Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance (Trappists)
THE LÖB FAMILY MARTYRS
of Tilburg and Berkel in the NetherlandsThe moving death of our seven Brothers of Atlas leads us to remember another group of seven martyrs, the Löb family, who died victims of the Nazi persecution during World War II.
They were a Christian family of Jewish origin, who were arrested at the same time as Edith Stein and several other Christians of Jewish origin in the Netherlands after the outspoken pastoral letter of the Dutch bishops protesting the cruelties done to the Jewish people.
One extraordinary thing about the Löb family is that three of the four sons were monks of Koningshoeven Abbey (Tilburg) and three of the four daughters were nuns of Berkel.
The English version of a short history of the Löb family, that we present here, was prepared some thirty years ago by Father Ansgar Christensen, then a monk of New Melleray and now a monk of Tre Fontane, on the basis of a Dutch narrative written by a monk of Koningshoeven.
See the Composite Photo of the seven Löb martyrs taken shortly before their arrest.
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