function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Włocławek diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Włocławek i.e. Kalisz diocesemore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.10.13]

date and place
of death

19.02.1945

AL Hersbrucksub‐camp of KL Flossenbürg concentration
today: Hersbruck, Middle Franconia reg., Bavaria state, Germany

details of death

prisoner camp's numbers

24462 (KL FlossenbürgClick to display the description)

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

KL‐A HersbruckClick to display the description, KL FlossenbürgClick to display the description, KL AuschwitzClick to display the description, Regierungsbezirk KattowitzClick to display the description, DL 121 PruszkówClick to display the description, Warsaw UprisingClick to display the description, GeneralgouvernementClick to display the description, Reichsgau WarthelandClick to display the description, AbL Groß‐MischenClick to display the description, AbL RudauClick to display the description, Stalag I A StablackClick to display the description, WłocławekClick to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion»Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, Polish‐Russian war of 1919‐1921Click to display the description

date and place
of birth

14.08.1901

Pabianicetoday: Pabianice urban gm., Pabianice pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

14.06.1925 (Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18])

positions held

others related
in death

BAGDZIŃSKIClick to display biography Mieczyslav, CHWIŁOWICZClick to display biography Mieczyslav, JANKOWSKIClick to display biography Anthony, KEMPIŃSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, KLEPACZEWSKIClick to display biography Louis, KRYSIŃSKIClick to display biography John Julian, MIASTKOWSKIClick to display biography Anthony, PŁOSZAJClick to display biography Stanislav, SZCZEPANOWSKIClick to display biography Stanislav Felix, SZCZODROWSKIClick to display biography Marian

sites and events
descriptions

KL‐A Hersbruck: KL‐Außenlager (Eng. Satellite Camp) of German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL Flossenbürg, near Hersbruck town in Bavaria. Functioned from 17.05.1944 till 04.1945. A slave work camp, where prisoners were used to help manufacture German weaponry — in tunnels dug in Houbirg hill airplane motors were manufactured. C. 9,500 prisoners — Hungarian Jews, Russian POWs, Poles, Italians and French — slaved for a German BMW manufacturer, digging new tunnels, etc. C. 2,640 prisoners perished. (more on: de.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.07.31])

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 Auschwitz: German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL and Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Auschwitz was set up by Germans around 27.01.1940 n. Oświęcim, on the German territory (initially in Germ. Provinz Schlesien — Silesia Province; and from 1941 Germ. Provinz Oberschlesien — Upper Silesia Province). Initially mainly Poles were interned. From 1942 it became the centre for holocaust of European Jews. Part of the KL Auschwitz concentration camps’ complex was Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Auschwitz II Birkenau, located not far away from the main camp. There Germans murder possibly in excess of million people, mainly Jews, in gas chambers. Altogether In excess of 400 priests and religious went through the KL Auschwitz, approx. 40% of which were murdered (mainly Poles). (more on: en.auschwitz.org.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.meczennicy.pelplin.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06])

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])

DL 121 Pruszków: Germ. Durchgangslager 121 Pruszków (Eng. Transit Camp) — transit camp where Germans herded Warsaw (and its vicinity) civilian population captured during and after Warsaw Uprising. Set up on 06.01.1944 functioned till 12.1944. C. 390,000‐410,000 people were held captive. Most of them were sent subsequently to concentration camps and forced slave labour in Germany. Few hundred ‐ few thousands of them perished in the camp. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.03.01])

Warsaw Uprising: Lasted from 01.08.1944 till 03.10.1944. Was an attempt to liberate Polish capital from occupying Germans by the Polish Clandestine State — a unique in the history of the world political structure on the territories occupied by the Germans, effectively governing clandestinely in Poland — and by fighting on its behalf underground military units, mainly of Home Army (former Armed Struggle Association ZWZ) and National Armed Forced (NSZ). At the same time Russians stopped on purpose the offensive on all front, halted on the other bank of Vistula river and watched calmly the annihilation of the city, refusing even the mid‐landing rights to the Allied planes carrying weapons and supplies to the insurgents from Italy. During the Uprising Germans murdered approx. 200,000 Poles, mainly civilians. Approx. 200 priests and nuns died in fighting or were murdered by the Germans, many in mass executions. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.17])

