Photo: blog.forum-deutscher-katholiken.de
Christel’s Story
Like many Germans today, 'Christel' Probst grew up with no religion. As a young adult, however, he’d felt a closeness to the Catholic Church. News of the Nazi euthanasia program and persecution of the Jews outraged him. As he wrote his sister Angelika, ‘...it was not given to any human being, under any circumstance, to make judgments that are reserved to God alone. ... Every individual’s life is priceless. We are all dear to God.’ (3)
Evidence linking Christel to a draft for the seventh leaflet led to his arrest by the Nazis. He asked to be received into the Roman Catholic Church on the day he was to die. He was baptized and received First Communion, after which he said, ‘Now my death will be easy and joyful’. (3) He left behind a wife, two young children, and a newborn baby.
Willi’s Story
As a Roman Catholic, Willi Graf felt deeply the Nazi persecution of his Church. While serving as a medic during the invasion of Poland and Russia, Willi was horrified by the atrocities committed by the Wehrmacht there. He could not but reject a system that went against his deepest beliefs. He would help write the leaflets, but it was July 1943 when the Gestapo finally caught up with him.
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