beatification date

13.06.1999more on
www.swzygmunt.knc.pl
[access: 2013.05.19]

the RC Pope John Paul IImore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]

function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Katowice diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Wrocław diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]

honorary titles

Spiritual Counselor
Gold „Cross of Merit”more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.04.16]

date and place
of death

04.05.1942

TA HartheimSchloss Hartheim „euthanasia” center
today: Alkoven, Eferding dist., Salzburg state, Austria
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.07.18]

alt. dates and places
of death

19.06.1942 (KL Dachau „death certificate” date)

details of death

prisoner camp's numbers

22043Click to display source page (KL DachauClick to display the description), 3274 (KL Gusen IClick to display the description)

cause of death

extermination: gassing in a gas chamber

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

TA HartheimClick to display the description, «Aktion T4»Click to display the description, KL DachauClick to display the description, KL Gusen IClick to display the description, KL Mauthausen‐GusenClick to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion Schlesien»Click to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion»Click to display the description, Regierungsbezirk KattowitzClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, Silesian UprisingsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

21.09.1883

Piekary ŚląskieJózefka district
today: Piekary Śląskie city pov., Silesia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.04.02]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

22.06.1908 (Wrocław collegiatemore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2017.05.20])

positions held

biography (own resources)

Click to read biography details from our resources

others related
in death

BARABASZClick to display biography John Nepomucene, DŁUGOSZClick to display biography Francis, DUDAClick to display biography Erwin, GALOCZClick to display biography Clement, HUWERClick to display biography Joseph, KAŁUŻAClick to display biography Charles, KLIMEKClick to display biography Peter, KORCZOKClick to display biography Anthony Nicodemus, KOSYRCZYKClick to display biography Louis, KRZYSTOLIKClick to display biography Stanislav, KRZYŻANOWSKIClick to display biography Sigismund, KULAClick to display biography Joseph, MACHERSKIClick to display biography Francis, PAŹDZIORAClick to display biography Augustine, POJDAClick to display biography Adolph, POJDAClick to display biography John, RDUCHClick to display biography Edward, RYGIELSKIClick to display biography Stanislav (Fr Casimir Mary), SIWEKClick to display biography Victor, SZNUROWACKIClick to display biography John, SZRAMEKClick to display biography Emil Michael, ŚCIGAŁAClick to display biography Francis Xavier, WOJCIECHClick to display biography Conrad, WRZOŁClick to display biography Louis, ZIELIŃSKIClick to display biography Felix, ŻMIJClick to display biography Charles

sites and events
descriptions

TA Hartheim: From 05.1940, in the Germ. Tötungsanstalt (Eng. Killing/Euthanasia Center) TA Hartheim, at the Schloss Hartheim castle in Alkoven in Upper Austria, belonging to KL Mauthausen‐Gusen complex of concentration camps, as part of «Aktion T4» program, the Germans murdered victims — people mentally retarded and disabled — in gas chambers with carbon monoxide. Till 24.08.1941 and the formal end of the «Aktion T4» program, c. 18,000 people were murdered in TA Hartheim. In 04.1941 the program was extended to include concentration camp prisoners. Most, if not all, of the murdered clergy from the KL Dachau concentration camp were taken to TA Hartheim in the so‐called Germ. „Invalidentransport” (Eng. „transport of invalids”), prisoners who were sick and, according to the Germans, „unable to work” (initially under the pretext of transfer to a better camp) — after the formal end of «Aktion T4» as part of the program codenamed «Aktion 14 f 13». It is estimated that at this stage — until 11.12.1944 — c. 12,000 prisoners were gassed at TA Hartheim.
Note: The dates of death of victims murdered in Schloss Hartheim indicated in the „White Book” are the dates of deportations from the last concentration camp the victims where held in. The real dates of death are unknown — apart from c. 49 priests whose names were included in the niem. „Invalidentransports”, but who did not arrive at TA Hartheim. Prob. perished on the day of transport, somewhere between KL Dachau and Munich, and their bodies were thrown out of the transport and cremated in Munich. The investigation conducted by Polish Institute of National Remembrance IPN concluded, that the other victims were murdered immediately upon arrival in Schloss Hartheim, bodies cremated and the ashes spread over local fields and into Danube river. In order to hide details of the genocide Germans falsified both dates of death (for instance those entered into KL Dachau concentration camp books, which are presented in „White Book” as alternative dates of death) and their causes. (more on: ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30])