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])

AbL Groß‐Mischen: AbL Groß‐Mischen (Miszewo‐Svobodnoye in Sambia) was a German camp where approx. 200 teachers of secondary schools and priest from Włocławek and vicinity were held among others in 1939 — as part of Germ. «Intelligenzaktion», German program of physical extermination of Polish intelligentsia and leading classes — and were forced to work on e.g. motorway constructions. The camp operated prob. as Germ. Arbeitslager (Eng. Labour Camp) — and thus it is assumed in White Book. It was dissolved in c. 12.1939 / 01.1940 and the letters sent to inmates were returned with a note „addressee unknown”. None of the prisoners held in Rudau, AbL Groß‐Mischen and AbL Beidritten camps ever returned home — all Polish prisoners at the beginning of 1940 were transferred to KL Soldau (then DL Soldau) and prompty murdered during Germ. «Intelligenzaktion» against Polish leading classes. (more on: pamiec.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.03.10])

AbL Rudau: AbL Rudau II bei Königsberg (now Melnikovo) was a German camp where approx. 200 teachers of secondary schools and priest from Włocławek and vicinity were held among others in 1939 — as part of Germ. «Intelligenzaktion», German program of physical extermination of Polish intelligentsia and leading classes — and were forced to work on e.g. motorway constructions. The camp operated prob. as Germ. Arbeitslager (Eng. Labour Camp) — and thus it is assumed in White Book. It was dissolved in c. 12.1939 / 01.1940 and the letters sent to inmates were returned with a note „ addressee unknown”. None of the prisoners held in Rudau, AbL Groß‐Mischen and AbL Beidritten camps ever returned home — all Polish prisoners at the beginning of 1940 were transferred to KL Soldau (then DL Soldau) and prompty murdered during Germ. «Intelligenzaktion». (more on: www.1wrzesnia39.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.10.05])

Stalag I A Stablack: Stalag I A — German POW camp for non‐commissioned officers and privates in the vicinity of todays Stabławek and Kamińsk villages (Bartoszyce county) and partly n. Dołgorukowo, then in Preussich Eylau county (today in Russian Królewiec enclave). After attack of Poland Germans brought to it till the end of 09.1939 c. 40,000 POWs. Altogether during 1939‐1945 c. 255,000 prisoners from whole Europe were held there. More than 10 thousand perished. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.03.10], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.03.10])

Włocławek: Police detention centre at Karnkowski Str. in downtown Włocławek run by Germans. In 1939‐1940 Germans held there hundreds of Poles, including dozens of Polish priests, that were subsequently transported to German concentration camps. (more on: www.sztetl.org.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2017.01.21])

«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])

Polish‐Russian war of 1919‐1921: War for independence of Poland and its borders. Poland regained independence in 1918 but had to fight for its borders with former imperial powers, in particular Russia. Russia planned to incite Bolshevik‐like revolutions in the Western Europe and thus invaded Poland. Russian invaders were defeated in 08.1920 in a battle called Warsaw battle („Vistula river miracle”, one of the 10 most important battles in history, according to some historians). Thanks to this victory Poland recaptured part of the lands lost during partitions of Poland in XVIII century, and Europe was saved from the genocidal Communism. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20])

sources

personal:
www.niedziela.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19], digital.fides.org.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.straty.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.03.14], martyrologia.wloclawek.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.10.05]
bibliographical:
„Victims of German crime among Włocławek diocese clergy”, Fr Stanislav Librowski, „Włocławek Diocese Chronicle”, 07‐08.1947
„Annals of the Włocławek diocese — 1926‐1939 (also: Catalogus Ecclesiarum et Utriusque Cleri tam Saecularis quam Regularis dioecesis Wladislaviensis seu Calissiensis — till 1925)”, Włocławek and Włocławel-Kalisz diocesan Curia
„International Tracing Service (ITS), Bad Arolsen, GermanyClick to display source page”, Arolsen Archives