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On 27 January this year, the world will commemorate the liberation by Soviet troops of the infamous camp at Auschwitz<\/a>, where so many people perished during the Second World War. Sadly, this was not the end for all camps. Many people would continue to die in other camps over the next few months. Among those who perished were Fernand Tonnet<\/a> and Paul Garcet (1901-1945), two members of the ‘founder trio’ of the Belgian JOC, who died at the Nazi death camp at Dachau in January and February 1945.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Born in\n1894, Fernand Tonnet met young Fr Joseph Cardijn within weeks of the latter\u2019s\nappointment as a curate in the parish of Our Lady of Laeken near Brussels at\nEaster 1912. Having already learned the Sillon<\/a>\u2019s methods of formation from\nanother priest, Fernand began immediately to work with his new mentor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\noutbreak of the First World War in August 1914 interrupted this work when\nFernand was called to arms after Germany\u2019s invasion of Belgium. Fortunately,\nFernand survived the trenches although he did suffer lasting damage from the\neffects of gas. Finally in 1919 he was able to return to Laeken where he soon\nteamed up again with Cardijn and two other young men, Paul Garcet and Jacques\nMeert, to launch the Jeunesse Syndicaliste<\/em><\/a> (Young Trade Unionists),\nthe forerunner of the Jeunesse Ouvri\u00e8re Chr\u00e9tienne<\/em> (JOC) or Young\nChristian Workers (YCW).<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the\nnext six years the dynamic group worked together to develop the emerging\nmovement, eventually gaining the approval of Pope Pius XI for their initiative.\nThis in turn led to an explosion of growth of the YCW with 400 new teams\nlaunched in 1925 alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elected\nas national president at the first national congress in 1925, Tonnet continued\nto play a leading role. In 1927, he travelled to France to assist in the launch\nof the movement in Paris and Lille, where he was welcomed as the first\n\u201cinternational president\u201d of the emerging movement. As the movement continued\nto grow, he helped organise many of its major events, including the first\npilgrimage to Rome in 1929. He also had a particular talent and interest in\npublishing and was instrumental in the launch of the movement\u2019s colour\nmagazine, JOC. Even more importantly, he played a key role in forming a whole\ngeneration of young leaders of the 1920s and 1930s, a period that has come to\nbe recognised as the Golden Age of the JOC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1934,\nnow aged 40, he relinquished his post as president and went to work with the\nCSC Christian Trade Union in the Charleroi region, where he developed a\nformidable reputation as an organiser and advocate for worker rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1938,\nhe changed tack to join the Action Catholique des Hommes (Men\u2019s Catholic\nAction) movement, where he again made excellent use of his talent in developing\npublications and resources for local teams and leaders. There he remained until\nhis arrest in 1943.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Born in\n1901, Paul Garcet first came into contact with Cardijn around 1915 via the Pius\nX Eucharistic League in the parish. Soon after, he also joined the local\n\u201cpatronage\u201d or parish youth club, where he got to know Tonnet albeit, given\ntheir age difference, from afar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By 1919,\nthe war was over and Paul was eighteen. He now teamed up with the recently\nreturned Tonnet and the young metalworker, Jacques Meert, to work on\nestablishing the Young Trade Unionists. Soon after, Cardijn found him a job as\nan accountant with the Christian Trade Union Federation in Brussels, enabling\nhim to devote much energy and time to the promotion of the new movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the\nfirst JOC congress in 1925, Garcet was elected national treasurer and together\nwith Tonnet and Meert, he became a fulltime worker for the movement. Cardijn\ndescribed them as the \u201cfounder trio\u201d of the movement with \u201cFernand, the head,\nPaul, the heart and Jacques, the hands.\u201d Others added Cardijn\u2019s name to the\nlist as the \u201cfire\u201d or the \u201csoul\u201d of the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As\ntreasurer, Paul successfully tackled the difficult challenge of ensuring that\nthe movement met its budget needs, always a challenge but particularly in those\nearly years of rapid growth. Indeed, the growth of the movement\u2019s assets and\nresources during this period evidences the effectiveness of his work. During\nthis period, he was also responsible for JOC\u2019s vocational orientation program\nfor young people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally,\nin 1933, he took leave of the movement to marry Jeanne Partous, another pioneer\nand co-founder of the JOCF in the Brussels region. Together they had three\nchildren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1935,\nhe became administrative director of La Cit\u00e9 Nouvelle<\/em>, a progressive\nChristian magazine while he also worked to develop a successor movement to the\nJOC, the Ligue Ouvri\u00e8re Chr\u00e9tienne <\/em>(LOC) or Christian Worker\nLeague. Meanwhile, he continued to collaborate with Tonnet on the development\nof a network of former YCW leaders. Sadly, much of this work was interrupted by\nthe outbreak of World War II in September 1939.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1940,\nBelgium was once again occupied by invading German forces. Yet despite dangers,\nTonnet and Garcet continued their apostolic work. Although they were not formal\nmembers of the underground resistance, they nevertheless took many risks to\nprovide aid to those in need. Inevitably, their actions came under scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul\nGarcet was the first to be arrested at the beginning of June 1943 for allegedly\nhelping to provide lodging for a parachutist member of the Resistance. Fernand,\nwho had telephoned Paul to ask his assistance for the task, was quick to blame\nhimself for the arrest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Several\ndays later, Fernand, himself was interrogated by the Gestapo and accused of\nfailing to report the parachutist\u2019s location. From the beginning of August, the\nGestapo returned again on several occasions, seeking to arrest him.