Hubert Schiffer

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Hubert Schiffer SJ , complete Hubert Friedrich Heinrich Schiffer (born July 15, 1915 in Gütersloh ; † March 27, 1982 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German Jesuit , economist and a survivor of the atomic bomb " Little Boy " ( Hiroshima ).

Life

Hubert Schiffer was a son of the auditor Fritz Schiffer and his wife Anna, b. Gertzen. He attended the Prinz-Georg-Gymnasium , the Gymnasium of the White Fathers and the Hohenzollern-Gymnasium in Düsseldorf . On May 25, 1934, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in 's-Heerenberg . His ordination by Bishop Johannes Roß SJ took place on October 31, 1943 in Tokyo .

Schiffer taught from 1948 to 1949 at the University of Hiroshima and the Sophia University in Tokyo . In July 1949 he left Japan on the USAT General WH Gordon for San Francisco . From 1950 he completed a master's and a PhD in economics at Fordham University in New York City and taught economics at Fordham University in New York, Sophia University in Tokyo (1954-1957), at Manhattanville College in Purchase (New York) (1957–1958) and Loyola University New Orleans as well as professor of economics at the Jesuit Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia in the US state of Pennsylvania . In the 1960s he taught economics and was assistant director of the computing center at the University of Oklahoma at Norman, Oklahoma . Since his time at Loyola University New Orleans, he was editor-in-chief of the magazine Modern Society , which appeared in 13 volumes up to 1970. Among other things, he was the author of a book on the Japanese banking system. Most recently, he worked as a retreat master at the Montserrat Jesuit Retreat House on Lake Dallas in Texas before returning to Germany in 1977. Here he was still working as a pastor in Oberursel until he died of a heart attack in 1982 at the age of 67 .

Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor

On August 6, 1945, Schiffer was with three other Fathers, Hugo Lassalle , Wilhelm Kleinsorge (1907–1977) and Hubert Cieslik (1914–1988), in the rectory next to the Catholic parish church Maria Himmelfahrt , which is now the World Peace Church (Hiroshima ) rises. That took them eight blocks, about 1.5 km from ground zero . Schiffer was injured so badly that he could only be rescued from Asano Park (actually Shukkei Garden ) with the help of his friars , where he could escape. He noticed the flash of light and immediately followed by the sound of glass and wood shattering. Despite his severely bleeding cut behind his ear, he still helped free other buried victims, but was then severely weakened. Several other Jesuits who had survived in the novitiate house on the outskirts took part in the rescue, including Helmut Erlinghagen , Klaus Luhmer and Johannes Siemes . Siemes reports that Schiffer lost so much blood that the rescue group was concerned about his chances of survival. He recovered, however, and in September Schiffer was examined by numerous American and Japanese doctors and scientists in Tokyo. As one of a total of 16 Jesuits who were in the Hiroshima area when the bomb was dropped, he survived the explosion by 37 years.

Since his arrival in the United States, Schiffer's endeavor was to meet the crew of the Enola Gay . First, in the early 1950s, he succeeded in doing this with co-pilot Robert Lewis, with whom he soon became friends. He met the pilot Paul Tibbets and other crew members in 1975 in Dallas .

At the same time, he began to describe the survival of the four fathers and the four Japanese residents of the rectory (a theology student, the catechist, the secretary and the housekeeper) as more than a miracle and related it to the Marian apparition of Fátima : “We believe that we survived because we lived the message of Fatima. We lived and prayed the rosary in this house every day. ”In 1953 he published his work The Rosary Of Hiroshima . His description is often shortened to "several people who stayed near the ground zero point did not suffer from radiation illness". This point of view, which cannot be found in the eyewitness reports of other Jesuits such as Klaus Luhmer and Johannes Siemes , was widespread in certain Catholic circles and was often critically questioned.

Fonts

  • The Rosary Of Hiroshima. Sacred Heart University, 1953 ( online )
  • The Modern Japanese Banking System. New York: University Publishers, 1962.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical information , provincial archive, accessed on 23 August 2020
  2. ^ Faculty Personnel: A Directory of the Instructional Staffs of the Member Schools , American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business 1960, p. 141
  3. ^ California, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1959 , accessed on ancestry.com on August 12, 2020
  4. ↑ Hubert Schiffer Vet 13 Aug 1957 , The Daily News of August 3, 1957, accessed on August 12, 2020 (English)
  5. ↑ "Atom Survivor In Radio Talk" , The Catholic Advocate, Volume 11, Number 28 of July 5, 1962, accessed on August 12, 2020 (English)
  6. ↑ Modern Society 13 (1970), p. 34
  7. ↑ Miamian who dropped bomb , The Miami News, August 6, 1982, accessed August 12, 2020
  8. ↑ Helmut Erlinghagen: Hiroshima and we - eyewitness reports and perspectives. (1982)
  9. ↑ Eyewitness Account of Hiroshima; By Father John A. Siemes, professor of modern philosophy at Tokyo's Catholic University , Hiroshima & Nagasaki Remembered
  10. ↑ Johannes Siemes: Hiroshima - August 6th, 1945 full text : Father Schiffer is on the ground pale as a ghost. He has a deep incised wound behind the ear and has lost so much blood that we are concerned about his chances for survival.
  11. ↑ Researcher confirms that 16 Jesuits experienced Hiroshima A-bombing and told world of tragedy , Hiroshima Peace Media Center, November 12, 2019, accessed on August 12, 2020
  12. ↑ http://www.de-vrouwe.info/de/amsterdam-2003/11073-2003-hiroshi-tatsuchi
  13. ↑ THE BOMBER AND THE MISSIONARY: Another Unusual Hiroshima Reunion on conelrad.blogspot.com from September 14, 2010, accessed on August 12, 2020 (English)
  14. ↑ Miamian who dropped bomb , The Miami News, August 6, 1982, accessed August 12, 2020
  15. ↑ “We believe that we survived because we were living the Message of Fatima. We lived and prayed the Rosary daily in that home. " The Miracle of Hiroshima , accessed August 12, 2020
  16. ↑ For example: christian-miracles.com
  17. ↑ ubonse.de (PDF)
  18. ↑ Example: Did eight Jesuit priests survive the nuking of Hiroshima without serious injury? , accessed on August 12, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Schiffer, Hubert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schiffer, Hubert F.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Jesuit, economist and survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Gutersloh
DATE OF DEATH March 27, 1982
Place of death Frankfurt am Main