Patrick Desbois
Patrick Desbois (born 1955, in
Education
Desbois attended the
Career
In 1978, Father Desbois worked as a math teacher for the French government in Africa. He later worked for
In 2004, he joined leaders in the French Catholic and Jewish community in founding Yahad-In Unum ("together" in Hebrew and in Latin.) The organization's purpose is to further relations between Catholics and Jews. Its largest and most ambitious initiative is to locate the sites of mass graves of Jewish victims of the Nazi mobile killing units, the Einsatzgruppen, in the former Soviet republics and Eastern bloc.[1]
His work has been sanctioned by the
Between 2015 and 2016, he taught at the Program for Jewish Civilization in the
Work with Yahad–In Unum
Father Desbois' interest in the Holocaust started at a young age, because his grandfather, who helped raise him, was a French soldier who had been deported to the Nazi prison camp in Rava-Ruska during World War II. His grandfather did not speak much of his time in the camp, and Father Desbois remained curious about the Holocaust and its Jewish victims.[1]
As a consequence of his childhood interests, Father Desbois studied the Jewish faith while preparing for his ordination as a Catholic priest. He studied anti-semitism at
In 2002, while traveling in Ukraine
The new mayor led Desbois to the forest where, Desbois says, approximately 50 elderly men and women of the village were gathered in a semicircle. "You are standing on the graves of the last 1,500 Jews of Rawa-Ruska," the mayor said. One by one the villagers stepped forward and told of their experiences during World War II. They told of how the Jews were marched out to this clearing, forced to dig steep pits and hand over their valuables before being shot. They recounted stories of how the Germans had forced them – children or teenagers at the time – to guard the Jews to prevent them from escaping, to cover the corpse-filled pits, to serve the German soldiers food and even bring them a gramophone so they could listen to music.
Desbois recalls one woman – "an old lady with a blue scarf" – who tearfully told him, "I was at my farm, I was 14, and they told me, 'Come, come' and I had to climb in the trees and pick up pieces of corpses and hide them with branches in the grave so that the next Jews will not see them. And then there arrived trucks and trucks and trucks of Jews from Rawa-Ruska."
Following these revelations, the villagers told Desbois they had never before publicly spoken of what had happened. Many asked the priest before he left, "Why are you coming so late? We have been waiting for you."[5]
In order to right the egregious wrong, Father Desbois helped found Yahad-In Unum in 2004. The organization collects information about the mass killing of Jews and Roma in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Moldova and Romania between 1941 and 1944. Local contemporary witnesses are interviewed about the mass shootings which took place next to their home and the mass graves are located. Desbois estimates that there are no less than 1 million victims buried in 1,200 graves in Ukraine.
Desbois conducts many of the interviews with the witnesses himself (and with translators). Using metal detectors, Desbois and his team have unearthed German cartridges and bullets from the pits where bodies were thrown, as well as jewelry belonging to the victims.[9] Criticisms leveled against Father Desbois include his acceptance of the confessions of complicity in war crimes by those whom he interviews. Professor Omer Bartov has stated: "Desbois doesn't ask a lot of the people that he speaks with. ...He gives the impression that it was the Germans doing all the killing, but in fact much of the organization of the genocide had a lot to do with auxiliary and local police forces. He is not interested in that".[10] Paul Shapiro of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has countered that: "Some people have been critical of his methodology, but no one else is going out and doing this kind of work. It is easy to be critical; it is much harder to have the drive, stamina and commitment to go again and again to these places."[5] In March 2014,
French president François Hollande praised the work of Father Desbois:[11]
A moment ago, you honored Father Patrick Desbois. Through his own family history, he discovered the tragedy of
Ukrainian Jews. He worked for the recognition of the 'Holocaust by Bullets' because the Holocaust had begun even before the camps, and furthermore, not only in the Ukraine. It is very important to know how the genocidal process began, and how it came to the extermination camps.
In July 2017, Pope Francis sent a blessing and a message of encouragement to Father Desbois and Yahad-In Unum, writing:[12]
The Holy Father encourages the members of ‘Yahad-In Unum’ to continue their struggle for the just recognition of the violence suffered by so many men and women belonging to different communities.
Work with Action Yazidis
Action
French president Emmanuel Macron praised his work in November 2017:[16]
I salute the importance and seriousness of the highly documented work you and your association are doing to highlight the gravity of the tragedy of the Yazidi genocide.
