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Sister Titiana – faith, love, courage and mercy
On November 25, 1944, Brüggen is evacuated. Almost all residents join the miserable exodus, but a few remain behind despite the order. Among them are the sisters of the Rochus Hospital. A discovered chronicle of the wartime events in St. Rochus Hospital likely gives voice to Sister Superior Titiana, who also creatively circumvents other orders.
Five to six nuns worked at the Rochus Hospital in Brüggen, on the corner of Hagenkreuzweg and Hochstraße, in the first years of the war. They cared for the sick and those in need. When the order came to evacuate, they refused to leave. They worried that the hospital would be looted and then unusable. Thanks to their courage, after the war St Rochus was the only building in the area that was still usable. Diary entries have been kept from that time, presumably written by the mother superior, Sister Titiana (1893-1964). 1 March 1945: ‘At 11:45 the first tank enters. Quickly the flag goes outside. We sisters stand in the open window so the Americans don't shoot. When they see us, a black soldier makes a big sign of the cross. Two Americans ask for lunch, others we bring coffee. How would our German ‘Muckefuck’ have tasted to those spoilt Americans? Anyway: for us, the war is over.’