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
GRACZ
forename(s)
Stephen (pl. Szczepan)
function
religious cleric
creed
Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
congregation
Society of the Catholic Apostolate SACmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
(i.e. Pallottines)
diocese / province
Christ the King province SACmore on
waw.pallotyni.pl
[access: 2019.02.02]
academic distinctions
Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
date and place
of death
11.11.1942
Radogoszcztoday: neighborhood in Łódź, Łódź city pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18]
details of death
During Prussian rule in Pomerania (one of Poland's partitions), as a student at Collegium Marianum in Pelplin and next in classical gymnasium in Chełmno founder (in 1908), and next chairman (1910‐1912), of Polish clandestine self–educational Thomas Zan Society.
Later, during studies in Berlin, chairman of local clandestine Philomats organisation.
Member of supreme authorities of Thomas Zan Society for Prussian partition of Poland.
Fouder of many new local groups of these organizations.
Collaborator of „Blask” (Eng. „Shine”) monthly for youth.
After outbreak of the World War I arrested by the German in 1914 in Chełmno.
Accused of sabotage but for lack of evidence soon released.
Next drafted into German army but for poor health released.
At the end of the World War I in 1918 agitator of the Polish cause and inclusion of Pomerania, and specifically Kashubian region, into reborn Poland.
Founder of clandestine units of „Towarzystwa Wojackie” (Eng. „Peoples' Guards and Fighting Societies”).
After rebirth of Poland in 11.1918 organiser of Polish Peoples's County Council in Lębork and vicinity.
Participant of Polish District Parliament held on 03‐05.12.1918 in Poznań that expressed the will to create a united Polish state with access to the sea — member of its Presidium.
On 12.01.1919, arrested by the Germans and charged with high treason for organizing a Polish rally in Lębork the day before (under German, civil and military orders, Poles were then forbidden to engage in any political and national activities).
Jailed in the prison in Lębork, and later from 14.02.1919, in the fortress in Słupsk.
Conditionally released in 03.1919 — prior to court appearance.
Escaped to Greater Poland region, to Poznań, and there actively took part in last months of Polish Greater Poland Uprising in 1918‐1919.
Went into hiding from Germans who were looking after him.
Often changed his address (Poznań, Chełmno, Grudziądz, Gdańsk).
Later from 08.1919 — during preparation for a plebiscite that was to decide the fate of Pomerania — treasurer of Polish Warmia Plebiscite Committee, and in 1920 member of Refugee Support Committee for those escaping to Poland from parts of Warmia, Mazury and Pomerania that the plebiscite on 11.07.1930 decided to leave in Germany — for instance Lębork.
In 1936 widowed and then joined Fathers Pallotti's Society.
After German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and start of the World War II, after start of German occupation, numerous times illegally crossed the border between occupied and run by the Germans General Governorate, where Ołtarzew Congregation house was located, and Polish provinces directly incorporated in Germany proper (among others Pomerania and Greater Poland regions).
To Poles there brought pastoral ministry, organized retreats for nuns, visited sick in hospitals and provided charity assistance.
Using false documents on Stephen Grenz name, claiming to be a cattle merchant from Warka, carried letters to and from people forcibly tranported to Germany for slave work, documents of the Polish clandestine organisations (part of emerging Polish Clandestine State) — including false personal documents and passes (some of which he made himself).
Managed to lead numerous candidates do the Theological Seminary in Ołtarzew.
During these trips stopped three times by the Germans and arrested, but released.
Finally in 10.1942 or 11.1942 arrested yet again by the Germans in Łódź, then part of German Warthegau (Eng. Greater Poland) province, when celebrating Holy Mass in basement of one the apartment blocks.
Held in Radegast prison in Radogoszcz n. Łódź.
Tortured.
Soon perished, unrecognised — formally according to German documents, from „heart failure” — living indeed, according to his own motto, „so not to regret it”.
