mari de opt ani au participat şi ei la acelaşi concurs, iar la final, cu toţii au plecat spre case fericiţi, cu tot cu ouăle de ciocolată pe care le-au găsit în iarbă sau, dacă nu au mai avut răbdare să ajungă acasă, mânjiţi de ciocolata pe care au mâncat-o imediat după ce au trecut linia de sosire.

editura și librăria Sophia
vă invită la lansarea volumului
Imagine, Icoana, Iconomie
sursele bizantine ale imaginarului contemporan
de Marie-José Mondzain
miercuri, 6 mai 2009, ora 1700
Librăria Sophia, str. Bibescu Vodă nr. 19, Bucureşti, langă Facultatea de Teologie
invitați:
Bogdan Tătaru-Cazaban
Măriuca Alexandrescu

by Constantine Cavarnos
At my next noteworthy meeting with Kontoglou, which took place at his home in the evening of Sunday, April 20, 1958, our conversation was chiefly on contemporary Creek theologians and on Byzantine art in the West.

Kontoglou spoke of certain scientific (epistemones) theologians, men who had studied theology in Europe and brought to the Greek universities a rather cerebral and so- called liberal mode of theologizing. Theocletos Pharmakidis (1784-1862), he noted, was the first Greek theologian of this type. Of recent ones, he cited Demetrios Balanos.
Such theologians, he said, regard traditional Orthodox theology, which comes from the roots of Christianity and from the Greek Fathers, as ossified, and they come as renewers of it. Actually, they lack real faith, lack interior, spiritual life. They view theology as a science, comparable to chemistry and physics, which employ discursive reason as their instrument and give rationalistic explanations.
In criticizing theologians of this type, he quoted a statement of St. Dionysios the Areopagite, that one cannot gain possession of the truths of Christianity in a purely intellectualistic manner, that these have to be experienced, lived. He also read the following passage from St. Symeon the New Theologian (11th century), the greatest of the mystics of Byzantium:
He who thinks that because he has been disciplined in secular wisdom he knows everything will never succeed in beholding the mysteries of God, until he first wills to humble himself and become a fool, divesting himself both of his pride and of the knowledge which he has acquired. For he who does this, and follows with unhesitating faith those who are wise in things divine, and is guided by them, comes together with them to the city of the living God. And led and illumined by the Holy Spirit he sees and is taught those things which no other man can behold and learn. And then he becomes one taught by God (Kontoglou, Pege Zoes, Fount of Life, 1951, p. 82).
In a book which was published four years after our meeting, he wrote about such theologians:
Todays theologians have become scientists, like the doctors, chemists and engineers, because by presenting themselves as such they will be honored by the world. And they go to Europe, the place of spiritual darkness, to receive a degree. They stuff their heads with a multitude of ungrounded and vain philosophies, and come to our land to transmit their unbelief instead of the Faith…. They do not enter into the Heavenly Kingdom, and hinder others from entering, as our Lord has said. Their punishment is that they do not see any of the wondrous things that are seen by believers, and hence they lack contrition and are cold. They are separated from God and His Kingdom, because they love the glory of men, instead of the glory of God (Semeion Mega, A Great Sign, 1962, pp. 16-17).
In another book, Papa-Nicholas Planas, which was published three years later, again emphasizing the importance of faith and piety, he says:
They endeavor today, with the plight of the Church, to find its causes, and hold that the answer is to be found in scientific theological education. But the evil is to be remedied only by education in piety (eusebeia)…. What will it benefit the Church if students go to (say) Geneva? They will return with Protestant principles. We are told by these same persons that our Church has remained behind a whole century. How good it would have been if the members of the Church today had the piety of those who lived a century ago! External [secular], scientific education is fine when it is joined to piety (Athens, 1965, p. 46).

From Meetings with Kontoglou, by Constantine Cavarnos (Belmont, MA: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1992), pp. 128-130, via orthodoxinfo.com

“We believe to be members of the Catholic [Orthodox] Church all the Faithful, and only the Faithful; who, forsooth, having received the blameless Faith of the Savior Christ, from Christ Himself, and the Apostles, and the Holy Ecumenical Synods, adhere to the same without wavering; although some of them may be guilty of all manner of sins.”

Decree 11 of the Synod of Jerusalem: 1672, The Acts and Decrees of The Synod of Jerusalem, 1899, J.N.W.B. Robertson, Thomas Baker Publisher, London:

by Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko, 1893-1978)

“And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James,
and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And
very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the
sepulcher at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall
roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher?” (Mk. 16:1-3).

