W. Van Straaten, 90; Dutch Priest Aided Germans After War
Werenfried van Straaten, 90, a Dutch priest who gathered donations for needy Germans after World War II, died Friday in a hospital near Frankfurt, Germany. The cause of death was not announced.
Van Straaten, who also founded a charity to support the Roman Catholic Church around the world, was born in Mijdrecht, near Amsterdam. In 1934, he broke off training to become a teacher to enter the Norbertine abbey in Tongerlo, Belgium. He worked as secretary to the abbot.
Appalled by the human suffering of World War II, he began appealing to people in Belgium and the Netherlands, which had themselves suffered under German occupation, to help millions of ethnic Germans expelled from Eastern Europe after Adolf Hitler’s defeat.
That drive to collect food, clothing and medical supplies led to the formation of Aid to the Church in Need, which today supports church activities in more than 100 countries.
After the war, Van Straaten raised funds to buy shoes and later motorbikes to enable refugee priests to visit members of their communities across Germany and Austria.
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