W Bro Stan Marut PPrJGD SLGR gives a brief account of the oppression of Freemasons by the Nazis during the Second World War and secret Lodge meetings held in Esterwegen prison camp in Germany.
Before the diversion into this particular story, I had wanted to look at the persecution of freemasonry by fascist and communist regimes in Europe and their renaissance in the post war period and also in eastern Europe “post perestroika.” Middlesex Lodges have been visited by prominent members of overseas Grand Lodges including the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the Czech Republic. Also, there have been visitors from the National Grand Lodge of Romania and more recently a Middlesex Mason originally from North Macedonia was invited to return to his “native land” to attend a special Installation meeting with visitors from other Constitutions in the Balkans. This post-communism/fascism masonic rebirth will be a story for another day.
Whilst scrolling through Facebook I came across a post by a Buckinghamshire freemason regarding a secret freemasons’ Lodge which held meetings under the nose of the Nazis in a German prison camp during 1943/1944. Not only that he posted images of a memorial sculpture to those freemasons who had taken part in these events. This intrigued me and I endeavoured to enquire further. On exploring, it appeared that the story had already appeared in THE SQUARE magazine a while back. The recent Holocaust Memorial Day on the 27thJanuary 2025 is a reminder to civilisation of the atrocities committed against the Jews and to the extension of these abominations against others who were freemasons and suffered the consequences of their beliefs and memberships.
The story recounted is one which will resonate amongst freemasons worldwide regardless of Constitution. Wikipedia gives the following description of Esterwegen,” The Esterwegen concentration camp was an early Nazi concentration camp within a series of camps first established in the Emsland district of Germany. It was established in the summer of 1933 as a concentration camp for 2000 so-called political Schutzhäftlinge (protective custody prisoners) and was for a time the second largest concentration camp after Dachau. The camp was closed in summer of 1936. Thereafter, until 1945 it was used as a prison camp. Political prisoners and so-called Nacht und Nebel prisoners were also held there. “Nacht and Nebel”, which translates as Night and Fog, was a directive issued by Hitler targeting political activists. Freemasons came under this category and could be imprisoned, executed or simply made to disappear. If you happened to be a resistance fighter and a Freemason your fate would have been sealed.
A Lodge In Captivity
In the Esterwegen camp there were some Belgian freemasons who had been incarcerated. For a brief moment in time, they formed a “Lodge”, Loge Liberté Chérie in the camp and were able to conduct a form of masonic meeting. There were seven of them at the outset of which one “Brother Luc Somerhausen”, a member of Loge Action et Solidarité, was the Deputy Grand Secretary of the Grand Orient of Belgium, Of course, there would not have been a Warrant, albeit they did write a Charter for the Lodge and on the 28th November 1943 held their first meeting and elected Officers of the Lodge. The WM was a Bro Paul Hanson, a member of Lodge Hirom, the Senior Warden was Bro Luc Somerhausen, Bro Franz Rochat, a member of Loge les Amisphilanthropes, as Secretary and Bro Dr Amedee Miclotte as Orator. At subsequent meetings within their camp accommodations, they discussed matters of philosophy and the future of Belgium after the war. The first initiate came in on the 20th February 1944 a Fernand Erauw. In the meantime, a Bro Jean Baptiste de Scrijver, a member of Loge La Liberte and former high ranking Cabinet Officer in the Belgium Ministry of Defence, arrived at the camp after being arrested for espionage and carrying weapons. Strange but true there were several catholic priests in the barrack where the Lodge met and they in taking turns would act as a Tyler and keep a look out for the camp guards. This is an amazing story and the memory of those who were incarcerated and subsequently lost their lives deserves to be preserved.
The Lodge came to an abrupt end when many of those involved, ten in number, were dispersed to other concentration camps and Esterwegen was closed in May 1944. There had been ten members during that brief moment in time when these freemasons came together in adversity. The story is ultimately a tragic one and many of those who formed the Lodge died before the end of the war under dire circumstances.
The Lodge was subsequently given a formal status as having existed by the Grand Orient of Belgium post war.
English Freemasons Under Threat
Most freemasons today will be aware that the Nazis occupied the Channel Islands and ransacked the Masonic Temple in Jersey. Indeed, Hitler had a plan to invade England in 1940 and there had already been prepared a blacklist of people researched by the Gestapo of which freemasons were an integral part. The list contained many names of others who formed part of a special wanted list. One can only speculate about the outcome of such a scenario and be thankful that it never came to pass on the mainland of the UK.
This description below highlights the aims of such a list.
“Freemasons were considered political and wore a red identifier as did other political prisoners. As well as a list containing 2,820 names of politicians, writers, known intelligence agents, scientists and individuals, at the back of the book there is a directory of institutions such as newspaper offices, embassies, universities, trade unions and Masonic Lodges which the Nazis were interested in shutting down. Members would be taken into ‘protective custody’, and the infrastructure of every area of British society would be swiftly dismantled and destroyed.
The Freemasons would also be targeted, just as they had been in Nazi Germany, when Hitler came to power. During the occupation of the Channel Islands, Masonic Lodges were universally shut down. Hitler hated Freemasonry, and described it to his Staff in 1942 as “an immense enterprise of corruption” and “a handful of men of men who are responsible for the war”. Its rituals, he considered, “transformed men who were quite sane and sober in their ordinary lives into informed apes”, and former Freemasons were only allowed to become Nazis if he gave his personal approval.
There is much more to be read on this subject and a book in English entitled “A Light in the Darkness” gives the whole story of Lodge Libérte Chérie”. Equally, by following the links shown below you will be able to understand more about the persecution of freemasons not only during the second world war but in modern history. It is estimated that between 80,000 and 200,000 freemasons lost their lives during the Nazi period.
The Grand Orient of Belgium did not require a belief in the existence of a Supreme Being and broke from UGLE. Today it is not in amity with the United Grand Lodge of England and only the Regular Grand Lodge of Belgium is recognised.
W Bro Stan Marut has visited the sites of Concentration Camps over a number of years in both Germany and Poland namely; Dachau (Munich), Sachsenhausen (Oranienburg near Berlin), Auschwitz (Poland), Majdanek (Lublin – Poland) and Belzec (Eastern Poland).
See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esterwegen_concentration_camp
https://www.thesquaremagazine.com/mag/article/202011forget-me-not/
https://www.thesquaremagazine.com/mag/article/202301loge-liberte-cherie/