Brothers and sisters! Can you imagine the state of mind these Myrrhbearing women
were in? For those who lived through Soviet times in Russia and through the
persecution of the Church, it is so understandable. In some churches, as in the
outskirts of Kiev, this service (the Burial of the Savior) was performed at
night. People made their way to such a church through dark streets. Anything
could happen, you had to be careful of everything. Neighbors might hear that you
went somewhere at night; and you could be stopped on the street. And the service
itself in church and the carrying of the Shroud around the church could be
interrupted by the authorities. One did not know if tomorrow, on Holy Saturday,
this already semi-Easter Liturgy would be performed, because the priest might be
arrested.

The Myrrhbearers were in such a state of mind. They themselves were in danger of
being arrested at any moment. Even in their homes they locked the doors from
inside; they were afraid of any knock, any little sound. Two days before, Peter
had denied that he too was with Jesus, meaning that he was one of His disciples.
And before whom? Before a servant girl, and only because she might report him.

Such was the situation. Their Teacher had been condemned and sentenced to the
most terrible death, had been executed. And now it was their turn: as the
disciples of the executed Teacher they were outside the law. More than that —
they were probably being sought already. The most sensible thing would have been
to flee somewhere, to hide. But instead of that, they decided to go while it was
still night to the sepulcher which was not far from the place of execution. They
knew well that the entrance to the sepulcher was blocked by a stone, which as
the Gospel says, was “very great” (Mk. 16:4), that it bore a seal, that Roman
guards were guarding the tomb, and that these guards were armed and especially
vigilant because they had been warned that the disciples might steal His body.

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Archbishop Seraphim, in the world Semyon Nikolayevich Samoilovich, was
born on July 19, 1880 in Mirgorod, Poltava province in the family of a
Ukrainian church reader. In 1896 he finished his studies at Lubensk theological
school, and in 1902 – at Poltava theological seminary. On August 1, 1902 he
was appointed to be a teacher in the Unalaska school in Alaska. On July 1,
1905 he was transferred to the same post in Sitka. He was tonsured into
the mantia on September 25, 1905 with the name Seraphim. On October 2 he
was ordained to the diaconate and made a member of the Sitka hierarchical
house, and on March 25 was ordained to the priesthood. On August 1, 1906 he
was appointed superior of the Nucheka spiritual mission. On March 25, 1908
he was appointed a teacher of Holy Scripture and basic theology in the
Sitka theological seminary. During this period he was a fellow-labourer of
Bishop Tikhon, the future patriarch, who highly valued him. He united personal
asceticism and an intelligent approach both to the half-wild Aleut flock
and to the American government in Alaska.
On October 4, 1908 his request to return to his homeland for reasons of
health was granted, and on May 25, 1909 he was appointed assistant to the
Vladikavkaz diocesan missionary. On September 1, 1909 he was appointed
spiritual father of the Alexandrovsky Ardonsky theological seminary, and on
October 10 – acting inspector of the seminary. On April 13, he was appointed
prior of the Mogilev Bratsk monastery, and on June 23 – of the Tolga
Yaroslavl monastery. On May 11, 1912 he was raised to the rank of igumen of
the monastery.
Fr. Seraphim wrote a serious historical work, A History of the Tolga
Monastery, 1314-1915, in preparation for the celebration of the six-hundredth
anniversary of the monastery in August, 1914. For the benefit of the
monastery and the surrounding flock, in 1913 he built and opened, a mile from
the monastery at the edge of a splendid forest, a school of bee-keeping for the
orphan children the monastery looked after. Three weeks before the
six-hundredth anniversary of the monastery, however, the First World War broke
out.
The abbot, in the very first days of the war, built hospital wards and
actively helped Archbishop Agathangelus in the governing of the during the
years of war and revolution.
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Prima mentiune a revistei Crucea “la TV” s-a petrecut chiar in Duminica Sfintelor Pasti, cind emisiunea “Dupa Bloguri” a difuzat si citeva secvente in care este amintita publicatia noastra. Interviul a fost alcatuit printr-un webcam, iar numele meu a fost, ca de obicei cind colegii din presa imi “iau urma”, Liviu Vanau. Am mai explicat altundeva povestea prenumelor mele, asa ca nu mai reiau acest subiect.

Va prezint in continuare doua materiale. Primul este versiunea difuzata de postul Realitatea. Al doilea este un montaj cu raspunsurile integrale, asa cum le-am oferit cind a fost realizata emisiunea. Va las sa cintariti diferentele. E epoca in care tirania formatului media traseaza deplin un cerc vicios: nu mai poti spune nimic daca nu formulezi totul intr-un fel care nu iti ingaduie sa mai spui nimic.

