Roman Catholic
St Sigismund parish
05-507 Słomczyn
85 Wiślana Str.
Konstancin deanery
Warsaw archdiocese, Poland
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Martyrology of the clergy — Poland
XX century (1914 – 1989)
personal data
surname
GIERCZAK
forename(s)
John (pl. Jan)
function
diocesan priest
creed
Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
diocese / province
Łódź diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Military Ordinariate of Polandmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.12.20]
date and place
of death
03.07.1942
KL Dachauconcentration camp
today: Dachau, Upper Bavaria reg., Bavaria state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2016.05.30]
alt. dates and places
of death
04.07.1942
details of death
On 28.04.1939 appointed, with seniority from 01.01.1939, reserve chaplain of the Polish Armed Forces.
After German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and start of the World War II, after start of German occupation, arrested by the Germans on 20.03.1940.
Jailed in Sterling prison in Łódź.
On 06.05.1940 transported to KL Dachau concentration camp.
From there on 26.06.1940 moved to KL Gusen I concentration camp — part of KL Mauthausen‐Gusen concentration camps' complex — where slaved in quarries.
Finally on 08.12.1940 — totally exhausted — brought back to KL Dachau concentration camp.
On April 9, 1942, admitted to the camp „hospital”: Germ. „Der Bauch ist stark aufgetrieben, der linke Oberschenkel gefühllos. Schmersen in beiden Nieren” (Eng. „The abdomen is very swollen, the left thigh numb. Pain in both kidneys”). Diagnosis: Germ. „Röntgendurch=leuchtung zeigt eine linksseitige Oberlap pen — Tbc mit Streuung nach rechts unten und einen Restzustand nach Pleuritis exsudativa links” (Eng. „X–ray shows left upper lobe tuberculosis with spread to the lower right and a residual condition after exudative pleurisy on the left”). Surgery was performed. It failed and perished.
prisoner camp's numbers
8211, 22079Click to display source page (KL DachauClick to display the description), 5101Click to display source page (KL Mauthausen‐GusenClick to display the description)
cause of death
extermination: exhaustion and starvation
perpetrators
Germans
sites and events
KL DachauClick to display the description, KL Gusen IClick to display the description, KL Mauthausen‐GusenClick to display the description, Łódź (Sterling Str.)Click to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion»Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description
date and place
of birth
25.10.1905
Zawichosttoday: Zawichost gm., Sandomierz pov., Holy Cross voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28]
presbyter (holy orders)
ordination
06.08.1933 (Łódź cathedral)
positions held
1940
vicar — Witoniatoday: Witonia gm., Łęczyca pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28] ⋄ St Catherine the Virgin and Martyr RC parish ⋄ Łęczycatoday: Łęczyca urban gm., Łęczyca pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] RC deanery
1939 – 1940
vicar — Grabówtoday: Grabów gm., Łęczyca pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.05] ⋄ St Stanislav the Bishop and Martyr RC parish ⋄ Łęczycatoday: Łęczyca urban gm., Łęczyca pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] RC deanery
1938 – 1939
vicar — Ozorkówtoday: Ozorków urban gm., Zgierz pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.20] ⋄ St Joseph Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Exaltation of the Holy Cross RC parish ⋄ Ozorkówtoday: Ozorków urban gm., Zgierz pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.20] RC deanery
1937 – 1938
vicar — Łasktoday: Łask gm., Łask pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.01] ⋄ Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Michael the Archangel RC collegiate parish ⋄ Łasktoday: Łask gm., Łask pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.01] RC deanery
1936 – 1937
vicar — Widawatoday: Widawa gm., Łask pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.05] ⋄ Exaltation of the Holy Cross RC parish ⋄ Łasktoday: Łask gm., Łask pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.01] RC deanery
1934 – 1936
vicar — Brzezinytoday: Brzeziny urban gm., Brzeziny pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.27] ⋄ Exaltation of the Holy Cross RC parish ⋄ Brzezinytoday: Brzeziny urban gm., Brzeziny pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.27] RC deanery — also: prefect of elementary schools
1933 – 1934
vicar — Moszczenicatoday: Moszczenica gm., Piotrków Trybunalski pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.05] ⋄ Exaltation of the Holy Cross RC parish ⋄ Piotrków Trybunalskitoday: Piotrków Trybunalski city pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.29] RC deanery
