Holy Family - Nativity Set for Christmas 1946
Material: thick cardboard, painted with oil paints
Size: between 7.8 cm. and 21 cm. (height) and 11.8 and 15.4 cm. (width)
Artist: Edmund Freiherr Gedult von Jungenfeld, war prisoner in camp 501, block 1, in the so-called "Seminary behind Barbed Wire" at Chartres; today, a retired priest in Mainz.
Time: Before Christmas, 1946
- © Archives of the German Catholic Military Bishop 2006
This small nativity grouping was constructed for Christmas 1946 at the special request of the library of the "Seminary behind Barbed Wire."
At Christmas, a number of nativity sets were fashioned for block 1 of the prisoner of war camp 501 at Chartres: the one for the chapel was made of clay and the one for the large dining hall was constructed of life-sized figures that were created as a community project, in which Edmund von Jungenfeld, the creator of the nativity for the library, himself fashioned a shepherd.
From 1945-1947, a so-called "Seminary behind Barbed Wire" arose outside the gates of block 1 of the prisoner of war camp 501. At the initiative of General Boissau, the opportunity was given to a number of the prisoners to prepare and complete their first level of theological studies, which the universities of Freiburg and Mainz accepted as college level work.
The purpose for this seminary erected by the French was to provide a spirited and spiritual education for young men who felt called to undertake the practical and moral responsibility for the moral reconstruction of Germany. Specifically, the intent was to counteract the negative indoctrination which the men had received in Germany under National Socialism.
Almost 1000 young men took theological studies in this "Seminary behind Barbed Wire." As a result, this incarcerated house of studies became the largest seminary for priests in European history.
- © Archives of the German Catholic Military Bishop 2006. Photo: Georg Müller
The seminary administration was provided by the French military chaplain, Abbe Franz Stock, who along with other instructors, supported also by laity, attempted to establish a regular seminary environment. Franz Stock (1904-1948), a priest from Paderborn, had continuously served since 1934 as the pastor of the German-speaking congregation in Paris. Besides his pastoral responsibilities, he was also asked after WWI to seek to make a contribution to French-German understanding. With the German occupation of France, and especially of Paris, Franz Stock was after 1940, given the responsibility for pastoral care in the German prisons. He was also given the difficult assignment of ministering to those prisoners who had been sentenced to death.
Although he was in poor health, he did not return to his homeland, but expended himself with renewed energy in order to effect the administration of spirited and spiritual education for a generation of young men in a strategic and sensitive way.
In June 1947, the "Barbed Wire Seminary" came to an end, and the seminarians and their teachers who were prisoners of war were given their freedom.
On Feb. 24, 1948, Franz Stock died in Paris.
Translated by Prof. Dr. David Zersen, Austin/Texas