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    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
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Roman Catholic
St Sigismund parish
05-507 Słomczyn
85 Wiślana Str.
Konstancin deanery
Warsaw archdiocese, Poland

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    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
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    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
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    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
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    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
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    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
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Martyrology of the clergy — Poland

XX century (1914 – 1989)

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  • GRYŹLAK Anthony; source: thanks to Ms Joanne Niewiadomska's kindness (private correspondence, 09.03.2023), own collection; CLICK TO ZOOM AND DISPLAY INFOGRYŹLAK Anthony
    source: thanks to Ms Joanne Niewiadomska's kindness (private correspondence, 09.03.2023)
    own collection

surname

GRYŹLAK

forename(s)

Anthony (pl. Antoni)

function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Lviv archdiocesemore 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

04.03.1945

KL Flossenbürgconcentration camp
today: n. Weiden in der Oberpfalz, Upper Palatinate reg., Bavaria state, Germany

more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.05.20]

alt. dates and places
of death

KL Groß‐Rosenconcentration camp
today: Rogoźnica, Strzegom gm., Świdnica pov., Lower Silesia voiv., Poland

more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.02.02]

details of death

After German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and start of the World War II, during Russian occupation, co‐founder of youth clandestine resistance „Young Forest” group in Ternopil.

Leadership member of the clandestine resistance Armed Struggle Union ZWZ organization in Ternopil region (part of the budding Polish Clandestine State).

During German occupation — starting after 22.06.1941, when Germans attacked their erstwhile ally, Russians — collaborated as a chaplain with the Polish clandestine resistance Home Army AK (part of Polish Clandestine State).

In 02.1944, during «Genocidium Atrox», the genocide perpetrated by Ukrainians, known as „Volyn genocide”, survived in Firlejów murderous attacks of the Ukrainian genocidal OUN/UPA organisation — c.75 parishioners perished, c. 20 murdered bestially.

Then with the blessing of Kraków diocese bishop, Abp Sapieha, and with full knowledge of Home Army AK, together with his remaining parishioners prob. voluntarily applied for transfer to Germany as a physical labourer — so‐called freiwilliger — to clandestinely minister to Poles forced to slave work in Germany.

There arrested by the Germans.

Transported to KL Groß‐Rosen concentration camp.

On 13.02.1945, right before Russian forces arrival, marched out in a so‐called „death march” to KL Flossenbürg concentration camp where perished.

prisoner camp's numbers

49884Click to display source page (KL FlossenbürgClick to display the description)

cause of death

extermination: murder / exhaustion

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

KL FlossenbürgClick to display the description, KL Groß‐RosenClick to display the description, Slave labour in GermanyClick to display the description, «Genocidium Atrox»Click to display the description, GeneralgouvernementClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

07.05.1909

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

1933 (Lvivtoday: Lviv urban hrom., Lviv rai., Lviv, Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.16]
)

positions held

1940 – 1944

vicar — Firleivtoday: Lypiwka, Rohatyn urban hrom., Stanislaviv/Ivano‐Frankivsk rai., Stanislaviv/Ivano‐Frankivsk, Ukraine
more on
uk.wikipedia.org
[access: 2023.03.02]
⋄ St Stanislav the Bishop and Martyr RC parish ⋄ Berezhanytoday: Berezhany urban hrom., Ternopil rai., Ternopil, Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.15]
RC deanery — residing in Błonie

from 1938

prefect — Ternopiltoday: Ternopil urban hrom., Ternopil rai., Ternopil, Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.20]
⋄ Teachers' Seminary

1935 – 1938

prefect — Rohatyntoday: Rohatyn urban hrom., Stanislaviv/Ivano‐Frankivsk rai., Stanislaviv/Ivano‐Frankivsk, Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.20]
⋄ school for girls ⋄ St Nicholas the Bishop RC parish ⋄ Kukilnykytoday: Bilshivtsi hrom., Stanislaviv/Ivano‐Frankivsk rai., Stanislaviv/Ivano‐Frankivsk, Ukraine
more on
uk.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.09.18]
RC deanery

1933 – 1935

prefect — Horodenkatoday: Horodenka urban hrom., Kolomyia rai., Stanislaviv/Ivano‐Frankivsk, Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.22]
⋄ Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC parish ⋄ Horodenkatoday: Horodenka urban hrom., Kolomyia rai., Stanislaviv/Ivano‐Frankivsk, Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.22]
RC deanery

1928 – 1933

student — Lvivtoday: Lviv urban hrom., Lviv rai., Lviv, Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.16]
⋄ philosophy and theology, Metropolitan Theological Seminary

others related
in death

BŁĄDZIŃSKIClick to display biography Vladislav, BOGACZClick to display biography Adalbert, CAGClick to display biography Joseph, CAPClick to display biography Alexander, CHMIELNICKIClick to display biography Sigismund, DRYGASClick to display biography Francis, DRYGASClick to display biography John, JĘDRAClick to display biography Martin, KOŚMIDERClick to display biography Adalbert, KRAJEWSKIClick to display biography Joseph, LEŃKOClick to display biography Joseph, ŁUKOWIAKClick to display biography Anthony, PLUCIŃSKIClick to display biography Valentine, PYKOSZClick to display biography John, SAROSIEKClick to display biography Witold, STOPIŃSKIClick to display biography Joseph, SZMERGALSKIClick to display biography Simon, WĄDRZYKClick to display biography Anthony, WIĘCKIEWICZClick to display biography Leo, ŻUREKClick to display biography Anthony

