GESTAPO BRUTALITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 December 1939, Page 11

GESTAPO BRUTALITY

EVICTION OF MONKS. A story of Nazi brutality comes from Rotterdam. Recently members of the Gestapo suddenly invaded a Franciscan monastery at Gronau, a short distance from the Dutch frontier, and announced its dissolution. The monks were told that they must leave the monastery at once. They asked whether they could take anything to eat with them, but were refused, although the police were seen to fill their bags from the monastery's store of food. An aged friar, who was telling his beads in the garden, was seized by the beard, addressed as

"Schweinhund," and asked what he was doing. The rector's request to be allowed to remove the Host was met with a flat refusal until he told the police he would do so. even if it cost him his life. Somewhat taken aback, they then consented, and. smoking cigarettes, accompanied him to the chapel. Here a request for a suitable ciborium was refused, and the Host was finally wrapped in a piece of paper which one of the officers took from his pocket and threw at the rector’s feet. All the lime the police maintained a steady

flow of jeers and abuse. The monastery had close connections from Brazil, from where it is administered. It is understood that a protest from Brazilian official quarters in Germany has resulted in permission for the monks to return, but only on condition that part of the monastery is used as a barracks.