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]

date and place
of death

11.11.1939

Wielka Piaśnicaknown as Piaśnica
today: Puck gm., Puck pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.10.09]

alt. dates and places
of death

29.10.1939‑11.11.1939

details of death

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

PiaśnicaClick to display the description, ZL NeufahrwasserClick to display the description, WejherowoClick 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, Pomeranian PhilomathsClick to display the description, Thomas Zan SocietiesClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

15.04.1888

Czyczkowytoday: Brusy gm., Chojnice pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.10.09]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

20.03.1920 (Pelplintoday: Pelplin gm., Tczew pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.05.06])

positions held

others related
in death

ANGRYKClick to display biography Louis, BIEŃKOWSKIClick to display biography John Anthony, BLAJERClick to display biography Blase, BŁAŻEWSKIClick to display biography Ignatius, BORYSIAKClick to display biography John, BRODOWSKIClick to display biography John, DUNAJSKIClick to display biography Peter Paul, FIEREKClick to display biography Anastasius, FITTKAUClick to display biography Edmund, GASIŃSKIClick to display biography Louis, GLISZCZYŃSKIClick to display biography John, GŁOWAClick to display biography Ceslav, HEINIGClick to display biography Julius, HOEFTClick to display biography Walter Joseph, JAKUBOWSKIClick to display biography John Stanislav, JAMRÓGClick to display biography Witold (Fr Henry), JÓŹWIAKClick to display biography Joanna, KALISZClick to display biography Casimir Francis, KASZUBOWSKIClick to display biography Louis, KITZERMANNClick to display biography Francis, KNITTERClick to display biography Louis Bernard, KONEWECKIClick to display biography Joseph, KOTOWSKAClick to display biography Mary Hedwig (Sr Alice), LABUDAClick to display biography Bronislav, LEHMANNClick to display biography Joseph, MOJKOWSKIClick to display biography Julian, MÓWIŃSKIClick to display biography Joseph, NIKLEWSKIClick to display biography Felix, OLKIEWICZClick to display biography Bruno, PRONOBISClick to display biography Adalbert, PRZYBYSZClick to display biography Francis, RACKIClick to display biography Ceslav, ROMPCAClick to display biography Leo, SARNOWSKIClick to display biography Robert Joseph, SUDYClick to display biography Charles, SZYNALEWSKIClick to display biography Francis Xavier Alex, SZYPNIEWSKIClick to display biography Vladislav, TURZYŃSKIClick to display biography Theodore Emilian, UGOFOWSKIClick to display biography Francis, WARCZAKClick to display biography Augustine, WĄTRÓBSKIClick to display biography Adalbert, WIELEWSKIClick to display biography Vladislav Silvester, WILEMSKIClick to display biography Ceslav Casimir, WILEMSKIClick to display biography Paul Felix, WITKOWSKIClick to display biography Boleslav, WOHLFEILClick to display biography Edmund Casimir, ZAKRZEWSKIClick to display biography John, ZĄBEKClick to display biography Edmund Leopold, ŻUREKClick to display biography Mieczyslav

sites and events
descriptions

Piaśnica: In the forests of Piaśnica, c. 1 km from the center of Wielka Piaśnica village near Wejherowo in Pomerania, as part of the Germ. «Intelligenzaktion», from 10.1939 to 04.1940, the Germans murdered, in mass executions, 12,000‐14,000 Poles from Gdańsk Pomerania, mostly Polish intelligentsia. Genocides were committed by SS units (including the Wachsturmbann „Eimann” unit) with the help of members of the paramilitary organization Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz, consisting of treacherous Polish citizens of German origin. Arrested people who found themselves on the so‐called German „Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen” — a named proscription list of „enemies of the Reich”. The victims were usually transported by trains to Wejherowo, in closed wagons attached to a regular passenger services. There, the wagons were detached and the victims, after a brutal selection, with families and children separated, were loaded onto trucks and buses. There pits were awaiting them, dug out initially by local German farmers, and later by Polish‐prisoners from the Germ. Neufahrwasser camp in Gdańsk, known as the Germ. „Himmelfahrtskommando” (Eng. „Ascension into Heaven commando”) — these after some time were murdered and new ones were brought in. The victims had to undress to their underwear, and then in groups of 5‐6 people were murdered with a shot to the back of the head, standing or kneeling over a dug hole. The wounded were finished off — some with rifle butts. Some of the children were murdered by smashing their heads against tree trunks. The graves were then covered, and in 1940 seedlings of trees and bushes were planted on them. In 1944, in the face of the impending defeat of the war, the Germans forced Polish prisoners from the KL Stutthof concentration camp to dig up the graves and burn the bodies, and then murdered the prisoners. Piaśnica is referred to as „Pomeranian Katyn” or „Kashubian Golgota”. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.10.09])