«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])

KL Dachau: KL Dachau in German Bavaria, set up in 1933, became the main German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL for Catholic priests and religious during World War II: On c. 09.11.1940, Reichsführer‐SS Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, Gestapo and German police, as a result of the Vatican's intervention, decided to transfer all clergymen detained in various concentration camps to KL Dachau camp. The first major transports took place on 08.12.1940. In KL Dachau Germans held approx. 3,000 priests, including 1,800 Poles. The priests were forced to slave labor in the Germ. „Die Plantage” — the largest herb garden in Europe, managed by the genocidal SS, consisting of many greenhouses, laboratory buildings and arable land, where experiments with new natural medicines were conducted — for many hours, without breaks, without protective clothing, no food. They slaved in construction, e.g. of camp's crematorium. In the barracks ruled hunger, freezing cold in the winter and suffocating heat during the summer, especially acute in 1941‐1942. Prisoners suffered from bouts of illnesses, including tuberculosis. Many were victims of murderous „medical experiments” — in 11.1942 c. 20 were given phlegmon injections; in 07.1942 to 05.1944 c. 120 were used by for malaria experiments. More than 750 Polish clerics where murdered by the Germans, some brought to Schloss Hartheim euthanasia centre and murdered in gas chambers. At its peak KL Dachau concentration camps’ system had nearly 100 slave labour sub‐camps located throughout southern Germany and Austria. There were c. 32,000 documented deaths at the camp, and thousands perished without a trace. C. 10,000 of the 30,000 inmates were found sick at the time of liberation, on 29.04.1945, by the USA troops… (more on: www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.05.30])

KL Gusen I: German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL „Grade III” (Germ. „Stufe III”), part of KL Mauthausen‐Gusen complex, intended for the „Incorrigible political enemies of the Reich”. The prisoners slaved at a nearby granite quarry, but also in local private companies: at SS guards houses' construction at a nearby Sankt Georgen for instance. Initially opened in 05.1940 as the „camp for Poles”, captured during the program of extermination of Polish intelligentsia («Intelligenzaktion»). Till the end most of the prisoners were Poles. Many Polish priests from the Polish regions incorporated in the Germany were brought there in 1940, after start of German occupation of Poland, from KL Sachsenhausen and KL Dachau concentration camps. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.03.10])

KL Mauthausen‐Gusen: A large group of German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL camps set up around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, c. 30 km east of Linz, operational from 1938 till 05.1945. Over time it became of the largest labour camp complexes in the German‐controlled part of Europe encompassing four major camps concentration camps (Mauthausen, Gusen I, Gusen II and Gusen III) and more than 50 sub‐camps where inmates slaved in quarries (the granite extracted, previously used to pave the streets of Vienna, was intended for a complete reconstruction of major German towns according to Albert Speer plans), munitions factories, mines, arms factories and Me 262 fighter‐plane assembly plants. The complex served the needs of the German war machine and also carried out extermination through labour. Initially did not have a its own gas chamber and the intended victims were mostly moved to the infamous Hartheim Castle, 40.7 km east, or killed by lethal injection and cremated in the local crematorium. Later a van with the exhaust pipe connected to the inside shuttled between Mauthausen and Gusen. In 12.1941 a permanent gas chamber was built. C. 122,000‐360,000 of prisoners perished. Many Polish priests were held, including those captured during the program of extermination of Polish intelligentsia («Intelligenzaktion»). The camp complex was founded and run as a source for cheap labour for private enterprise. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.03.10])

