Patrick Desbois is a Catholic priest and President of Yahad – In Unum. He also serves as director of the Episcopal Committee for Catholic-Judeo Relations, under the auspices of the French Conference of Bishops. The grandson of a WWII French prisoner held in the Rawa Ruska camp on the Poland-Ukraine border, he began in 2004 to research the story of the Jewish, Roma and other victims murdered in Eastern Europe during WWII by the Nazi mobile killing units, the Einsatzgruppen.

Father Desbois has devoted his life to researching the Holocaust, fighting anti-Semitism, and furthering relations between Catholic and Jews.

His work through Yahad has been recognized through numerous awards and commentary in France and internationally.

Youth

Father Desbois was born in Chalon- sur-Saône, France, in 1955. His childhood was greatly impacted by his grandfather, who, as a French soldier during World War II, had been imprisoned in the Ukrainian prison camp at Rawa Ruska. His grandfather spoke little of what occurred there, saying only “for others, it was worse.” For years, young Patrick did not know who these “others” were, or what their “worse” fate entailed. His grandfather’s experience remained obscure, until, at 12 years old, he found a library book about the Holocaust. The book’s pages revealed images of the genocide he had known only as a distant, painful family mystery. One picture in particular finally gave meaning to his grandfather’s words: a photograph of Jewish men and women in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. The “others” were these Jews; their fate was “worse” because it was unimaginable. From that day forward, Father Desbois saw Jewish history as inextricably tied to his own. While passion for his own religion would later bring him to the clergy, he longed to understand the religion of those whose agony his grandfather had witnessed.

Early professional life and entry into the clergy

Before he studied religion, he studied mathematics, his focus as a university student and later as a teacher working for the French government in West Africa. His work abroad was not limited to the classroom; he also helped Mother Theresa set up homes for the dying in Calcutta. While there, he was struck by the villagers’ persistent faith in God. Upon his return to France, Father Desbois shocked his secular family in announcing his decision to become a priest. During his clerical studies, Father Desbois supplemented studies of Catholicism with studies of Judaism. He spent time at Yad Vashem where he learned the history of anti-Semitism. He also worked closely with Dr. Charles Favre, a leader in the French Jewish community. Together, the two studied Jewish history, culture and religion.

Father Desbois’ work in Eastern Europe

In 2002, Father Desbois traveled to the Ukraine, so he could finally see where his grandfather and the “others” had suffered. What shocked Father Desbois was not what he saw, but what he did not see. Father Desbois knew that 10,000 Jews had been killed there, but he saw no marking or memorial of any kind. When he asked the town’s mayor at the time where the Jews were buried, the mayor replied simply, “We don’t know anything about that.” Father Desbois began to ask questions. He quickly learned that since the massacre, there had been little investigation into what had occurred and no proper documentation of it. Yet, as Father Desbois further explored the town, he realized the massacre’s presence had not entirely vanished: its imprint lived in the memories of its witnesses. These witnesses, now aged, spoke little about the past, but it lurked over the village in marked silence.

A Mission

In 2004, in an effort to lift this silence, Father Desbois helped create Yahad – In Unum. The organization funds missions by research teams to Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Poland to interview those, who, like Patrick’s grandfather, witnessed the ultimate evil. In these interviews, witnesses can finally give voice to what they saw; Father Desbois listens with the sensitivity of a priest and probes with the curiosity of a detective. His aim is and always has been to unleash the truth and the stories of those who perished.