function

religious seminarian

creed

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

congregation

Congregation of the Holy Family Missionaries MSFmore on
fr.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
(i.e. Missionaries of the Holy Family)

diocese / province

MSF Polish Province

date and place
of death

1945

alt. dates and places
of death

1939‑1945

details of death

cause of death

extermination: exhaustion and disease

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

Slave labour in GermanyClick to display the description, PaterekClick to display the description, VSH GorkaClick 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

Brynówtoday: part of Katowice, Katowice city pov., Silesia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2024.04.26]

religious vows

08.09.1939 (temporary)

positions held

comments

others related
in death

HIRSZClick to display biography Louis, PAWLAKClick to display biography Peter, PIANOWSKIClick to display biography John

sites and events
descriptions

Slave labour in Germany: During World War II Germans forced c. 15 million people to do a slave forced labour in Germany and in the territories occupied by Germany. In General Governorate the obligation to work included Poles from 14 to 60 years old. On the Polish territories occupied and incorporated into Germany proper obligation was forced upon children as young as 12 years old — for instance in Warthegau (Eng. Greater Poland). (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2017.11.07])

Paterek: As part of their "Intelligenzaktion" – extermination of Polish intelligentsia and leading classes in Pomerania – Germans organized In Paterek n. Nakła a series of mass executions. From 04.10.1939 till 24.11.1939 more then 218 people were murdered, mainly from Wyrzysk county and its vicinity, including 48 priests and religious (among whom were 2 nuns), interned in VSH Gorka custody – transit camp – in Górka Klasztorna set up by the genocidal German paramilitary organization Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz. Members of the Selbstschutz shot the victims over dug ditches – in a valley located next to a dirt road, in the area of a former gravel pit – and brutally finished off the wounded, with blows of a shovel among others, and then covered the grave. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19], pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06])

VSH Gorka: German Germ. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutzhaft (Eng. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz custody) VSH — established in 10.1939 by the genocidal German paramilitary organization Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz — the decision to create Selbstschutz in the Polish lands occupied by German troops was made in Berlin on September 08‐10.09.1939 at a conference headed by Reichsführer‐SS Heinrich Himmler (the formal order bears the date 20.09.1939), and the chaotically formed units were directly subordinated to the officers of the genocidal SS organization — in the monastery of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Family in Górka Klasztorna n. Łobżenica, as part of the «Intelligenzaktion» action — the extermination of the Polish intelligentsia and leadership classes in Pomerania. Initially mainly priests from Wyrzysk county where held there. Almost all perished murdered in the monastery or at the place of mass murders in Paterek. The camp was closed down in 11.1939. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.06.23])

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:
straty.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.18]
bibliographical:
Fr Miroslav Książek MSF, provincial secretary, private correspondence, 20/26.04.2024