Manfred Deselaers

Manfred Deselaers (born 19 May 1955 in Düsseldorf) is a German Roman Catholic priest. Vice-President of the Kraków Foundation Center for Dialogue and Prayer in Oświęcim. Member of the International Auschwitz Council of the second and third terms.

Biography After graduating from a secondary school in Viersen in 1974, he started to study law in Bonn, but in 1975 he went to Israel to join the “Action Reconciliation / Service for Peace”. There he worked mostly in a home for disabled children (Beit Cholim Alyn) in Jerusalem. Next he studied theology in Germany (Tuebingen, (1976-1981) and the USA (Chicago, 1978-1979). In 2001 he became a member of its Board and in 2008 he was appointed as Vice President of the Kraków Foundation Centre for Dialogue and Prayer.

In 2024 he published A letter from Christians from Germany, Poland and Ukraine to the Christians of the Orthodox Church in Russia, which aims "to stop the hatred and destruction that is escalating in a terrible spiral". The letter also provides spiritual support for Russian pacifists, persecuted by the authorities. In 2025 he presented the letter during the international Congress of Gniezno.

Major publications

1995: The Way of the Cross - Meditation in Auschwitz (Einhard Publishers, Aachen, 5th edition, 2001); in 1997 translated into Polish as Boże mój, Boże, czemuś mnie opuścił? (Centre for Dialogue and Prayer in Oświęcim). 1997: Und Sie hatten nie Gewissensbisse? Die Biografie von Rudolf Hoess, Kommandant von Auschwitz, und die Frage nach seiner Verantwortung vor Gott und den Menschen (Leipzig, St. Benno-Verlag; 2nd edition in 2001); in 1999 translated into Polish as Bóg a Zło (WAM Publishing House in Kraków). 2002: Edith Stein - Die Botschaft vom Kreuz und Auschwitz (“Edith Stein - Message of the Cross and Auschwitz”, Edith-Stein-Society, Germany). 2003: editor of the book Dialog u progu Auschwitz (“Dialogue at the threshold of Auschwitz”), translated into German in 2004 as Dialog an der Schwelle von Auschwitz (UNUM, Kraków). 2007: co-editor of the book Bóg i Auschwitz (UNUM, Kraków), in 2008 translated into English as God and Auschwitz (UNUM, Kraków).

Awards 2000: the Polish Council of Christians and Jews awarded him the title "Person of Reconciliation". 2005: President Aleksander Kwaśniewski awarded him the Chivalry's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. 2005: the Józef Tischner Award for pastoral and social initiatives contributing to the “Polish shape of Dialogue” in the Church and the world. 2008: President Horst Köhler awarded him the Cross of Merit, First Class, of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.