function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Culm (Chełmno) diocesemore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2012.11.23]
RC Military Ordinariate of Polandmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.12.20]

date and place
of death

20.10.1939

Tczewtoday: Tczew urban gm., Tczew pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.02]

alt. dates and places
of death

21.10.1939

details of death

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

Tczew (murder of priests)Click to display the description, IL DirschauClick to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion»Click to display the description, Reichsgau Danzig‐WestpreußenClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

04.12.1908

Grodzicznotoday: Grodziczno gm., Nowe Miasto Lubawskie pov., Warmia‐Masuria voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.02]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

23.12.1933 (Pelpin cathedralmore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.11.14])

positions held

others related
in death

BARTKOWSKIClick to display biography Julius, BISTRAMClick to display biography John, DZIARNOWSKIClick to display biography Augustine Charles, GRAJEWSKIClick to display biography Joseph, KIRSTEINClick to display biography Paul, KUROWSKIClick to display biography Paul, LEWANDOWSKIClick to display biography Louis, PARTYKAClick to display biography Boleslav, RASZEJAClick to display biography Maximilian, ROSKWITALSKIClick to display biography Joseph, RÓŻYŃSKIClick to display biography Francis, SCHÜTTClick to display biography Walter, SIELSKIClick to display biography Julius Vaclav, WIŚNIEWSKIClick to display biography John, ZAREMBAClick to display biography John

sites and events
descriptions

Tczew (murder of priests): On 20.10.1939 Germans in Pelplin and vicinity arrested c. 21 Catholic priests. The group was driven to a nearby Belawski forest where they were forced to dig a large ditch. For some reason (possibly for place was open to local inhabitants) the group was forced to march back to Pelplin, being publicly maltreated and tortured on the way, towards train station. There they were put on lorries and taken to IL Dirschau camp in Tczew. In the evening after torture 16 of them were executed in the Tczew military barracks, at the place traditionally known as Old Powder Site — by the shots to the back of the head (Germ. „Genickschuss”). Some of them were prob. buried in a mass grave alive. The crime was committed by a specially brought SA commando from Gdańsk, i.e. Germ. Die Sturmabteilungen der NSDAP (Eng. NSDAP Storm Troops) — security militias of the National Socialist German Workers' Party NSDAP — under the command of a certain Walter Frösse. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], zbrodniapomorska1939.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.12.09])

IL Dirschau: Germ. „Internierungslager” (Eng. „Internment camp”) set up by the Germans on 10.09.1939 in Tczew for inhabitants of Tczew county. Organised at former Polish army barracks and from end of 11.1939 in the Artisans’ school building. Altogether c. 1,000‐1,500 people where incarcerated and repeatedly tortured. 120‐150 were murdered in the barracks including 16 priests from Pelplin. Some were mass murdered in Szpęgawsk forest, others were transferred to KL Stutthof concentration camp. (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 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])

Reichsgau Danzig‐Westpreußen: 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. Vistula Pomerania 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 02.11.1939 transformed into the Germ. Reichsgau Danzig‐Westpreußen (Eng. Reich District of Gdańsk‐West Prussia) 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 85% of its inhabitants were Poles, was Germ. „Entpolonisierung” (Eng. „Depolonisation”), i.e. forced Germanization. C. 60,000 Poles were murdered in 1939‐1940, as part of the Germ. „Intelligenzaktion”, i.e. extermination of Polish intelligentsia and ruling classes, in c. 432 places of mass executions — including c. 220 Polish Catholic priests. The same number were sent to German concentration camps, from where few returned (over 300 priests were arrested, of whom c. 130 died in concentration camps). C. 124,000‐170,000 were displaced, including c. 90,000 to the Germ. Generalgouvernement. Poles were forced en masse to sign the German nationality list, the Germ. Deutsche Volksliste DVL. Polish children could only learn in German. It was forbidden to use the Polish language during Catholic Holy Masses and during confession. Polish landed estates were confiscated..To further reduce the number of the Polish population, Poles were sent to forced labor deep inside Germany. The remaining Poles were treated as low‐skilled labor, isolated from the Germans and strictly controlled — legally, three or three of them could only meet together, even in their own apartments. Many were conscripted into the German Wehrmacht army. 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, Albert Maria Forster, was executed. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.24])

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])

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:
www.zkp.tczew.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.niedziela.diecezja.torun.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19]
bibliographical:
„Martyrology of the Polish Roman Catholic clergy under nazi occupation in 1939‐1945”, Victor Jacewicz, John Woś, vol. I‐V, Warsaw Theological Academy, 1977‐1981
„Lubawa County Biographical Lexicon 1244‐2005”, George Szews, 2005
„Biographical dictionary of priests ordained in the years 1921‐1945 working in the Chełmno diocese”, Fr Anastasius Nadolny, prof., Bernardinum publishing house 2021
original images:
www.panoramio.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.04.18], www.portalpomorza.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.04.18]