St Otto

Otto was the born to a poor and simple family; he was the family’s 12th child. He wanted to become a priest since he was little and when he was old enough he went to a seminary to study. He became a priest as soon as he was old enough (1907) and he had finished all his studies. Like St. Edith, he was alive when the Nazis government in Germany took over. The Nazis’ did not like Jewish people and they also did not like Catholic priests. They did not want anybody to live out their Catholic faith. They treated the priests very badly, to try and scare people into turning their backs on Jesus. Fr. Otto was not afraid of the Nazis and he kept celebrating mass and leading the people in his Church. The Nazis’ arrested Fr. Otto and took him to a concentration camp, first in Dachau and then in Buchenwald; like all the other prisoners he was treated very badly. Even in this very bad place where no one was allowed to live out their faith, Fr. Otto was a priest for all of the prisoners. There was a prisoner who came to know Jesus through Fr. Otto’s teachings and he wanted to be baptized; Fr. Otto made plans to baptize him even in prison. When the Nazi guards heard about Fr. Otto’s plans they took him and tortured him until he died. Fr. Otto died a martyr, serving his God and the people around him.