How the Virgin Mary saved my dad’s life in a concentration camp

"During the Second World War, my father was arrested for participating in the Resistance. He spent three years in concentration camps in Germany, along with his group of 10 resistance fighters. As a great lover of the Virgin Mary, he prayed his rosary a lot. His mother, of whom he was the only son, had no news of him but, trusting in Mary, she continued to believe in his return by praying rosary after rosary.

One day when my father was exhausted and hungry, as were all his fellow prisoners, the SS on duty commanded the prisoners to carry stones from a quarry to the place where they planned to construct a building. Each prisoner was given a stone to carry. When my father saw the stone assigned to him, he knew that his time had come, because it was so big he could not have lifted it even an inch. He also knew that if he did not carry it, the dogs would jump on him and the SS would finish him off like an animal. He had seen these scenes happen before.

Standing by his stone, in his distress, he looked up. He saw a simple village house, which happened to have a small niche with a statue of the Virgin Mary. When my father saw the statue, he cried out inwardly, "Mary, save me!" At that very moment, the heavy stone weighed nothing! My father told us, "It had become lighter than a piece of confetti!" Of his entire group of resistance fighters, he was the only one to come back alive (this is why I am here today!). Needless to say, my father never failed to pray his rosary every day!"

Sister Emmanuel Maillard (Member of the Community of the Beatitudes)

Excerpt from Le Rosaire, un voyage qui te change la vie, by Sister Emmanuel Maillard, Editions des Béatitudes, 2019