ZL Neufahrwasser: Germ. Zivilgefangenenlager (Eng. POW camp for civilians) organized by the Germans on the day of the outbreak of the war, on 01.09. 1939, in Gdańsk ‐ Nowy Port (New Port), in former artillery barracks belonging to Poland, for Poles from Pomerania arrested as part of the «Intelligenzaktion» action — extermination of Polish intelligentsia. Prisoners from ZL Neufahrwasser — 2,702 people were identified, but it is estimated that c. 10,000 arrestees passed through the camp — were sent to the KL Stutthof concentration camp or directly to the places of extermination. The camp operated till 01.04.1940 (more on: stutthof.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10], ofiaromwojny.republika.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.04])

Wejherowo: A detention center built in c. 1877, taken over by the Germans after the German invasion of Poland on 01.09.1939. The first murders were committed there on 10.09.1939. In the detention center, designed for c. 300 people, the Germans held up to around 3,000 people — they were even held in the chapel and corridors. Among the detainees were Polish prisoners of war. In 1939, as part of the «Intelligenzaktion» — an action to exterminate Polish intelligentsia and leadership classes — the final selection of Poles brought by train was also carried out there, before being sent to the place of genocidal murders in Piaśnica. C. 2,000 prisoners from the detention center itself, detained in Wejherowo and nearby villages, were also taken there and murdered. (more on: www.sw.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.17])

«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])

Pomeranian Philomaths: Secret societies of Polish youth, aiming at self‐education, patriotic in form and content, functioning 1830‐1920, mainly in secondary schools — gymnasia — in Pomerania around Vistula river (Gdańsk Pomerania and Chełmno county), in Prussian‐occupied Polish territories (one of the partitions of Poland). On 08.01.1901 Germans conducted a series of interrogations of students at Chełmno, Brodnica and Toruń gymnasiums. On 09‐12.09.1901 the first of court trials of Polish students from those gymnasiums and students of Theological Seminary in Pelplin was held in Toruń. 1 person was sentenced to 3 months in prison, 1 to 2 months, 3 to 6 weeks, 7 to 3 weeks, 2 to 2 weeks, 19 to a week, 2 to 1 day, 10 were reprimanded. 15 were cleared. More definitive penalties were relegations from the schools with so‐called wolf’s ticket, forbidding sentenced students to continue secondary and higher studies in Prussia (Germany). Among those penalized were a few future Catholic priests — those were able to continue their education for the Chełmno diocese bishop, Bp August Rosentreter, refused to relegate students from Theological Seminary. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18])

Thomas Zan Societies: Secret societies of Polish youth, aiming at self‐education, patriotic in form and content, functioning 1830‐1920, in mutiny against enforced Germanisation and censure of Polish culture, mainly in secondary schools — gymnasia — mainly in Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) and later in Silesia. The first groups were formed in 1817. In 1897 a congress in Bydgoszcz was held when rules of clandestine activities were formulated. At other congress in Bydgoszcz in Poznań a „Red Rose” society was formed, heading all others groups in various gymnasiums and coordinating their activities. In 1900 „Red Rose” consolidated Philomaths organizations from Pomerania as well. After Toruń trial of Pomeranian Philomaths in Toruń Germans arrested 24 members of Thomas Zan Society from Gniezno. 21 of them were sentenced up to 6 weeks in prison and reprimands. All were relegated from schools without the right to continue education in secondary and higher schools in Prussia. Despite repression the Societies existed till 1918 and rebirth of Poland. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19])

sources

personal:
pelplin.diecezja.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.niedziela.diecezja.torun.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.13], www.hagiographycircle.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], biblioteka.wejherowo.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19]
bibliographical:
„Biographical dictionary of priests of the Chełmno diocese ordained in the years 1821‐1920”, Henry Mross, Pelplin, 1995
original images:
biblioteka.wejherowo.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19], www.pulswejherowa.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30], www.salon24.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18], biblioteka.wejherowo.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19]