function

religious seminarian

creed

Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]

congregation

Society of Jesus SImore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
(i.e. Jesuits)

diocese / province

Lesser Poland Province SI (from 1926)
Polish Province SI (1918‐1926)
Galicia Province SI (till 1918)

date and place
of death

20.10.1939

Mniszek ‐ Grupa foresttoday: Dragacz gm., Świecie pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

details of death

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

Mniszek / Grupa forestClick to display the description, Świecie (Institute)Click to display the description, «Aktion T4»Click to display the description, Reichsgau Danzig‐WestpreußenClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

01.07.1882

Stara Wieśtoday: Brzozów gm., Brzozów pov., Subcarpathia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

religious vows

1901 (temporary)

positions held

others related
in death

KUZIMSKAClick to display biography Helen, MYŚLISZClick to display biography Joseph, WOHLGEMUTHClick to display biography Lucy, BERTELClick to display biography Ceslav, BORUCKIClick to display biography, BURDYNClick to display biography Bernard Frederick, BUSSClick to display biography Casimir, CZOGAŁAClick to display biography Ignatius, ECHAUSTClick to display biography Bruno, HOŁUBOWSKIClick to display biography Bonaventure, JAKUBIAKClick to display biography Boleslav, KĄDZIELAClick to display biography Alphonse, KNEBLEWSKIClick to display biography Vaclav, KOTEWICZClick to display biography Stanislav, KOWALClick to display biography Henry Stanislav, KUCZYŃSKIClick to display biography Marian, MAKOWSKIClick to display biography Roman, MALORNYClick to display biography Francis, MAŃKIEWICZClick to display biography Henry, MEGGERClick to display biography Vladislav, MIKUCZEWSKIClick to display biography Louis, NODZYŃSKIClick to display biography Andrew, PEŁKAClick to display biography Leo, REPIŃSKIClick to display biography Sigismund Louis, SOŁTYSIAKClick to display biography John, SZYBOWSKIClick to display biography Francis, WALECKIClick to display biography Vaclav, WOJTASZEWSKIClick to display biography Casimir, ŻUKOWSKIClick to display biography Vincent, ZIELIŃSKIClick to display biography Heliodorus

sites and events
descriptions

Mniszek / Grupa forest: From 10.1939 till c. 04.1940 in the complex of forests by villages of Mniszek (in a former gravel mine) and Grupa (on the former Polish military training ground), c. 16 km to the north‐east of Świecie and c. 10 km to the west of Grudziądz, Germans murdered in mass executions approx. 10,000 Poles, brought from prison in Świecie (as VSH Schwetz custody), from Psychiatric Hospital in Świecie (c. 1,000 patients — the patients were brought in parties 60‐strong, having been given sedatives prior to dispatch), prison in Grudziądz, internment camp in Nowe on Vistula, from Divine Word Missionaries SVD missionary house in Górna Grupa — mainly intelligentsia, from Świecie, Bydgoszcz, Chełmno, Grudziądz and Starogard Gdański counties in Pomerania. Among the victims were c. 120 children brought out under a school trip guise. Murders were perpetrated by Germans from Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz and SS genocidal organisations. Wehrmacht soldiers served as truck drivers. The victims were being killed of with shovels, sticks, sometimes buried alive. Those who attempted to defend themselves were hung. In 1944 Germand dug out most of the bodies and burnt them. (more on: groby.radaopwim.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.13], pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19])

Świecie (Institute): In the autumn of 1939 Germans— as part of «Aktion T4» program — murdered almost all patients of the National Pomeranian Psychiatric Institute in Świecie. On 15‐21.10.1939 c. 1,000 patients were murdered in the forest by Mniszek village, in groups of 60. Among the victims were 120 children. And hospital’s Polish director, Joseph Bednarz PhD, who stayed with his patients till the end. The victims were pushed — three aside — into specially prepared ditches and shot by the members of the genocidal German SS‐Wachsturmbann „Eimann” unit from machine guns. C. 300 patients were transported to Kocborowo psychiatric hospital and murdered later in Szpęgawsk forest. (more on: ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.05.09])

«Aktion T4»: German state euthanasia program, systematic murder of people mentally retarded, chronically, mentally and neurologically ill — „elimination of live not worth living” (Germ. „Vernichtung von lebensunwertem Leben”). At a peak, in 1940‐1941, c. 70,000 people were murdered, including patients of psychiatric hospitals in German occupied Poland — German formalists noted then that, among others, „performing disinfection [i.e. gassing] of 70,273 people with a life expectancy of up to 10 years saved food in the amount of 141,775,573.80 Deutschmark”. From 04.1941 also mentally ill and „disabled” (i.e. unable to work) prisoners held in German concentration camps were included in the program — denoted then as «Aktion 14 f 13». C. 20,000 inmates were then murdered, including Polish Catholic priests held in KL Dachau concentration camp, who were murdered in Hartheim gas chambers. The other „regional extension” of «Aktion T4» was «Aktion Brandt» program during which Germans murdered chronically ill patients in order to make space for wounded soldiers. It is estimated that at least 30,000 were murdered in this program. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.10.31])

