“Why I Love Azaleas"
Leia Ruebling and Benjamin Reese, students of Carola Daffner, Associate Professor of German at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale, Illinois, started a German translation project where they discovered the role women played in the resistance to the Third Reich. Their discovery led them to want to know more. As their student project unfolded, a traveling World War II (WWII) exhibit was brought to SIU titled, “Long Live Freedom!” Youth Resistance in the Third Reich. Sister Carol Marie Wildt was asked to be an opening speaker for the traveling exhibit. She presented “Why I Love Azaleas,” an account of Sister Mary Imma Mack’s experience as a candidate for the School Sisters of Notre Dame during WWII.
You can watch the presentation of Sister Carol Marie given on Monday, April 1.
Catholic Nuns and Nazi Resistance: A Youth's Courage at Dachau
from Saluki World on Vimeo.
After the presentation, Leia was asked for her thoughts on Sister Mary Imma and she said, “I can’t believe she was our age (20) and would bike 21 miles one way to get to Dachau. That in itself is absolutely mind blowing.” Leia and Ben’s project has helped them realize the important role women played during WWII and the need to educate the public. Leia says, “The biggest takeaway is to realize how easy we have it now. We are very lucky to know that women took these chances and opportunities to really fight for what they believed in. That is liberating in itself. We don’t want the women’s stories to be forgotten. People need to learn that women played a big role.”
Learn more about the student’s project through the SIU newspaper.
On November 14, 2018, Sister Carol Marie Wildt gave a presentation at Fontbonne University in St. Louis, about Sister Mary Imma (Josefa) Mack’s memoir titled “Why I Love Azaleas.” The presentation was shared with an audience interested in gaining a better understanding of the challenges sisters faced during World War II. As a candidate to become a School Sister of Notre Dame, Sister Imma, at the age of 20, visited the Dachau concentration camp weekly for 11 months, prior to its liberation in April 1945. Sister Carol Marie stated, “She risked her life to help the prisoners, trusting in God’s protection, the support of her family and sisters in community, along with a network of collaborators.”
Sister Mary Imma Mack was born in Mockenlohe, Germany, February 10, 1924, and baptized as Josefa. She was only 9 when Hitler came into power. At the age of 14, Josefa expressed a desire to be a School Sister of Notre Dame. She was accustomed to the School Sisters because her aunt was a needlework teacher at the convent in Pfaffenhofen. Josefa spent the winter of 1937 with her aunt learning how to cook and shop. During this time, she learned about the School Sisters and their political views toward the Third Reich. As she stated in her memoir, the sisters were, “explicit, [with] absolute rejection," of the Third Reich. According to Sister Imma, as early as 1937, “Religious teachers were banished from almost all the elementary schools, and the teachers’ training schools belonging to religious communities were closed.” Since Josefa showed an interest in becoming a School Sister of Notre Dame, she was sent to a convent boarding school and then entered the candidature in Munich in 1940. In April 1942, Josefa was missioned to an orphanage in Freising, Germany.
In May 1944, Josefa was asked to make the journey to Dachau to help a friend take bread to the men suffering in the camp. At the time, Josefa did not know what to expect. She was told, “You don’t need to be afraid, and you won’t see much of the concentration camp.” On Tuesday, May 16, 1944, Josefa traveled by train to Munich, Germany, then transferred to the train for Dachau. In the 11 months that followed, every week she would take the train to Munich and Dachau and then walk, bicycle or sled to the concentration camp. The trip varied from 21 miles to 35 miles based on her mode of transportation.
Josefa’s contact at Dachau was Father Schonwalder, a younger prisoner who sold flowers, plants and seeds. It took him a while to trust Josefa but once he did, he asked her to bring in food, medicine, mail and the hosts and wine for the secret celebration of Mass for prisoners. He even suggested she change her name to Madi in an effort to keep her identity safe. Josefa reflected on what she was being asked to do, “What’s happening now in Dachau is just like the times of the early church. This is a real persecution of Christians. I became more and more certain that the time had come for my childhood longing to be fulfilled, that I was being challenged by the present circumstances to act with total selflessness.”
The book is titled “Why I Love Azaleas” because of one small act of kindness from the prisoners. Josefa was given permission to visit her parents for two weeks. Her parents had overheard she was making frequent visits to Dachau and they were very worried. On Josefa’s last trip to Dachau before heading home to visit her parents, prisoners gave her azaleas. “Wanting to give my parents some happiness, [they] gave me four pink azalea plants to take to them, a moving gesture from these poor men. Until then, I had hardly ever seen azaleas with such beautiful blossoms, and I was enormously happy to be able to surprise my parents with them,” recalled Sister Imma. In August 1945, Josefa was received into the novitiate and given the name, Sister Mary Imma. She professed her first vows in 1946, and final vows in 1952.
The School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) were in Bavaria for more than 100 years before Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. SSND’s expanded rapidly in Europe (Austria, Poland, Silesia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Sweden) after the formation of the congregation in 1833.
For further information on Sister Mary Imma Mack, please check out the following resources:
A Notre Dame sister’s ‘Courage In Conflict’ (St Louis Review)
Sturdy Roots Resource
More
If you would like to purchase a copy of the book “Why I Love Azaleas” by Sister Mary Imma (Josef) Mack please contact:
Sister Carol Marie Wildt, SSND
Archives
320 East Ripa Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63125
cwildt@ssndcp.org