Versiunea difuzata:

Versiunea “bruta”:

E mai degraba neobisnuit ca un astfel de discurs sa ajunga in mediul “efervescent” al emisiunilor lumesti, dar cred ca ma bucur ca am avut prilejul asta si ca puteti practic asista la citeva operatiuni din “bucataria” unui proces de editare a unui material video.
In aceeasi emisiune a mai fost invitat si Danion Vasile, pe care il puteti urmari aici:

J. A. MacGahan, The London Daily News (August 22, 1876)

Since my letter of yesterday I have supped full of horrors. Nothing has as yet
been said of the Turks that I do not now believe; nothing could be said of them
that I should not think probable and likely. There is, it seems, a point in
atrocity beyond which discrimination is impossible, when mere comparison,
calculation, measurement are out of the question, and this point the Turks have
already passed. You can follow them no further. The way is blocked up by
mountains of hideous facts that repel scrutiny and investigation, over and
beyond which you can not see and do not care to go. You feel that it is
superfluous to continue measuring these mountains and deciding whether they be a
few feet higher or lower, and you do not care to go seeking for mole hills among
them. You feel that it is time to turn back; that you have seen enough.
But let me tell you what we saw at Batak. We had some difficulty in getting away
from Pestara. The authorities were offended because Mr. Schuyler refused to take
any Turkish official with him, and they ordered the inhabitants to tell us that
there were no horses, for we had to leave our carriages and take to the saddle.
But the people were so anxious that we should go that they furnished horses in
spite of the prohibition, only bringing them at first without saddles, by way of
showing how reluctantly they did it. We asked them if they could not bring us
saddles, also, and this they did with much alacrity and some chuckling at the
way in which the Mudir’s orders were walked over. Finally we mounted and got
off.
As we approached Batak out attention was drawn to some dogs on a slope
overlooking the town. We turned aside from the road, and passing over the debris
of two or three walls and through several gardens, urged our horses up the
ascent toward the dogs. They barked at us in an angry manner, and then ran off
into the adjoining fields. I observed nothing peculiar as we mounted until my
horse stumbled, when looking down I perceived he had stepped on a human skull
partly hid among the grass. It was quite hard and dry, and might, to all
appearances, have been there two or three years, so well had the dogs done their
work.

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by Paul Goble

VIENNA, April 30 – A Russian appeals court has left in force a decision of a lower court to allow allowing the state to seize eight church buildings in Suzdal belonging to the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, the latest indication of the manner in which Patriarch Kirill is using the state to suppress any independence among Orthodox believers.

That is the conclusion of Aleksandr Khramov, a religious affairs writer, in a commentary published yesterday on Portal-credo.ru, a conclusion highlighting both the newly enthroned patriarch’s well-known authoritarian tendencies and an increasingly dangerous collusion between his church and the Russian state.
In decisions announced yesterday, the collegiums of the First Appellate Arbitration Court in Vladimir left in force the February 12th judgment of the Vladimir Oblast Arbitration Court which granted a government request to seize the churches, ostensibly because their parishes had violated one or another rules of the use of their properties.

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В Суздаль стянуто до тысячи бойцов ОМОНа в сопровождении бронемашин и спецтехники

Колонна ОМОНа в составе примерно тысячи бойцов в сопровождении бронемашин, автобусов для арестованных (автозаков), машин разминирования, водометов и другой специальной техники вошла утром 29 апреля в Суздаль. Как сообщает корреспондент “Портала-Credo.Ru”, в настоящее время омоновцы в бронежилетах и касках совершают построение на центральной площади города, у здания районной администрации.

Как сказали корреспонденту Портала в мэрии Суздаля, ввод в город вооруженных подразделений, которые сопровождают две автомашины МЧС, связан с “антитеррористическими учениями ФСБ”. Как уточнили в местом управлении МЧС, на 18 мая в Суздале намечено “грандиозное учение” ФСБ, вызванное “угрозами террористических акций”.
Вооруженные патрули в бронежилетах взяли под охрану большинство административных зданий города, движение по улицам которого весьма затруднено. По утверждению представителей мэрии, это фактические осадное положение продолжится в городе до 15 часов по московскому времени.
Накануне, 28 апреля, Первый апелляционный арбитражный суд утвердил первое решение Владимирского областного арбитражного суда об изъятии храмов у общин РПАЦ – в первую очередь изымаются Кресто-Никольский и Лазаревский храмы. 29 апреля могут быть приняты аналогичные решения о Цареконстантиновском и Успенском храмах, а также колокольне в селе Кидекша.
Представители ОМОНа воспрепятствовали корреспонденту “Портала-Credo.Ru” в проведении съемок “учений”.