sites and events
descriptions

KL Flossenbürg: German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL, founded in 05.1938, where a total of approx. 96,000 prisoners were held captive. In 1942 it became the „mother camp” for many external commandos and sub‐camps whose prisoners worked as slaves for the needs of the German arms industry. On 09.04.1945 Germans executed in the camp several people related to 20.07.1944 assassination plot on Hitler, including Wilhelm Canaris, Hans Oster and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. On 20.04.1945, facing the approach of the Allied troops, about 22,000 prisoners were marched out in the so‐called „Death March” to KL Dachau. Over 7,000 perished along the way. The camp was liberated on 23.04.1945 by American troops. In total, 30,000‐77,000 prisoners died in the camp, including up to 17,000 Poles. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.05.20]
)

KL Groß‐Rosen: Groß‐Rosen (today: Rogoźnica) was a German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL, founded in the summer of 1940 (first transport of prisoners arrived on 02.08.1940). Initially a branch of KL Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In 1944 became a centre of a network of more than 100 camps. Prisoners were forced to slave at nearby granite quarries, on starvation rations. More than 125,000 prisoners were enslaved — 40,000 victims perished. In 1945 — in „death marches” — Germans dragged through the camp thousands of prisoners from the camp’s in east being one by one overrun by the Russians. The camp itself was captured by the Russians on 14.02.1945. (more on: www.gross-rosen.euClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.07.18]
, en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.02.02]
)

Slave labour in Germany: During World War II Germans forced c. 15 million people to do a slave forced labour in Germany and in the territories occupied by Germany. In General Governorate the obligation to work included Poles from 14 to 60 years old. On the Polish territories occupied and incorporated into Germany proper obligation was forced upon children as young as 12 years old — for instance in Warthegau (Eng. Greater Poland). (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2017.11.07]
)

«Genocidium Atrox»: In 1939‐1947, especially in 1943‐1944, independent Ukrainian units, mainly belonging to genocidal Ukrainian organizations OUN (political arm) and UPA (military arm), supported by local Ukrainian population, murdered — often in extremely brutal way — in Volyn and surrounding regions of pre‐war Poland, from 130,000 to 180,000 Poles, all civilians: men, women, children, old and young. Polish‐Ukrainian conflict that openly emerged during and after World War I (in particular resulting in Polish‐Ukrainian war of 1918‐1919), that survived and even deepened later when western Ukraine became a part Poland, exploded again after the outbreak of the World War II in 09.1939. During Russian occupation of 1939‐1941, when hundreds of thousands of Poles were deported into central Russia, when tens of thousands were murdered (during so‐called Katyń massacres, among others), this open conflict had a limited character, helped by the fact that at that time Ukrainians, Ukrainian nationalists in particular, were also persecuted by the Russians. The worst came after German‐Russian war started on 22.06.1941 and German occupation resulted. Initially Ukrainians supported Germans (Ukrainian police was initiated, Ukrainians co—participated in extermination of the Jews and were joining army units fighting alongside Germans). Later when German ambivalent position towards Ukraine became apparent Ukrainians started acting independently. And in 1943 one of the units of aforementioned Ukrainian OUN/UPA organization, in Volyn, started and perpetrated a genocide of Polish population of this region. In mere few weeks OUN/UPA murdered, with Germans passively watching on the sidelines, more than 40,000 Poles. This strategy was consequently approved and adopted by all OUN/UPA organisations and similar genocides took place in Eastern Lesser Poland (part of Ukraine) where more than 20,000 Poles were slaughtered, meeting however with growing resistance from Polish population. Further west, in Chełm, Rzeszów, etc. regions this genocide turned into an extremely bloody conflict. In general genocide, perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists, partly collaborating with German occupants, on vulnerable Polish population took part in hundreds of villages and small towns, where virtually all Polish inhabitants were wiped out. More than 200 priests, religious and nuns perished in this holocaust — known as «Genocidium Atrox» (Eng. „savage genocide”) The nature and purpose of genocide is perhaps best reflected in the song sung by the murderers: „We will slaughter the Poles, we will cut down the Jews, we must conquer the great Ukraine” (ukr. „Поляків виріжем, Євреїв видусим, велику Україну здобути мусим”). This holocaust and conflict ended up in total elimination of Polish population and Polish culture from Ukraine, in enforced deportations in 1944‐1945 of remaining Poles from Ukraine and some Ukrainians into Ukraine proper, and finally in deportation of Ukrainians from East‐South to the Western parts of Polish republic prl by Commie‐Nazi Russian controlled Polish security forces („Vistula Action”). (more on: www.swzygmunt.knc.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.06.20]
)

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]
)

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:
cracovia-leopolis.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06]
, patrimonium.tchr.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2017.01.29]
, www.straty.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.04.18]

bibliographical:
Biographical lexicon of Lviv Roman Catholic Metropoly clergy victims of the II World War 1939‐1945”, Mary Pawłowiczowa (ed.), Fr Joseph Krętosz (ed.), Holy Cross Publishing, Opole, 2007
Schematismus Universi Saecularis et Regularis Cleri Archi Diaeceseos Metropol. Leopol. Rit. Lat.”, Lviv Metropolitan Curia, from 1860 till 1938

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