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]

honorary titles

Ad Honores Spiritual Counselor
Officer's Cross „Polonia Restituta”more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.04.16]
Gold „Cross of Merit”more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.04.16]
„Cross of Independence”more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.02.02]
„Medal of Independence”more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.02.02]
Prelate‐provost (Lat. praelati‐praepositus)more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2015.03.01] (Szamotuły collegiate)

date and place
of death

14.04.1945

Szamotułytoday: Szamotuły gm., Szamotuły pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.20]

details of death

cause of death

exhaustion

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

GeneralgouvernementClick to display the description, Deportations from Reichsgau WarthelandClick to display the description, IL ChludowoClick to display the description, 02‐03.1940 arrests (Warthegau)Click to display the description, Reichsgau WarthelandClick to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion»Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, Greater Poland UprisingClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

15.05.1879

Żegocintoday: Czermin gm., Pleszew pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.04.01]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

01.12.1902 (Gniezno cathedralmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.11.14])

positions held

others related
in death

ADAMSKIClick to display biography Ignatius, BINEKClick to display biography Silvester, DĄBROWSKIClick to display biography Steven, DUDZIŃSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, GIEBUROWSKIClick to display biography Vaclav Casimir, GRASZYŃSKIClick to display biography Alphonse, HAŁASClick to display biography Anthony, HEYDUCKIClick to display biography Ceslav, KRUSZKAClick to display biography Steven, MICHALSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, PANEWICZClick to display biography Roman, PANKOWSKIClick to display biography Peter Romualdo Casimir, ROSENBERGClick to display biography Louis, SOŁTYSIŃSKIClick to display biography Romualdo, ŚPIKOWSKIClick to display biography Marian, TACZAKClick to display biography Theodore, THEINERTClick to display biography Roman Sigismund, WIERZCHACZEWSKIClick to display biography Maximilian, WOLSKIClick to display biography Francis, ZWOLSKIClick to display biography Steven, BAJEROWICZClick to display biography Adalbert Stanislav, KANIEWSKIClick to display biography Zbigniew, NIKLEWICZClick to display biography Ceslav Stanislav, PACEWICZClick to display biography Vaclav, STEINMETZClick to display biography Paul, ZALEWSKIClick to display biography Edward

sites and events
descriptions

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])

Deportations from Reichsgau Wartheland: After defeating Poland in 1939 a new province was created in Germany, Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland (Eng. Warta German Region) and defined as „indigenous German”, although in 1939 Germans constituted less than 10% of the total population there. In the same 1939, the national‐socialist leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler, announced the need to move Germans from the East to the Reich, mainly to the Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland. Another German leader, Robert Ley, stated, „In 50 years there will be a thriving German country where there will be neither a Pole nor a Jew! If someone asks me where they will be, I will answer: I don't know. In Palestine or in the Sahara desert, I don't care. But German people will live here!” Deportations began. By the end of 1939, c. 80 railway transports were sent to the General Governorate — a total of 87,883 people, mainly Poles and Jews. By 03.1941, over 280,000 people had been displaced. The deported had the right to take with them 12‐30 kg per person. They were given half an hour to pack. Over 60,000 Germans from Estonia, Latvia, Finland, later from other regions, were brought in to replace them. In 1941, c. 70,000 remaining Jewsa were displaced. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2022.11.20])

IL Chludowo: The Gestapo District Office in Poznań issued on 13.12.1939 executive instruction Ref. IIB No. 406/39 Tgb. No. 3045/39, ordering: „Based on the regulation of the Germ. Höherer SS‐ und Polizeiführer (Eng. Higher Commander of the SS and Police) [of the German province of Warthegau (Eng. Greater Poland)] of 12.11.1939 [SS‐Gruppenführer Wilhelm Koppe], apart from Poles and Jews, also Catholic clergy will be expelled. Action against this group of people should be carried out in such a way that internment and transport are separate […] C. 80% of Catholic clergy are expected to be expelled. The selection based on political threat posed. Internees cannot be placed in regular transit camps due to the possibility of international protest. Catholic clergy should be interned in men's monasteries and held there till mass transportation out”. One of them was the house of the Divine Word Missionaries SVD in Chludowo, c. 20 km north of Poznań, purchased by the Congregation in 1934 from one of the most outstanding Polish politicians and publicists, Roman Dmowski. The Germans — Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. Gestapo — on 25.01.1940 established there the Germ. „Internierungslager” (Eng. „internment camp”) IL Chludowo for the Catholic clergy. All the friars present were interned, effectively deprived of means of subsistence, and over 60 arrested priests from nearby parishes of the Poznań and Gniezno archdioceses were transported in. On 22.05.1940, most of them were deported — through the KL Posen concentration camp — to the KL Dachau concentration camp in Bavaria. The facility was then handed over to the German Wehrmacht army, its XXI Wehrkreis (Eng. Military District), covering Greater Poland occupied by the Germans, and prob. was still used as a IL XXI Chludowo POW camp for Poles. In 1943, the camp was liquidated and the Germans established an observation point for the German Luftwaffe Air Force in the buildings. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23])

02‐03.1940 arrests (Warthegau): First large wave of arrests in 1940 of Polish clergy from German occupied Warthegau region (Greater Poland), started in fact in 01.1940 but the largest numbers of priest were held in 02‐03.1940. In accordance with a plan of „Ohne Gott, ohne Religion, ohne Priesters und Sakramenten” — „without God, without religion, without priest and sacrament” — drafted by the Gaulaiter of Warthegau, Artur Greiser, few hundred of Polish priests were interned in transit camps in Puszczykowo, Bruczków, Goruszki, Chludowo and KL Posen (Fort VII) concentration camp prior to transfer to concentration camps deep within Germany.

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])

«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])

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: 2013.07.06], www.wbc.poznan.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.04]
original images:
www.wbc.poznan.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.04], www.wbc.poznan.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.05.06], www.audiovis.nac.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06], www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06]