In July 1942, the Nazis began to systematically transport Jews from the Netherlands to extermination camps. The Dutch bishops immediately wrote a pastoral letter. However, the occupying authorities learned about the preparation of the letter and offered the bishops that all baptized Jews would be exempt from the transports, but on the condition that the bishops expressed a willingness to modify the pastoral letter according to the wishes of the Reich Minister of the Interior.
The bishops did not yield. The Archbishop of Utrecht, de Jong, declared that he alone would decide what to announce to his faithful and that the faithful had the right to know what their bishops thought and what they were doing to save those in danger. The letter was read on Sunday, July 26 (the day of the martyrdom of Titus Brandsma). The retaliation followed quickly: on July 30, an order was issued that all Catholic Jews were to be included in transport within a week. Edith Stein and her sister Rosa were arrested on August 2, and in Auschwitz they perished along with other Catholics from this transport two weeks after the letter was read, on Sunday, August 9.
I am sure… that the Lord will accept my life for all. I think of Queen Esther, who was chosen to plead with the king for her people. I am such a small Esther, poor and helpless, but the King who chose me is infinitely great and merciful. And this is an immense comfort.
(Teresa Benedicta of the Cross /1891–1942/, letter to a friend, 1938)
