A small roadside monument beside US Highway 34 in rural Nebraska carries the memory of a survival story that began inside the barracks of Dachau concentration camp. The Our Lady of Fatima Shrine, located on the grounds of St. Germanus Catholic Church in Arapahoe, was built to fulfil a solemn promise made by Father Henry J. Denis. Imprisoned by Nazi forces during the Second World War and subjected to deadly medical experiments, the Polish military chaplain vowed that if he survived the concentration camp, he would build a public shrine dedicated to the Blessed Mother. Details documented by Visit Nebraska and published by the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln describe how the priest survived years of imprisonment, medical experiments and near-fatal roll calls before moving to the United States and building the monument.
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