Maria Aloysia Löwenfels

Maria Aloysia Löwenfels PHJC, (July 1915 – 9 August 1942) was a German religious sister. She converted from Judaism to Catholicism. In 1936, she fled to the convent of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ in Lutterade, Netherlands. In 1938, she was confirmed as a novice. On 9 August 1942, she was murdered in the gas chambers of concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. In 2015, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Limburg announced that a beatification process had been started.

Biography Löwenfels was born on 5 July 1915 in Trabelsdorf, Bavaria, Germany as Luise Löwenfels in a Jewish family. She went to high school at the Gnadenthal monastery in Bavaria, where she became attracted to the Roman Catholic Church. She started to work as a teacher. Löwenfels joined the convent, learned Dutch and started to work as a kindergarten teacher. On 17 September 1938, Löwenfels was confirmed by the Bishop of Roermond as a novice and given the religious name Maria Aloysia. Löwenfels was contacted by her brother that the family was trying to escape to the United States, however, she decided to remain. In 1942, she was ordered to wear the Star of David. On 20 July 1942, Johannes de Jong, the Archbishop of Utrecht, issued a pastoral letter to be read in all churches, protesting against the deportation of the Jews. In response, 244 former Jews who had converted to the Roman Catholic Church were arrested by the Gestapo on August 2, 1942 and taken via the Amersfoort transit camp to the Westerbork transit camp and finally to the Auschwitz extermination camp. On 7 August, Among the Catholic Jews was also the Discalced Carmelite Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), who had also fled to the Netherlands.

Aftermath The convent in Lutterade was torn down. In 2006, a monument was placed in remembrance of Löwenfels at the location of the convent. Her brother managed to escape to the United States.

In 2015, the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Limburg announced that a beatification process had been opened for Sister Maria Aloysia. The postulator is Christiane Humpert PHJC. The investigation has focused on whether Löwenfels died as a martyr.