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Dachau: Opening March 4, 2004

Icon from the Russian Orthodox Memorial Chapel at Dachau, depicting Angels opening the doors of the Dachau Concentration Camp and Our Lord guiding prisoners.

Press Release
February 5, 2004
Media Contact: Suzanne Maris Santos
312.655.1234

Museum Exhibit Memorializes 1945 Orthodox Resurrection Service at Dachau

On March 5 the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center will unveil a powerful exhibit, Dachau: April 29, 1945 – An Orthodox Christian Memorial. This exhibit explores a historical event that few know about and even fewer experienced. Just days after their liberation by the U.S. military on April 29, 1945, hundreds of Orthodox Christian prisoners at Dachau gathered to celebrate the Easter Resurrection service and to give thanks. The exhibit recounts their story.

Dachau: April 29, 1945 includes the detailed journal account by a Russian Prisoner R. 64923, Gleb Alexadrovitch Rahr, who describes the event with passion. His entry begins with his arrival at the concentration camp on April 27,1945, having been one of 1,300 of the original 5,000 prisoners from Buchenwald to survive the journey. As he begins, “Many (prisoners) were shot, some starved to death, while others died of typhus.”

After describing the camp’s liberation, Prisoner Rahr wrote of the May 6th Resurrection service during which eighteen Orthodox Christian priests and one deacon conducted the liturgy, reciting scripture from memory. The clergy were donned in their gray and white prisoner uniforms, over which they wore liturgical stoles that had been fashioned from towels and adorned with the red crosses originally worn by SS medical personnel.

These priests and Orthodox Christians who lost their lives at Dachau are memorialized at every Divine Service held in the Dachau Russian Orthodox Memorial Chapel in Germany. This chapel contains a large icon depicting the liberation of the camp and the ensuing Resurrection Service – a replica of which is in the Museum exhibit.

A number of programs complementing the exhibit have been planned including a Pan-Orthodox Memorial Service on Thursday, March 4, at 7pm. This service will be conducted by local Orthodox Christian Hierarchs and Clergy representing the local Orthodox Christian jurisdictions.

On Sunday, April 18 at 3pm there will be a presentation on the Greek Village of Distomo entitled Distomo Remembered: June 10, 1944. On Sunday, March 14th, at 3pm Father Evagoras Constantinides will present a slide presentation and Lecture entitled Dachau: The Ultimate in Cruelty.

The Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center is located on the fourth floor of the Greek Islands Building, 801 West Adams. Regular Gallery Hours are Monday through Friday, 10am – 4pm. The Museum will also be opened on Sunday, March 28 from 10am – 4pm. Admission is free to Members; $5 for non-members. Special fees may apply to programs.

For more information call the Museum at 312.655.1234.

Museum Hours: Tuesday-Friday 10 am - 4 pm
801 West Adams, 4th Floor Chicago, Illinois 60607

Phone: 312.655.1234
Fax: 312.655.1221