The story of
Rev. Herman Scheipers (a catholic priest) and his twin sister Anna Scheipers.
In the April of 1945 when Herman broke the line of the prisoners, who
were being marched to their death by the SS officers, his run was spotted by
the last guard in the line whom he heard shout at the soldier with the dog to release the dog to catch the
escapee. But the dog handler was too tired from the endless march and was
resting against a tree that he didn’t bother. Reverend Herman Scheipers had
chosen the right moment for his escape.
We have heard many sad stories about the Jews and how badly they were
treated by the Nazis during the World War II. Here is a life story of
German Catholic twins, who like many, also went through a similar tragic
experience.
The twins usually bond deep with each other. Herman Scheipers and Anna
Scheipers were twins born on 24th July 1913 to a catholic family of
Mǜnsterland, which was one of those few catholic towns in the mostly Protestant Northern
Germany.
Anna’s brother Herman was ordained a catholic priest in 1937 at Saxony. He was a very pious young man with a deep faith and had tremendous passion for his call. His blue eyes spoke of the intense devotion to his cause in all the pictures which his family had kept from the time. His ministry required him to offer mass for the Polish forced labourers, Poland was then considered as the “Enemy of the State” by the German Government. Unfortunately, Priest Herman was arrested and jailed for this crime and was sent to the Dachan Concentration Camps which was infamously known as the ‘Priests Barracks’. There were around 700 catholic priests at the camp.
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| Anna & Herman before the war |
Despite all the dangers involved in contacting a prisoner of the state,
Anna, kept in touch with her brother through letters. In the August of 1942,
Anna received a letter from Herman telling her in Code words that he has fallen
sick and will be soon sent to the Gas Chambers for immediate elimination. Sick
prisoners were a liability and considered a mortal danger to the rest of the
camp.
It was difficult to track prisoners in those days, without giving up
hope, Anna went to Berlin to the Gestapo headquarters with her father and with
much difficulty found out the officer who was in charge of the Dachan Camps and
pleaded with him for the release of her brother. Gestapo had no mercy. Having
lost all her hope as a last resort she lied to the officer and tricked him to
believe that if the priest is killed there will be an uprising in Munsterland;
the folks there already know about their priests are being held as prisoners
and executed for no fair reason. The trick worked as the Gestapo thought, if
the unrest as Anna claimed was real, it may spread to other areas and become
unmanageable. On that day Anna saved not only her brother but many hundreds of
priests who were scheduled to be killed at the Dachan Camp.
Herman was out of immediate danger for the time being but he was not
released, instead he was sent to another camp where they were conducting
medical tests on prisoners. The camp Herman was sent to, were conducting tests
for the German air force, ‘Luftwaffe’. He was along with others forced to lie
down in a tub filled with Ice Cold water in full pilot gear for more than a half
day and when they collapsed, they were revived and forced again. Many died
during these tests. Herman somehow survived.
In April 1945 when Germany realized they were going to lose the war, the
prisoners were rounded up and sent on a long death march by SS (German Secret Service).
Herman Scheipers broke the march when he
knew the SS officers, who were just as tired as the prisoners were from
the all day march, sat down and slept, he made a run for the woods and escaped
to a nearby village where he went to the local parish. The vicar when he
attended the knock on his door was astonished to see him; when Herman told him that he was a priest too, vicar exclaimed that he looked like a
prisoner and couldn't believe him at first.
The fire of faith in Reverend Herman Scheipers helped him all through his
jail days to stay positive and this inner strength made his face glow which is noticeable
in the pictures of his from the worst times. After the war, he continued with his ministry
and served in the communist East Germany and in Czechoslovakia. His works among
the Polish Catholics made him come in contact with the famous Bishop of Karkow,
Karol Jozef Wojtyla, who later became Pope and Saint John Paul II.
60 years later, when the Government of free Germany organized a ceremony
to honour the war survivors, Herman said in a thanks giving speech, “Anna, I
owe you my life!”.
In 2002 both Anna and Herman received Cross of Merit of the Federal
Republic of Germany.
Anna died in 2002 and Herman in 2016 as the last surviving member of the
Dachan Camp at the age of 102. They remained very close to each other even
though Anna had to 'put up' with the status of the saintly Reverend her brother was bestowed with by the communities he had served after the war.
Yes indeed, some twins bond deep.
A link to an endearing documentary about the twins