\nFortunately, he was absent each time, but it was clear that his days of freedom\nwere numbered. At this point, Fernand could have himself sought to take refuge.\nHowever, fearing that others would be blamed if he disappeared, Tonnet refused\nto leave, despite the entreaties of his friends and colleagues. Finally, on 10\nAugust, the police returned and were able to arrest and imprison him at the\nSaint Gilles prison, where Cardijn had also been interned and where Paul Garcet\nalong with other colleagues were also being held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the\nend of August 1943, both Fernand and Paul were transferred to the \u201cdeath camp\u201d\nat Esterwegen in north-west Germany. Here the task of dehumanising them began.\nThey had their heads shaved, their clothes taken and they were given numbers by\nwhich they would be identified. They were both classified among the most\ndangerous prisoners with the initials \u201cN.N\u201d, which stood for \u201cNacht und\nNebel<\/em>\u201d, literally \u201cNight and Fog\u201d, signalling that all trace of their\nexistence was to disappear. As Marguerite Fi\u00e9vez wrote in her biography of Tonnet,\nit was a kind of \u201cdeath sentence without the name,\u201d turning them into \u201cliving\ndead.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Together\nwith them were a number of other former JOC leaders and chaplains. They were\nput to work sorting cartridges and recycling materials for use by the Nazi war\nmachine. In response, they both looked for ways to slow down and impede the\nwork. Doing the least work possible, they both sought to come to the aid of\nother prisoners, offering them spiritual and emotional support in their\ndistress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tonnet\nand Garcet remained at Esterwegen<\/a> for seven months until 20\nMarch 1944 when they and others were moved to another death camp at Bayreuth\n(known as the Flossenb\u00fcrg camp<\/a>), where they were forced to do\nhard labour. In these conditions, their health slowly began to decline. On 21\nMay, Tonnet recorded that he weighed a mere 51.5 kg. At the end of summer 1944,\nthis labour ended and both were confined to their cells. Now Fernand and Paul\nwere again separated from one another. Nevertheless, they both continued to\nprovide moral and spiritual support to their fellow prisoners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally,\non 29 November 1944, the Bayreuth camp was emptied and many prisoners\ntransferred to the sinister camp at Dachau<\/a> in Upper Bavaria. By now, the\ntemperature had fallen below freezing, to15\u00b0, 18\u00b0 and 22\u00b0 below zero on\noccasion. Around 40 men were lodged together in three rooms. By now, most were too\nfeeble to work and spent their days in bed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fernand\nwas in a greatly weakened state. Nevertheless, he continued to gain the\nadmiration of his colleagues. \u201cThe impression I had of Fernand Tonnet at Dachau\nperfectly confirmed the impression I already had of him,\u201d one former JOC\nchaplain, Fr Mauroy, who survived the camp, later wrote. \u201cHe was a layman\nextremely close to God, with a great delicacy of conscience. He was truly a\nfervent devotee of sanctity.\u201d Fr Mauroy concluded, \u201cHowever, you had to\ndiscover this from the inside without looking at the outside of a man who had\nalready lost all the dash and dynamism he once had\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI saw\nhim,\u201d recalled the Jesuit theologian, Fr L\u00e9on de Coninck, who later wrote of\nhis experience in a book, Dachau, bagne pour\npr\u00eatres<\/em><\/a> <\/em>(Dachau: Prison for priests).\n(See also Guillaume Zeller, The Priest Barracks:\nDachau, 1938-1945<\/a>). \n\u201cHe was in a terrible state, lacking clothes, worn out with fatigue and dying\nof hunger.\u201d But when food packages arrived from the Red Cross, always too few\nfor the number of prisoners, Tonnet gave up his own in favour of others, and when\nother parcels arrived later, he shared his with other prisoners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Together\nagain for the last time, Fernand and Paul continued to help organise prayer and\neven covert Mass services within the camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But this\ndid not last long. The month of January was extremely cold. Paul had come to\nthe end. By 20 January 1945, he was already close to a comatose state. On 23\nJanuary, he finally succumbed with Fernand at his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tonnet\u2019s\nown demise was also now only a week away as he continued to weaken to the point\nthat he could no longer eat. \u201cThat\u2019s it!\u201d he told his companions on 1 February.\n\u201cI can\u2019t continue. I no longer need anything!\u201d By the morning of 2 February\n1945, he too was dead. Less than three months later, Dachau was liberated by\nAmerican forces. But it was too late to save the JOC founders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cardijn\nof course never forgot Fernand Tonnet\u2019s and Paul Garcet\u2019s contribution. In\n1965, just after he had become a cardinal and as Vatican II neared its\nconclusion, he gave his backing to calls for their beatification. \u201cIt was not\nprimarily their arrest, stay and martyrdom in the Dachau camp that set them\napart for the heroism of holiness,\u201d Cardijn said at the time. \u201cMany others have\ndisplayed a similar sublime heroism. No, their whole adolescence and youth was\nmarked by the faith and an apostolic mission, by daily recourse to the most\nauthentic sources of holiness and apostolate, by an unparalleled charity and\nrenouncement, by goodness, gentleness and perseverance in the service of the\nhumblest and most abandoned,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFernand Tonnet<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Paul Garcet<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Arrest & imprisonment<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Death<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Cardijn\u2019s tribute<\/h4>\n\n\n\n