Spotlight: What Did You Do in the War Sister? by Dennis J. Turner
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Throughout the occupied territories, Catholic Sisters were active members of The Nazi Resistance. Based on letters and documents written by Catholic Sisters during WWII, this book tells the remarkable story of these brave and faithful women. From running contraband to hiding Jews, from spying for the allies to small acts of sabotage, these courageous women risked their lives to help defeat the Reich. This is a story that needs to be told.
Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE: A BRUSH WITH DEATH – SAINT-HUBERT, BELGIUM, DECEMBER 1944
December 22, 1944
Saint-Hubert, Belgium
The German army is here – again.
American soldiers marched into Saint-Hubert in September and we believed the war was over. The departing Germans soldiers told us “We will be back,” but no one believed them. American troops came in such numbers, with hundreds of tanks trucks and jeeps. The soldiers were so fit and robust, busting with confidence. What army in the world could resist such a force? Certainly not the dirty, exhausted German soldiers we saw slipping out of town in the dead of the night.
And yet, German shells are now raining down on our town and many of the jaunty American soldiers we saw streaming to the front in September are straggling back into Saint-Hubert with weary, vacant faces, suffering from wounds and frostbite. There is another bad sign. Americans are pouring out on the ground all the gasoline they had stored in their fuel depots. They want to keep it from falling into the hands of the advancing Germans. Engineers are dynamiting large trees to the block the roads. Apparently, the Americans are going to abandon Saint-Hubert and they are hoping to slow down the German tanks. Once again the citizens of Saint-Hubert will be living in a Nazi occupied town. Again they will be dying from American bombs and shells when they try to retake Saint-Hubert. We cannot flee. There is no transportation. The roads are snow covered, and temperatures are hovering around zero. We cannot abandon our sick Sisters or the homeless children we have sheltered in our school.
I am ashamed to admit that I fear death. All my training as a Sister of Our Lady was meant to prepare me for death.
A hypothetical acceptance of one’s death, however, provides only some comfort when faced with the prospect of imminent death. My near-death experience at the start of the German shelling yesterday shattered my philosophical beliefs.
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About the Author
Dennis Turner graduated from Georgetown University in 1967 with a degree in History. He received his Juris Doctorate degree from Georgetown University Law School in 1970. He has served as an Assistant County Prosecutor and as a Magistrate-Judge. Since 1974, he has been a Professor of Law at the University Of Dayton School Of Law. During his tenure at the University of Dayton he has served as Assistant Dean, Acting Dean, Director of the Law Clinic and Director of the Legal Profession Program. The University of Dayton has awarded him its highest award for teaching, The Faculty Teaching Award. He has also received numerous Teacher of the Year Awards from the students at the University Of Dayton School Of Law and was chosen to be one of the Master Teaching Fellows for the University of Dayton. He has been a visiting professor for the University of Notre Dame London Law Program. He also has extensive experience with the British criminal justice system through his association with the barrister firm, Pump Court Chambers, in Winchester, England.
Dennis Turner is the author of many law review articles and a law text book, Steele v. Kitchener Case File. For two years, he also wrote a bi-weekly column for the Dayton Daily News entitled, On the River.
