CALLO, MARCEL, BL.

Martyr; b. Rennes, France, Dec. 6, 1921; d. Mauthhausen concentration camp, near Linz, Austria, March 19, 1945. Marcel Callo, one of nine children of a working class family, attended school in Rennes until he was apprenticed to a typographer at age twelve. He became an active member and leader of the Young Christian Workers (Jeunesse Ouvriere Chretienne [JOC] or the "Jocistes"). He had just become engaged to marry (August 1942) when the Nazis occupied France. Marcel and his friends helped many escape the Nazis by giving them their Red Cross armbands. When the Nazis forced Marcel into labor at the Walther arms factory in Zella-Mehlis, Thuringia, Germany, he regarded it as an opportunity to evangelize. Within the labor camp he organized the JOC.

He was arrested by the Gestapo (April 19, 1944) for excessive Catholic activity after arranging for a Mass in French. He was held first at Gotha prison, then sent to Flossenbürg concentration camp, and finally, to the Mauthausen concentration camp (Oct. 26, 1944). For a time he sorted rivets for Messerschmitt aircraft at the outlying Gusen I camp, but before long (November 7) he was moved to the Gusen II, where prisoners built airplanes underground in terrible conditions with little food. There Marcel continued to encourage his fellow prisoners until he was hospitalized in the Revier at Gusen (Jan. 5,1945). He died of malnutrition and exhaustion in the deplorable Sanitäts-Lager just beyond the walls of Mauthausen. Marcel was beatified by John Paul II on Oct. 4, 1987.

Feast: April 19.

Bibliography: m. fiÉvet, Martyrs du nazisme: Marcel Callo, jociste de Rennes (1921–45), mort en martyr au camp de Mauthausen, béatifié à l'occasion du synode des évêques sur l'apostolat des laïcs, Rome, Octobre 1987 et les autres! (Paris 1987). p. gouyon, Marcel Callo, témoin d'une génération (Paris 1981); Marcel Callo (Salzburg 1988). a. matt, Einer aus dem Dunkel—Die Befreiung … (Zürich 1988). r. pabel, Marcel Callo—Dokumentation (Eichstaedt-Wien 1991). L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, no. 40 (1987): 20.

[k. i. rabenstein]