"You will pray" — What the German soldier did to the prisoner nun shocks even believers

"You will pray" — What the German soldier did to the prisoner nun shocks even believers


I have spent sixty times over trying to forget that man's voice, but it always comes back. Sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes while I'm praying, sometimes for no reason at all. It's a deep, drawling voice with a strong German accent. And she always says the same thing about virbet clanon.



You will pray, little nun. I prayed. God knows I prayed, but not in the way he wanted. My name is Ian Marceau. I am years old today. I live in a simple house in the countryside, far from everything and everyone. But in 1943, I was Sister Eliane, a young 24-year-old nun who believed that the habit protected me from evil, that the cross on my chest was a shield, that God would not allow anyone to touch a consecrated woman.


I was wrong . At that time, war was already consuming all of Europe. Paris was occupied. The Russians felt the fear. People were whispering. Nobody trusted anybody. And I, naive as I was, thought that inside the convent of Saintcir l'école, near the capital, we would be safe. After all, we were just nuns.


We were taking care of orphans. We pray for the dead. We posed no threat to anyone. But for them, it didn't matter. It was a September morning. I remember the grey sky, the cold wind coming in through the cracks in the wooden windows. I was in the convent library putting away old liturgical books when I heard the writing.


At first I thought it was an argument between the children in the yard. Then I heard glass breaking, [music] heavy boots hitting the stone floor, orders in German echoing in the corridors. My heart stopped. I dropped the book I was holding and ran towards the door. I saw the upper sea pushed against the wall by a soldier in uniform....

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