Polish Church Gets Back Bell Stolen By Nazis
by Stefan Bos, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – A 16th-century church bell will be returned to a Catholic church in southern Poland some 77 years after the German Nazis plundered it in World War Two.
Parishioners in Slawiecice began searching for the church’s 465-year-old bell two years ago.
It was eventually found in the German city of Münster. The Polish church’s pastor Marian Bednarek said the 400 kilograms (880lb) bell was listed in a book.
The discovery comes as a New Year’s miracle because the Nazis melted down some 80,000 bells to make weapons or ammunition, according to figures released by the Münster diocese.
It was stored for decades unnoticed with two other bells in a courtyard at the Catholic Church.
They were among the bells that had not been melted down for their metal content. The Nazis had seized some 1,300 bells in eastern territories such as Poland. They were initially kept in a bell cemetery in Hamburg. Photo’s of them were kept in an archive in Nuremberg.
The diocese said that British military authorities had banned the return of bells to the east. Instead, they were loaned out to parishes across the old West Germany.
When it arrives at the St Catherine’s church, it will be on permanent loan as officially it is now owned by the German government. But the church wasn’t able to ring in the New Year with the famous bell due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Hans Manek, a former resident of Slawiecice, isn’t worried. “After 77 years, waiting another month or so doesn’t really matter.”
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