function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Warmia diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2018.09.02]

date and place
of death

09.1944

on Donetsk ‐ Kazan train lineUkraine ‐ Russia

details of death

cause of death

extermination

perpetrators

Russians

sites and events

KLW StalinoClick to display the description, Deportation of Germans to Russia in 1945Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

01.09.1900

Gościszewotoday: Sztum gm., Sztum pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

14.02.1926

positions held

others related
in death

FRANKClick to display biography John, GRAWEClick to display biography Eberhard, HEINRICHClick to display biography Charles, PODLECHClick to display biography Ferdinand, ZINTClick to display biography Helmut

sites and events
descriptions

KLW Stalino: Russian Rus. Концентрационные Лагеря для Военнопленных (Eng. POW Concentration Camps) KLW, managed by the genocidal Russian organization NKVD — and in practice by its Rus. Главное управление по делам военнопленных и интернированных (Eng. General Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees) GUPWI — founded starting from 1942‐1943, in Stalino (now Donetsk), centre of Donbas coal mining and steel making region in Rus. Южный регион (Eng. Southern Region), in Ukraine. Prisoners of these camps — there were 34 of them in the entire region with 515 sub‐camps — slaved in many industrial plants in the region. In 1944‐1946 the Rus. Проверочно‐Фильтрационный Ла́герь (Eng. Testing and Filtration Camp) PFL No. 240 „Petrovskiy” was set up and at the beginning of 1945 had c. sub camps, including in Yenakiyeve, and number of prisoners reached 31,336 (04.1945) and 35,135 (08.1945). POW camp No. 280, known also as „Rutchenkovskiy”, was operational longer. Russians brought there internees from the regions captured by their army who had not managed to escape with withdrawing Germans, among others from Warmia. Most slaved in Donbas coal mines. E.g. on 03.07.1945 Russians held there 49,150 POWs, among whom were c. 4,782 soldiers of Polish Home Army AK and other independent resistance organizations (part of Polish Clandestine State). In 04‐05.1945 Russians sent tens of thousands of miners from Silesia to slave labour in Donbas mines — only some returned to Poland, 10 years later. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.09.02])

Deportation of Germans to Russia in 1945: On 06.02.1945 Russian State Defence Committee issued an order to intern all Germans, mainly men, able to work from the German territories captured by Russian army and transport them into Russia — to slave labour camps in Donbas region in Ukraine, to industrial centers in Ural mountains, to Russian occupied Belarus, etc. — in order to rebuild destroyed by the war Russia. It was planned to use c. 500,000 Germans, 17‐50 years old, although in practice much older were also arrested. From Upper Silesia only c. 90,000 Germans and Poles were deported 20% of which returned after many years. Among the victims were members of Polish clandestine Home Army AK (part of Polish Clandestine State) fighting with Germans. Tens of thousands were deported from Warmia and Mazurian regions. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18])

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:
gross-kleeberg.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19], files.bildarchiv-ostpreussen.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18]
original images:
www.bildarchiv-ostpreussen.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18]