Reichsgau Danzig‐Westpreußen: After the Polish defeat in the 09.1939 campaign, which was the result of the Ribbentrop‐Molotov Pact and constituted the first stage of World War II, and the beginning of German occupation in part of Poland (in the other, eastern part of Poland, the Russian occupation began), the Germans divided the occupied Polish territory into five main regions (and a few smaller). The largest one was transformed into Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), intended exclusively for Poles and Jews and constituting part of the so‐called Germ. Großdeutschland (Eng. Greater Germany). Two were added to existing German provinces. From two other separate new provinces were created. Vistula Pomerania region was one of them, incorporated into Germany on 08.10.1939, by decree of the German leader Adolf Hitler (formally came into force on 26.10.1939), and on 02.11.1939 transformed into the Germ. Reichsgau Danzig‐Westpreußen (Eng. Reich District of Gdańsk‐West Prussia) province, in which the law of the German state was to apply. The main axis of the policy of the new province, the territory of which the Germans recognized as the Germ. „Ursprünglich Deutsche” (Eng. „natively German”), despite the fact that 85% of its inhabitants were Poles, was Germ. „Entpolonisierung” (Eng. „Depolonisation”), i.e. forced Germanization. C. 60,000 Poles were murdered in 1939‐1940, as part of the Germ. „Intelligenzaktion”, i.e. extermination of Polish intelligentsia and ruling classes, in c. 432 places of mass executions — including c. 220 Polish Catholic priests. The same number were sent to German concentration camps, from where few returned (over 300 priests were arrested, of whom c. 130 died in concentration camps). C. 124,000‐170,000 were displaced, including c. 90,000 to the Germ. Generalgouvernement. Poles were forced en masse to sign the German nationality list, the Germ. Deutsche Volksliste DVL. Polish children could only learn in German. It was forbidden to use the Polish language during Catholic Holy Masses and during confession. Polish landed estates were confiscated..To further reduce the number of the Polish population, Poles were sent to forced labor deep inside Germany. The remaining Poles were treated as low‐skilled labor, isolated from the Germans and strictly controlled — legally, three or three of them could only meet together, even in their own apartments. Many were conscripted into the German Wehrmacht army. After the end of hostilities of World War II, the overseer of this province, the Germ. Reichsstatthalter (Eng. Reich Governor) and the Germ. Gauleiter (Eng. district head) of the German National Socialist Party, Albert Maria Forster, was executed. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.24])

Pius XI's encyclicals: Facing the creation of two totalitarian systems in Europe, which seemed to compete with each other, though there were more similarities than contradictions between them, Pope Pius XI issued in 03.1937 (within 5 days) two encyclicals. In the „Mit brennender Sorge” (Eng. „With Burning Concern”) published on 14.03.1938, condemned the national socialism prevailing in Germany. The Pope wrote: „Whoever, following the old Germanic‐pre‐Christian beliefs, puts various impersonal fate in the place of a personal God, denies the wisdom of God and Providence […], whoever exalts earthly values: race or nation, or state, or state system, representatives of state power or other fundamental values of human society, […] and makes them the highest standard of all values, including religious ones, and idolizes them, this one […] is far from true faith in God and from a worldview corresponding to such faith”. On 19.03.1937, published „Divini Redemptoris” (Eng. „Divine Redeemer”), in which criticized Russian communism, dialectical materialism and the class struggle theory. The Pope wrote: „Communism deprives man of freedom, and therefore the spiritual basis of all life norms. It deprives the human person of all his dignity and any moral support with which he could resist the onslaught of blind passions […] This is the new gospel that Bolshevik and godless communism preaches as a message of salvation and redemption of humanity”… Pius XI demanded that the established human law be subjected to the natural law of God , recommended the implementation of the ideal of a Christian state and society, and called on Catholics to resist. Two years later, National Socialist Germany and Communist Russia came together and started World War II. (more on: www.vatican.vaClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.05.28], www.vatican.vaClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.05.28])

Pius XI's encyclicals: Facing the creation of two totalitarian systems in Europe, which seemed to compete with each other, though there were more similarities than contradictions between them, Pope Pius XI issued in 03.1937 (within 5 days) two encyclicals. In the „Mit brennender Sorge” (Eng. „With Burning Concern”) published on 14.03.1938, condemned the national socialism prevailing in Germany. The Pope wrote: „Whoever, following the old Germanic‐pre‐Christian beliefs, puts various impersonal fate in the place of a personal God, denies the wisdom of God and Providence […], whoever exalts earthly values: race or nation, or state, or state system, representatives of state power or other fundamental values of human society, […] and makes them the highest standard of all values, including religious ones, and idolizes them, this one […] is far from true faith in God and from a worldview corresponding to such faith”. On 19.03.1937, published „Divini Redemptoris” (Eng. „Divine Redeemer”), in which criticized Russian communism, dialectical materialism and the class struggle theory. The Pope wrote: „Communism deprives man of freedom, and therefore the spiritual basis of all life norms. It deprives the human person of all his dignity and any moral support with which he could resist the onslaught of blind passions […] This is the new gospel that Bolshevik and godless communism preaches as a message of salvation and redemption of humanity”… Pius XI demanded that the established human law be subjected to the natural law of God , recommended the implementation of the ideal of a Christian state and society, and called on Catholics to resist. Two years later, National Socialist Germany and Communist Russia came together and started World War II. (more on: www.vatican.vaClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.05.28], www.vatican.vaClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.05.28])

sources

personal:
college.holycross.eduClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.bj.uj.edu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], inpersonachristiadmajoremdeigloriam.blogspot.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.17], archive.todayClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19]
bibliographical:
„Martyrology of the Polish Roman Catholic clergy under nazi occupation in 1939‐1945”, Victor Jacewicz, John Woś, vol. I‐V, Warsaw Theological Academy, 1977‐1981
„Jesuits on Polish and Lithuanian territory knowledge encyclopedia, 1564‐1995”, Fr Louis Grzebień SI (editor), WAM Printing House, Cracow 1996
original images:
www.sowiniec.com.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.03.14], college.holycross.eduClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19], www.miejscapamiecinarodowej.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.05.09]