Fr Dillard was the only Jesuit among the group and the oldest of the 50. All those honoured had been subjected to the Service du Travail Obligatoire – the forced enlistment of hundreds of thousands of French workers to Nazi Germany.
Wanting to accompany those sent to the labour camps, Fr Dillard requested to go undercover to provide pastoral support. After seven months, he was exposed, arrested, and deported to the Dachau concentration camp in 1944. Following the amputation of a leg and a subsequent infection, he died on 12 January 1945.
Born in Blois in 1897, Victor Dillard served as an army officer during the First World War before entering the Society of Jesus in 1919. Ordained in 1931, he became known as a gifted educator and writer, teaching at several Jesuit colleges and authoring numerous books and articles. His intellectual work was closely tied to social engagement, particularly through his involvement with Action Populaire and the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne, accompanying young workers in their faith.
During the German occupation of France, Fr Dillard was mobilised again, captured, and later escaped. Based in Vichy, he continued to teach and speak openly against Nazism, Communism, and antisemitism. In 1943, when young French men were compelled to work in Germany, the Church chose to accompany them pastorally. At his own request, Fr Dillard went to Germany as an underground priest, living as a labourer in Wuppertal while ministering discreetly to Catholic workers.
Fr Dillard knew the dangers he faced. In his final Spiritual Exercises, he wrote of having already given his life once and for all. Arrested on Good Shepherd Sunday, he identified with the shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. In a letter written shortly before his death, he urged friends to remain steadfast in their faith, trusting in Christ as the foundation and ultimate victory of all things.
Like St Edmund Campion, whose feast we recently celebrated, Fr Dillard ministered clandestinely under a hostile regime, sustained the faithful at great personal risk, and remained faithful to his mission until his death. Across vastly different historical contexts, the pattern endures: quiet courage, pastoral fidelity, and resistance to oppression rooted in faith in Christ.
You can watch our film about St Edmund Campion here, and a film about Fr Dillard (produced by the French Jesuits) below.
