World War II

In the 75 years since its conclusion, the Second World War has been the subject of innumerable films of widely varied worth.

The book’s narratives of the people and events of Germany and Austria in the period leading up to and during World War II are well-written, even gripping at times.

Millions of Catholics died on the battlefield, on execution blocks, in forced labor or in concentration camps. Some have since been beatified, a step on the path to sainthood.

Catholic priests and nuns were also among the victims of the Nazis’ systematic persecution and genocide led to the deaths of 6 million Jews in Europe.

A Polish researcher has published the first study of religious practices among Christian prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau, as the 75th anniversary of the Nazi-run death camp’s liberation was marked in Israel and Poland.

Don Stoulil, a member of Sacred Heart in Robbinsdale, believes he had a layer of protection no German machine gun could penetrate — a first-class relic of St. Therese of Lisieux.

The film “Otto Neururer: Hope through Darkness,” based on the life of the first Austrian priest killed in a Nazi concentration camp, had its world premiere recently in Iowa.

This excellent book will engage Catholic readers with the history not only of University of Notre Dame but also of the anti-Catholicism that prevailed in much of America up to and even after the Second World War.