Source: portal-credo.ru

By Virginia Heffernan

Twitter — the microblogging service that lets you post and read fragmentary communications at high speed — is fun, but it’s embarrassing. You subscribe to the yawps of a bunch of people; they subscribe to your yawps; and you produce and consume yawps for the rest of your days. The me-me-me clamor brings to mind Emily Dickinson’s poem about the disgrace of fame, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?”: “How public — like a Frog — / To tell one’s name — the livelong June — / To an admiring Bog!”
Now that I inhabit the Twitter bog, though, I don’t complain. Twitter can be entertaining, and useful — and, really, who doesn’t like the illusion, from time to time, of lots of company? I have only lately begun to wonder whether I’d use Twitter if I were fully at liberty to do what I liked. In other words, I’m not sure I’d use Twitter if I were rich. Swampy, boggy, inescapable connectivity: it seems my middle-class existence has stuck me here.
These worries started to surface for me last month, when Bruce Sterling, the cyberpunk writer, proposed at the South by Southwest tech conference in Austin that the clearest symbol of poverty is dependence on “connections” like the Internet, Skype and texting. “Poor folk love their cellphones!” he said.
In his speech, Sterling seemed to affect Nietzschean disdain for regular people. If the goal was to provoke, it worked. To a crowd that typically prefers onward-and-upward news about technology, Sterling’s was a sadistically successful rhetorical strategy. “Poor folk love their cellphones!” had the ring of one of those haughty but unforgettable expressions of condescension, like the Middle Eastern gem “The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.”
“Connectivity is poverty” was how a friend of mine summarized Sterling’s bold theme. Only the poor — defined broadly as those without better options — are obsessed with their connections. Anyone with a strong soul or a fat wallet turns his ringer off for good and cultivates private gardens that keep the hectic Web far away. The man of leisure, Sterling suggested, savors solitude, or intimacy with friends, presumably surrounded by books and film and paintings and wine and vinyl — original things that stay where they are and cannot be copied and corrupted and shot around the globe with a few clicks of a keyboard.
Nice, right? The implications of Sterling’s idea are painful for Twitter types. The connections that feel like wealth to many of us — call us the impoverished, we who treasure our smartphones and tally our Facebook friends — are in fact meager, more meager even than inflated dollars. What’s worse, these connections are liabilities that we pretend are assets. We live on the Web in these hideous conditions of overcrowding only because — it suddenly seems so obvious — we can’t afford privacy. And then, lest we confront our horror, we call this cramped ghetto our happy home!

The rest of the article in New York Times.

Un proiect pentru o directiva a Uniunii Europene “impotriva discriminarii” poate obliga scolile religioase sau chiar bisericile sa isi deschida portile pentru oricine, inclusiv persoane ne-religioase. Decizia este o premiera fiindca niciodata pina acum UE nu a lansat initiative legislative legate de oferirea de bunuri si servicii “in functie de orientarea religioasa si sexuala”.
Practic, Uniunea Europeana intentioneaza sa oblige orice institutie religioasa sa “ofere serviciile sale”, adica educatie sau chiar cununie, impartasanie, oricarei persoane doreste sa “beneficieze” de acestea. Viziunea negustoreasca si diavoleasca a UE este de fapt un esec al cadrului legislativ contemporan de a “gestiona” ideea de credinta. Dupa ce a batjocorit, de pilda, cununia, inlocuind-o sau precedind-o in mod obligatoriu cu mariajul civil, societatea seculara este azi gata sa numeasca aceasta Sfanta Taina a Bisericii un “serviciu” si sa pretinda ca oricine sa poata “beneficia” de el. Pagani, homosexuali, sau atei pusi pe incercat experiente turistico-spirituale, pot astfel cere sa fie cununati sau impartasiti, sau sa isi inscrie copiii in scoli religioase.
Desi e doar in faza de proiect, directiva UE sugereaza ca societatea seculara e gata sa dezlantuie ultima prigoana impotriva credintei, in numele “libertatii”.

Plans drawn up by the European Union to combat discrimination would allow non-believers to send their children to faith schools and could pave the way for gay marriage in church 

by Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Telegraph.co.uk

Proposals contained in the EU’s draft discrimination directive could lead to churches being sued if they refuse to give communion, baptism or membership to non-Christians trying to get their children into a church school, experts said.
The Church of England said last night that it would raise concerns with the Government over the draft directive.
It fears that if the proposals are approved in their current form, religious bodies would lose an exemption they enjoy under current UK law to discriminate on grounds of conscience.
Religious groups warned that the anti-discrimination measures could also lead to gay marriage and homosexuals demanding wedding services in church.
The draft discrimination directive would make it illegal to offer goods and services only to particular sections of society.
It would apply to all organisations offering a service to the public, including hospitals, charities, businesses and prisons, as well as churches.
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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…
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