Contemporary Church History Quarterly
Volume 31, Number 4 (Winter 2025)
Review of Felix Dümcke and Anna Schüller, eds., Geistliche im Konzentrationslager Sachsenburg. Berlin, and Leipzig: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2023.
Dirk Schuster, University of Vienna
Hardly anything has had such a lasting impact on (theological) church historiography on the churches in the Third Reich as the narratives of imprisoned clergymen. Over decades, these narratives about them have emphasized resistance, victimization, and the trope of the apologetic martyr. As is well known, clergymen were imprisoned in concentration camps for various reasons in the early years of Nazi Germany. One of these early concentration camps was the KZ Sachsenburg, in what is now the German federal state of Saxony. However, these early concentration camps differed greatly in structure and size from the later systematically planned concentration camps such as Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald and Auschwitz.
Against the backdrop of rampant right-wing extremism in Saxony, it is all the more surprising that the government of Saxony does not wanted to provide any money to renovate the remaining buildings of the Sachsenburg concentration camp for an on-site memorial.[1] Apparently, the Saxon government no longer saw the need to draw attention to the horrors of National Socialism in the early years as situated in an authentic site. Or perhaps they were simply too cowardly to face up to the anticipated outraged reactions of the far-right AfD Party (which are sure to follow) if they were to make funds available for the creation of an appropriate memorial. After all, it can’t be down to the cost amount; we are talking about just over one million missing Euros out of an estimated five million for the construction measures. Fortunately, at the end of June this year, the Saxon state government decided at the last minute to provide the missing funds after all.
