function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Gniezno and Poznań archdiocese (aeque principaliter)more on
www.archpoznan.pl
[access: 2012.11.23]
Military Ordinariate of Polandmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.12.20]

date and place
of death

21.09.1940

KL Sachsenhausenconcentration camp
today: Sachsenhausen‐Oranienburg, Oberhavel dist., Brandenburg state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2018.11.18]

details of death

prisoner camp's numbers

29925Click to display source page (KL SachsenhausenClick to display the description)

cause of death

extermination: exhaustion and starvation

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

KL SachsenhausenClick to display the description, DL ScheglinClick to display the description, 26.08.1940 arrests (Warthegau)Click to display the description, Reichsgau WarthelandClick 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, Greater Poland UprisingClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

13.06.1886

Kopydłowotoday: Wilczyn gm., Konin pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.19]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

30.01.1910 (Poznań cathedralmore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.11.14])

positions held

others related
in death

ADAMCZYKClick to display biography Stanislav, BRZĄKAŁAClick to display biography Victor, BURCZYKClick to display biography Felix, BYTOFClick to display biography Peter, CHARSZEWSKIClick to display biography Ignatius, CHYLARECKIClick to display biography Stanislav, CIEMNIAKClick to display biography Louis, CYBULSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, CZAKIClick to display biography Saturnin, CZAPIEWSKIClick to display biography Joseph Leonard, DEMSKIClick to display biography Vladislav, DOERINGClick to display biography Alexander, FIGATClick to display biography Henry, GOŃCZClick to display biography Bernard, GORALClick to display biography Vladislav, GRZEBIELEWSKIClick to display biography Joseph, GUZClick to display biography Joseph Adalbert (Fr Innocent), HEVELKEClick to display biography John, HINZClick to display biography Francis Felix, HINZClick to display biography Thaddeus, JARZĘBSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, JORDANClick to display biography Boleslav, KALINOWSKIClick to display biography Theodore, KARAMUCKIClick to display biography Edmund Vladislav, KARCZYŃSKIClick to display biography Cyril Methodius, KLEINClick to display biography John, KOMPFClick to display biography January, KONKOLEWSKIClick to display biography Joachim, KOWNACKIClick to display biography Bronislav, KOZUBEKClick to display biography Roman, KRAUZEClick to display biography Edmund, KRUPIŃSKIClick to display biography Louis, KUBIAKClick to display biography John (Bro. Norbert Mary), KUBICKIClick to display biography Steven, KUBISTAClick to display biography Stanislav, KUPILASClick to display biography Francis, LAPISClick to display biography Casimir, LENARTClick to display biography John, LICZNERSKIClick to display biography Constantine, ŁOSIŃSKIClick to display biography Bernard Anthony, MACIĄTEKClick to display biography Stanislav Peter, MARCHLEWSKIClick to display biography Leonard, MATUSZEWSKIClick to display biography Francis, MĄKOWSKIClick to display biography John, MĘŻNICKIClick to display biography Joseph, MICHNOWSKIClick to display biography Marian John, MITRĘGAClick to display biography Francis, MORKOWSKIClick to display biography Edmund, MOŚCICKIClick to display biography Joseph, NAGÓRSKIClick to display biography Paul Adalbert, NITSCHMANNClick to display biography Adam Robert, NOWAŃSKIClick to display biography Anthony, NOWICKIClick to display biography Alexander, OCHOŃSKIClick to display biography Charles (Fr Chris), OKOŁO–KUŁAKClick to display biography Anthony, PALUCHOWSKIClick to display biography Boleslav, PETRYKOWSKIClick to display biography Steven, PIASZCZYŃSKIClick to display biography Michael, PODLASZEWSKIClick to display biography Francis, POMIANOWSKIClick to display biography Vladislav, RADTKEClick to display biography Steven Boleslav, SĄSAŁAClick to display biography Theodore, SKOBLEWSKIClick to display biography Mieczyslav, SKOWRONClick to display biography Casimir, SOCHACZEWSKIClick to display biography Bronislav Peter, SWINARSKI–PORAJClick to display biography Nicholas, SYNOWIECClick to display biography Boleslav, SZUKALSKIClick to display biography John, SZYMAŃSKIClick to display biography Bruno Peter John, ŚLEDZIŃSKIClick to display biography Joseph, TUSZYŃSKIClick to display biography Joseph, TYMIŃSKIClick to display biography Anthony, WAWRZYNOWICZClick to display biography John, WĄSOWICZClick to display biography Sigismund, WIERZBICKIClick to display biography Sigismund Lawrence, WIERZCHOWSKIClick to display biography Fabian Sebastian, WILLIMSKYClick to display biography Albert, WŁODARCZYKClick to display biography Ignatius, WOHLFEILClick to display biography Robert, WRÓBLEWSKIClick to display biography Bronislav, ZAWISZAClick to display biography Valentine, ZIELIŃSKIClick to display biography Paul Nicholas, ZIEMSKIClick to display biography Alexander Felix, ZIENKOWSKIClick to display biography Vaclav, ŻUCHOWSKIClick to display biography Vaclav

sites and events
descriptions

KL Sachsenhausen: In Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL Sachsenhausen, set up in the former Olympic village in 07.1936, hundreds of Polish priests were held in 1940, before being transported to KL Dachau. Some of them perished in KL Sachsenhausen. Murderous medical experiments on prisoners were carried out in the camp. In 1942‐1944 c. 140 prisoners slaved at manufacturing false British pounds, passports, visas, stamps and other documents. Other prisoners also had to do slave work, for Heinkel aircraft manufacturer, AEG and Siemens among others. On average c. 50,000 prisoners were held at any time. Altogether more than 200,000 inmates were in jailed in KL Sachsenhausen and its branched, out of which tens of thousands perished. Prior to Russian arrival mass evacuation was ordered by the Germans and c. 80,000 prisoners were marched west in so‐called „death marches” to other camps, i.e. KL Mauthausen‐Gusen and KL Bergen‐Belsen. The camp got liberated on 22.04.1945. After end of armed hostilities Germans set up there secret camp for German prisoners and „suspicious” Russian soldiers. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18])

DL Scheglin: Germ. Durchgangslager Scheglin (Eng. Transit Camp) — German camp in Szczeglin n. Mogilno, operational from 01.10.1939 till 15.09.1940. Germans kept there c. 4,600 Poles, forcing them to perform slave labour — before transporting them to concentration camps. Among others on 29.08.1940 Germans sent from DL Scheglin 188 Polish priests to KL Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Approx. 150 of those held in DL Scheglin were murdered — some in the camp itself, the others in an execution site in Świerkowice forest. (more on: www.dsh.waw.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.06.23])

26.08.1940 arrests (Warthegau): As part of strategy formulated by the Gaulaiter of German province Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland, organized by the Germans in the occupied part of Poland known as Greater Poland, Arthur Greiser, implementing „Ohne Gott, ohne Religion, ohne Priesters und Sakramenten” — „without God, without religion, without priest and sacrament” — policy, hundreds of Polish priests were arrested on this day. They were jailed, together with priests arrested previously and held in Ląd on Warta river camp, among others, in DL Scheglin transit camp in Szczeglin n. Mogilno. Three days later all were transferred to KL Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

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])

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])

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])

sources

personal:
www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.archiwum.archidiecezja.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.05.30]
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
original images:
parafiawitkowo.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.07.18], www.mikolaj-witkowo.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19], www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], commons.wikimedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30]