Patrick Desbois' book reflecting the work of Action Yazidis (with Costel Nastasie: The Terrorist Factory – ISIS, the Yazidi Genocide, and Exporting Terror) was published in 2018.[17]
Bishop's committee for relations with Judaism
Due to his position as Director of the French Episcopal Conference's Committee for Relations with Judaism, Father Desbois has had to deal with the controversy following negationist comments made by
Awards
- May 1, 2007: he was honored by the .
- May 4, 2008: Rabbi David Ellenson handed over the Roger E. Joseph Prize to Desbois in New York [5].
- May 7, 2008: At the annual National Tribute Dinner the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles presented the Jewish Medal of Valor to Desbois for his commitment to religious tolerance and cooperation [6].
- June 12, 2008: He received the Légion d'honneur for his work on the Holocaust [7]
- October 9, 2008: He won the Shofar of Freedom Award [8]
- 2008: He won a National Jewish Book Award for The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest's Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews[19]
- May 12, 2009: Bar Ilan University (Israel) [9]
- 2008: Recipient of the
- June 7, 2009: Hebrew University (Israel) [10]
- May 16, 2012: honorary doctorate from the New York University (United States) [11]
- May 3, 2013: honorary doctorate from the University of Winnipeg (Canada) [12]
- 2013: LBJ Moral Courage Award from the Holocaust Museum Houston[6]
- March 4, 2014: he was honored by the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France) with its Award [13].
- May 21, 2015: honorary doctorate from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (United States) [14]
- April 28, 2017: honorary doctorate from the St. Francis College (United States)[15]
- October 24, 2017: Tom Lantos Human Rights Prize from the Lantos Foundation [16]
- November 8, 2018: Anti-Defamation League Award at the ADL In Concert Against Hate [17]
- March 26, 2019: Raphael Lemkin Award for exemplary work in the fight against genocide in honor of his dedication to investigating and exposing crimes of genocide around the world from the World Jewish Congress and the Permanent Mission of Rwanda to the United Nations [18]
- January 25, 2023: Annetje Fels-Kupferschmidt Award from the Dutch Auschwitz Committee [19]
- June 12, 2023: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Cross of Merit 1st Class) [20]
Publications (english)
- Father Patrick Desbois, The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest's Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews, English translation by Catherine Spencer. New York: ISBN 978-0-230-61757-5(trade paper edition)
- Father Patrick Desbois, In Broad Daylight: The Secret Procedures behind the Holocaust by Bullets, English translation by Hilary Reyl and Calvert Barksdale. New York: ISBN 978-1-628-72857-6(hardback)
- Father Patrick Desbois and Costel Nastasie, The Terrorist Factory: ISIS, the Yazidi Genocide, and Exporting Terror, English translation by. New York: ISBN 978-1-628-72946-7(hardback)
See also
- Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews
- Yahad-In Unum
References
- ^ a b c d Logan, Lara (4 October 2015). "The Hidden Holocaust". 60 Minutes. CBS News. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
- ^ "Décret du 21 mars 2008 portant promotion et nomination". Retrieved 14 June 2016.
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Biography". PatrickDesbois.com. 17 August 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
- ^ Moment Magazine. Archived from the originalon 5 November 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
- ^ a b "LBJ Moral Courage Award". Holocaust Museum Houston. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
- ^ "Rev. Patrick Desbois". georgetown.edu. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
- ^ "Rev. Patrick Desbois". georgetown.edu. 24 February 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
- ^ "French priest interviews Hitler's willing executioners in Ukraine - Haaretz - Israel News". www.haaretz.com. Archived from the original on 2009-05-21.
- ^ "A Priest Bears Witness". Moment Magazine - The Next 5,000 Years of Conversation Begin Here. 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
- ^ Speech of François Hollande (March 2014)
- ^ [2], zenit.org; accessed 27 January 2018.
- ^ "BACK TO LIFE". BACK TO LIFE. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
- ^ "Why did ISIS attack the Yezidi people?". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
- ^ 'ISIS Is Not Dead' Says Priest Who Documented Ongoing Genocide Against Yazidis, CBN News, 2018-07-23
- ^ [3], facebook.com; accessed 27 January 2018.
- ^ "The Terrorist Factory". Arcade Publishing. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
- ^ La-Croix.com. "La Croix - Actualité en direct, informations France, Monde, Economie..." La Croix (in French). Retrieved 2020-09-26.
- ^ "Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
- ^ "The Holocaust By Bullets". Archived from the original on 2009-01-31. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
- ^ Horn, Jordana (January 23, 2009). "How Father Desbois Became a Holocaust Memory Keeper". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ "»The Catholic Review Online | Catholic newspaper, book review". www.catholicreview.org. Archived from the original on 2011-07-25.