cause of death
murder
perpetrators
Germans
sites and events
EtG RadegastClick to display the description, GeneralgouvernementClick to display the description, Reichsgau WarthelandClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, Greater Poland UprisingClick to display the description, Pomeranian PhilomathsClick to display the description, Thomas Zan SocietiesClick to display the description
date and place
of birth
02.08.1888
Sypniewotoday: Jastrowie gm., Złotów pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.02]
religious vows
24.09.1937 (temporary)
17.12.1939 (permanent)
presbyter (holy orders)
ordination
25.02.1940 (Warsawtoday: Warsaw city pov., Masovia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.10.09])
positions held
till 1942
friar — Ołtarzewtoday: Ożarów Mazowiecki gm., Warsaw‐west pov., Masovia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.07.18] ⋄ Society's house, Pallottines SAC
till 1940
student — Ołtarzewtoday: Ożarów Mazowiecki gm., Warsaw‐west pov., Masovia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.07.18] ⋄ theology, Theological Seminary, Pallottines SAC — also: giving lectures on pastoral medicine
student — Sucharytoday: Nakło nad Notecią gm., Nakło nad Notecią pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.08.28] ⋄ theology, Theological Seminary, Pallottines SAC
15.09.1936 – 1937
novitiate — Sucharytoday: Nakło nad Notecią gm., Nakło nad Notecią pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.08.28] ⋄ Society's house, Pallottines SAC
1936
accession — Pallottines SAC
1927 – 1936
head of department — Warsawtoday: Warsaw city pov., Masovia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.10.09] ⋄ Administrative Division, Veterinary Department, Ministry of Agriculture
1924 – 1927
provincial veterinary inspector — Poznańtoday: Poznań city pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18] ⋄ Poznań Voivodeship Office, Poznań Voivodeship — also: veterinarian
till 1923
PhD student — Lvivtoday: Lviv urban hrom., Lviv rai., Lviv, Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.16] ⋄ Veterinary Institute [i.e. Veterinary Institute (from 1944) / Germ. Staatliche Tierarztliche Institut (State Veterinary Institutes) (1942‐1944) / Veterinary Institute (1939‐1941) / Academy of Veterinary Medicine (1922‐1939) / Imperial–Royal Veterinary School (1889‐1922)]
1919 – 1924
provincial veterinary inspector — Toruńtoday: Toruń city pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.20] ⋄ Pomeranian Voivodeship Office, Pomeranian Voivodeship — also: veterinarian
from 1917
veterinarian — Lęborktoday: Lębork urban gm., Lębork pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28]
from 1915
veterinarian — Grudziądztoday: Grudziądz city pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.02]
1912 – 1915
student — Berlintoday: Berlin state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.07.31] ⋄ veterinary, Royal Veterinary College — also: temporarily in Dresden
1916 – 1925
membership — Toruńtoday: Toruń city pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.20] ⋄ scientific society — treasurer (1921‐1924) and head of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
author of books, brochures and articles in the field of veterinary science, e.g. „Cattle plague, or rinderpest”, Toruń, 1921; „Meat hygiene. Manual for the official inspection of slaughter cattle and meat examination with trichinoscopy according to the regulations in the former Prussian district”, Toruń, 1921; „Disinfection in the case of contagious diseases in domestic animals and the matter of harmless removal of carrion”, Poznań, 1926
widower
sites and events
descriptions
EtG Radegast: Resettlement camp (as part of German resettlement „program” for Poles in 1939), then co‐functioning with transit‐concentration camp (during genocidal German «Intelligenzaktion» Litzmannstadt in 1939‐1940), finally changed into Germ. Erweitertes Polizeigefängnis (Eng. Expanded Police prison), in Radogoszcz n. Łódź, operational from 1939 till 1945, for Poles from Łódź region. Probably in excess of 40,000 people were held there. For religious this was a transit camp before transfer to KL Dachau concentration camp. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30])
Generalgouvernement: 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. In two of them new German provinces were created, two other were incorporated into other provinces. However, the fifth part was treated separately, and in a political sense it was supposed to recreate the German idea from 1915 (during World War I, after the defeat of the Russians in the Battle of Gorlice in 05.1915) of creating a Polish enclave within Germany. Illegal in the sense of international law, i.e. Hague Convention, and public law, managed by the Germans according to separate laws — especially established for the Polish Germ. Untermenschen (Eng. subhumans) — till the Russian offensive in 1945 it constituted the Germ. Großdeutschland (Eng. Greater Germany). Till 31.07.1940 formally called Germ. Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete (Eng. General Government for the occupied Polish lands) — later simply Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), as in the years 1915‐1918. From 07.1941, i.e. after the German attack on 22.06.1941 against the erstwhile ally, the Russians, it also included the Galicia district, i.e. the Polish pre‐war south‐eastern voivodeships. A special criminal law was enacted and applied to Poles and Jews, allowing for the arbitrary administration of the death penalty regardless of the age of the „perpetrator”, and sanctioning the use of collective responsibility. After the end of the military conflict of the World War UU, the government of the Germ. Generalgouvernement was recognized as a criminal organization, and its leader, governor Hans Frank, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and executed. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.04])