«Intelligenzaktion Schlesien»: A planned action of arrests and extermination of Polish Upper Silesia intellectual elite in general recorded in a proscription list called „Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen” — participants of Upper Silesia uprisings, former Polish plebiscite activists, journalists, politicians, intellectuals, civil servants, priests — organised by Germans mainly in 04‐05.1940, aiming at total Germanisation of the region. The relevant decree, no IV‐D2‐480/40, was issued by the RSHA, i.e. Germ. Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Eng. Reich Security Office), and signed by Heinrich Himmler or Reinhard Heydrich. Some of those arrested were murdered in mass executions, some were deported to the German‐run Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), and some were sent to concentration camps. The personal details of 3,047 people deported within two months of 1940 were established. Among the victims were 33 Catholic priests, 22 of whom perished in concentration camps (the clergy were sent — in 5 transports — first to KL Dachau, and then to KL Gusen, where they slaved in quarries). Altogether, the Germans murdered c. 2,000 members of the Polish Upper Silesia intellectual elite. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.05.30])

«Intelligenzaktion»: (Eng. „Action Intelligentsia”) — extermination program of Polish elites, mainly intelligentsia, executed by the Germans right from the start of the occupation in 09.1939 till around 05.1940, mainly on the lands directly incorporated into Germany but also in the so‐called Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate) where it was called «AB‐aktion». During the first phase right after start of German occupation of Poland implemented as Germ. Unternehmen „Tannenberg” (Eng. „Tannenberg operation”) — plan based on proscription lists of Poles worked out by (Germ. Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen), regarded by Germans as specially dangerous to the German Reich. List contained names of c. 61,000 Poles. Altogether during this genocide Germans methodically murdered c. 50,000 teachers, priests, landowners, social and political activists and retired military. Further 50,000 were sent to concentration camps where most of them perished. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.10.04])

Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz: 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). From two separate new provinces were created. The two remaining were incorporated into existing German provinces. One of those was Polish Upper Silesia, which on 08.09.1939, by decree of the German leader Adolf Hitler (formally came into force on 26.10.1939), was incorporated into Germany as the Germ. Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz (Eng. Katowice Regency) and became part of the Germ. Provinz Schlesien (Eng. Province of Silesia) based in Wrocław. On 01.04.1940, the Germ. Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz was enlarged by several pre‐war German counties, and on 18.01.1941, a new German province was created, the Germ. Provinz Oberschlesien (Eng. Province of Upper Silesia), which, apart from the Germ. Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz, also included the Opole region. From 26.10.1939, when the regency was established, the law of the German state was in force there, the same as in Berlin. The main axis of the policy of the new regency, the territory of which the Germans recognized as the Germ. „Ursprünglich Deutsche” (Eng. „natively German”), despite the fact only 6% of its pre–war Polish part were Germans, was Germ. „Entpolonisierung” (Eng. „Depolonisation”), i.e. forced Germanization. The main mechanism was the introduction of the Germ. Deutsche Volksliste DVL, a German nationality list that was supposed to specify the national affiliation of the inhabitants of the region. The largest group marked in the compulsory registrations was Group 3, people who identified themselves as „Silesians” (in 1943 about 41%), and people remaining outside the DVL (about 36%). The latter group was intended to be deported to the Germ. Generalgouvernement (which did not happen en masse because German industry needed slave labor). Group 3, considered by the Germans as capable of Germanization, was subject to certain legal restrictions, and was subject to, among others, to conscription into the German Wehrmacht army. Children could only learn in German. A policy of terror was pursued against the Polish population. There was a special police court, controlled by the Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. the Gestapo, before which c. 4,000‐5,000 people were detained. For the years 1942‐1945 over 2,000 of them were verified, of which 1,890 were sentenced to death, including 286 in public executions. Thousands of people were murdered during the so‐called «Intelligenzaktion Schlesien», including 300‐650 Polish teachers and c. 61 Polish Catholic priests. The regency hosted a German concentration and extermination camp KL Auschwitz, where the Germans imprisoned c. 1,100,000 Jews (murdering c.1,000,000, i.e. c. 90% of them) and c. 140,000 Poles (murdering c. 70,000, i.e. c. 50% of them). 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, Fritz Brecht, committed suicide. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.24])