1928 – 1933
student — Łódźtoday: Łódź city pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18] ⋄ philosophy and theology, Theological Seminary
others related
in death
BARTKIEWICZClick to display biography Bronislav, BĘDKOWSKIClick to display biography Casimir, BIERNACKIClick to display biography Felix, BRZEZIŃSKIClick to display biography Romualdo, CHMIELIŃSKIClick to display biography John, CHOJNACKIClick to display biography Vladislav, CHOMICZEWSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, CIESIELSKIClick to display biography Vladislav Anthony, CZERWIŃSKIClick to display biography Vincent, DOMAGAŁAClick to display biography Vladislav, DROZDALSKIClick to display biography John, DZIUDAClick to display biography Joseph, FIJAŁKOWSKIClick to display biography John, GAJEWICZClick to display biography Sigismund, GOSTKOWSKIClick to display biography Steven, GRĘDAClick to display biography Mieczyslav, GRZELAKClick to display biography Vladislav, GUZOWSKIClick to display biography Vladislav, HAUSERClick to display biography Steven, JABŁOŃSKIClick to display biography Vincent, JAWORSKIClick to display biography Marian, JĘDRZEJCZAKClick to display biography Cornelius, KACZYŃSKIClick to display biography Dominic, KASPROWICZClick to display biography John, KASZUBSKIClick to display biography Leo Constantine, KNAPSKIClick to display biography Sigismund, KOCHANIAKClick to display biography Francis, KONECKIClick to display biography Roman, KOZANECKIClick to display biography Edmund Eugene, KRUPCZYŃSKIClick to display biography John Alexander, KUBIŚClick to display biography Adalbert, LASKOWSKIClick to display biography Louis, LEWANDOWICZClick to display biography Mieczyslav, LISClick to display biography Thomas, MACHNIKOWSKIClick to display biography Anthony, MACKIEWICZClick to display biography John, MIKOŁAJEWSKIClick to display biography Sigismund, NOWICKIClick to display biography Casimir, PALINCEUSZClick to display biography Joseph, PATRYCYClick to display biography Ceslav Alexander, PAWŁOWSKIClick to display biography Ignatius, PEŁCZYŃSKIClick to display biography Joseph, PERZYNAClick to display biography Michael, PYSZYŃSKIClick to display biography Hippolytus, RABIŃSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, RYCHTERClick to display biography Leo Thaddeus, SIERADZKIClick to display biography Matthew, SIKORSKIClick to display biography Vaclav Steven, SKOCZYLASClick to display biography Casimir, SKOWROŃSKIClick to display biography Steven, STAŃCZAKClick to display biography Ceslav, SZYMAŃSKIClick to display biography Casimir, ŚWIDEREKClick to display biography Vladislav, ŚWITAJSKIClick to display biography John Bronislav, WILKClick to display biography Stanislav, WRONOWSKIClick to display biography Sigismund, ZYSKClick to display biography Francis, ŻWIREKClick to display biography Vladislav
sites and events
descriptions
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])
Łódź (Sterling Str.): Prison for men, founded in 1893, in a tenement houses at 16/18 Sterling Str. in Łódź, by the Russian occupiers (during partitions of Poland). In the interwar period, a Polish state prison. During World War II, a German police prison, used also by the Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. Gestapo. The prisoners were held in two three‐story buildings with 53 cells and 5 „sick rooms”. Interrogations of arrested Poles, combined with torture, as well as executions ‐ by hanging — were held there. After the German defeat and the beginning of the Russian occupation, the prison of the Commie‐Nazi of State Security Office UB — the unit of Russian genocidal MGB. Executions continued to take place there, this time of Germans and Poles convicted of collaborating with the German occupier, as well as of those convicted of anti‐communist activities and ordinary criminals. Closed in 1964. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30])
«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 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])
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])
sources
personal:
archidiecezja.lodz.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19], dziwoszbogdan.republika.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.12.28], m.niedziela.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.12.15], lodz-andrzejow.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.16], www.ipgs.usClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23]
original images:
m.niedziela.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.12.15], www.kultura.lodz.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.09.21], www.katedra.lodz.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.06]
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