Reichsgau Wartheland: 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. Greater Poland 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 24.01.1940 transformed into the Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland 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 90% of its inhabitants were Poles, was Germ. „Entpolonisierung” (Eng. „Depolonisation”), i.e. forced Germanization. C. 100,000 Poles were murdered as part of the Germ. „Intelligenzaktion”, i.e. extermination of Polish intelligentsia and ruling classes. C. 630,000 were forcibly resettled to the Germ. Generalgouvernement, and their place taken by the Germans brought from other areas occupied by Germany (e.g. the Baltic countries, Bessarabia, Bukovina, etc.). Poles were forced to sign the German nationality list, the Germ. Deutsche Volksliste DVL. As part of the policy of „Ohne Gott, ohne Religion, ohne Priesters und Sakramenten” (Eng. „No God, no religion, no priest or sacrament”) most Catholic priests were arrested and sent to concentration camps. All schools teaching in Polish, Polish libraries, theaters and museums were closed. Polish landed estates confiscated. To further reduce the number of the Polish population, Poles were sent to forced labor deep inside Germany, and the legal age of marriage for Poles was increased (25 for women, 28 for men). The German state office, Germ. Rasse‐ und Siedlungshauptamt (Eng. Main Office of Race and Settlement) RuSHA, under the majesty of German law, abducted several thousand children who met specific racial criteria from Polish families and subjected them to forced Germanization, handing them over to German families. 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, Arthur Karl Greiser, was executed. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.21])
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])
Greater Poland Uprising: Military insurrection of Poles of former German Germ. Posen Provinz (Eng. Poznań province) launched against German Reich in 1918‐1919 — after the abdication on 09.11.1918 of the German Emperor William II Hohenzollern; after the armistice between the Allies and Germany signed on 11.1.1918 in the HQ wagon in Compiègne, the headquarters of Marshal of France Ferdinand Foch — which de facto meant the end of World War I — against the German Weimar Republic, established on the ruins of the German Empire, aiming to incorporate lands captured by Prussia during partitions of Poland in XVIII century into Poland, reborn in 1918. Started on 27.12.1918 in Poznań and ended on 16.02.1919 with the armistice in Trier (which included provisions ordering the Germans to stop their actions against Poland), which meant a de facto Polish victory. Many Polish priests took part in the Uprising, both as chaplains of the insurgents units and members and leaders of the Polish agencies and councils set up in the areas covered by the Uprising. In 1939 after German invasion of Poland and start of the World War II those priests were particularly persecuted by the Germans and majority of them were murdered. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.08.14])
Pomeranian Philomaths: Secret societies of Polish youth, aiming at self‐education, patriotic in form and content, functioning 1830‐1920, mainly in secondary schools — gymnasia — in Pomerania around Vistula river (Gdańsk Pomerania and Chełmno county), in Prussian‐occupied Polish territories (one of the partitions of Poland). On 08.01.1901 Germans conducted a series of interrogations of students at Chełmno, Brodnica and Toruń gymnasiums. On 09‐12.09.1901 the first of court trials of Polish students from those gymnasiums and students of Theological Seminary in Pelplin was held in Toruń. 1 person was sentenced to 3 months in prison, 1 to 2 months, 3 to 6 weeks, 7 to 3 weeks, 2 to 2 weeks, 19 to a week, 2 to 1 day, 10 were reprimanded. 15 were cleared. More definitive penalties were relegations from the schools with so‐called wolf’s ticket, forbidding sentenced students to continue secondary and higher studies in Prussia (Germany). Among those penalized were a few future Catholic priests — those were able to continue their education for the Chełmno diocese bishop, Bp August Rosentreter, refused to relegate students from Theological Seminary. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18])
Thomas Zan Societies: Secret societies of Polish youth, aiming at self‐education, patriotic in form and content, functioning 1830‐1920, in mutiny against enforced Germanisation and censure of Polish culture, mainly in secondary schools — gymnasia — mainly in Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) and later in Silesia. The first groups were formed in 1817. In 1897 a congress in Bydgoszcz was held when rules of clandestine activities were formulated. At other congress in Bydgoszcz in Poznań a „Red Rose” society was formed, heading all others groups in various gymnasiums and coordinating their activities. In 1900 „Red Rose” consolidated Philomaths organizations from Pomerania as well. After Toruń trial of Pomeranian Philomaths in Toruń Germans arrested 24 members of Thomas Zan Society from Gniezno. 21 of them were sentenced up to 6 weeks in prison and reprimands. All were relegated from schools without the right to continue education in secondary and higher schools in Prussia. Despite repression the Societies existed till 1918 and rebirth of Poland. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19])
sources
personal:
wsdsac.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.12.28], libermortuorum.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30], www.izbawetbial.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.08.31], gp24.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30]
original images:
niepodlegla.pomorskie.euClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30], nowosci.com.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30], libermortuorum.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30], gp24.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30], www.facebook.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.07.29], kontakt24.tvn24.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30], turystyka.ozarow-mazowiecki.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2017.11.07]
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