Ribbentrop‐Molotov: Genocidal Russian‐German alliance pact between Russian leader Joseph Stalin and German leader Adolf Hitler signed on 23.08.1939 in Moscow by respective foreign ministers, Mr. Vyacheslav Molotov for Russia and Joachim von Ribbentrop for Germany. The pact sanctioned and was the direct cause of joint Russian and German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of the World War II in 09.1939. In a political sense, the pact was an attempt to restore the status quo ante before 1914, with one exception, namely the „commercial” exchange of the so‐called „Kingdom of Poland”, which in 1914 was part of the Russian Empire, fore Eastern Galicia (today's western Ukraine), in 1914 belonging to the Austro‐Hungarian Empire. Galicia, including Lviv, was to be taken over by the Russians, the „Kingdom of Poland” — under the name of the General Governorate — Germany. The resultant „war was one of the greatest calamities and dramas of humanity in history, for two atheistic and anti‐Christian ideologies — national and international socialism — rejected God and His fifth Decalogue commandment: Thou shall not kill!” (Abp Stanislav Gądecki, 01.09.2019). The decisions taken — backed up by the betrayal of the formal allies of Poland, France and Germany, which on 12.09.1939, at a joint conference in Abbeville, decided not to provide aid to attacked Poland and not to take military action against Germany (a clear breach of treaty obligations with Poland) — were on 28.09.1939 slightly altered and made more precise when a treaty on „German‐Russian boundaries and friendship” was agreed by the same murderous signatories. One of its findings was establishment of spheres of influence in Central and Eastern Europe and in consequence IV partition of Poland. In one of its secret annexes agreed, that: „the Signatories will not tolerate on its respective territories any Polish propaganda that affects the territory of the other Side. On their respective territories they will suppress all such propaganda and inform each other of the measures taken to accomplish it”. The agreements resulted in a series of meeting between two genocidal organization representing both sides — German Gestapo and Russian NKVD when coordination of efforts to exterminate Polish intelligentsia and Polish leading classes (in Germany called «Intelligenzaktion», in Russia took the form of Katyń massacres) where discussed. Resulted in deaths of hundreds of thousands of Polish intelligentsia, including thousands of priests presented here, and tens of millions of ordinary people,. The results of this Russian‐German pact lasted till 1989 and are still in evidence even today. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30])

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])

Silesian Uprisings: Three armed interventions of the Polish population against Germany in 1919‐1921 aiming at incorporation of Upper Silesia and Opole region into Poland, after the revival of the Polish state in 1918. Took place in the context of a plebiscite ordered on the basis of the international treaty of Versailles of 28.06.1919, ending the First World War, that was to decide national fate of the disputed lands. The 1st Uprising took place on 16‐24.08.1919 and broke out spontaneously in response to German terror and repression against the Polish population. Covered mainly Pszczyna and Rybnik counties and part of the main Upper Silesia industrial district. Suppressed by the Germans. 2nd Uprising took place on 19‐25.08.1920 in response to numerous acts of terror of the German side. Covered the entire area of the Upper Silesia industrial district and part of the Rybnik county. As a result Poles obtained better conditions for the campaign prior the plebiscite. The poll was conducted on 20.03.1921. The majority of the population — 59.6% — were in favor of Germany, but the results were influenced by the admission of voting from former inhabitants of Upper Silesia living outside Silesia. As a result the 3rd Uprising broke out, the largest such uprising of the Silesian in the 20th century. It lasted from 02.05.1921 to 05.07.1921. Spread over almost the entire area of Upper Silesia. Two large battles took place in the area of St. Anna Mountain and near Olza. As a result on 12.10.1921 the international plebiscite commission decided on a more favorable for Poland division of Upper Silesia. The territory granted to Poland was enlarged to about ⅓ of the disputed territory. Poland accounted for 50% of metallurgy and 76% of coal mines. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.05.25])

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