Roman Catholic
St Sigismund parish
05-507 Słomczyn
85 Wiślana Str.
Konstancin deanery
Warsaw archdiocese, Poland
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Martyrology of the clergy — Poland
XX century (1914 – 1989)
personal data
surname
KULASIŃSKI
forename(s)
Leo (pl. Leon)
function
diocesan priest
creed
Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
diocese / province
Płock diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
date and place
of death
23.11.1941
KL Dachauconcentration camp
today: Dachau, Upper Bavaria reg., Bavaria state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2016.05.30]
alt. dates and places
of death
24.11.1941
details of death
After German invasion of Poland on 01.09.1939 (Russians invaded Poland 17 days later) and start of the World War II joined the refugee mass of people and went to Warsaw.
There reported to minister at Baby Jesus hospital but after start of German occupation (Warsaw fell to Germans on 27.09.1939) arrested by the Germans in 10.1939.
For 12 days jailed in Pawiak prison.
Released.
Went back to Płock.
Arrested by the Germans again on 05.04.1940.
Jailed in Płock prison and next on 12.04.1940 transported to KL Soldau concentration camp.
From there on 18‐19.04.1940 transported to KL Dachau concentration, and next on 25‐26.05.1940 to KL Gusen I concentration camp (part of KL Mauthausen‐Gusen concentration camps' complex) where slaved in quarries.
Totally exhausted taken back on 15.08.1940 to KL Dachau where perished in camp's „hospital” —„experimentally”, i.e. „surgically”, treated by Germans for tuberculosis and lung ailments he suffered from.
A witness to his death, Fr Joseph Góralski recalled: „unwavering, childlike trust in mercy and goodness of God were characteristic throughout the entire illness and even more at the time of his death.
He was dying joyfully.
This is how saints die.
Fr Leon was the saint indeed”…
prisoner camp's numbers
3935, 15045Click to display source page (KL DachauClick to display the description), 1339 (KL Mauthausen‐GusenClick to display the description)
cause of death
murder
perpetrators
Germans
sites and events
Medical experimentsClick to display the description, KL DachauClick to display the description, KL Gusen IClick to display the description, KL Mauthausen‐GusenClick to display the description, KL SoldauClick to display the description, PłockClick to display the description, PawiakClick to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion»Click to display the description, Regierungsbezirk ZichenauClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description
date and place
of birth
14.03.1911
Sierpctoday: Sierpc urban gm., Sierpc pov., Masovia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
presbyter (holy orders)
ordination
22.09.1935
positions held
1936 – 1940
chaplain — Płocktoday: Płock city pov., Masovia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] ⋄ Holy Trinity Hospital ⋄ St Bartholomew the Apostle RC parish (main parish) ⋄ Płocktoday: Płock city pov., Masovia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] RC deanery
1935 – 1936
vicar — Tłuchowotoday: Tłuchowo gm., Lipno pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] ⋄ Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC parish ⋄ Dobrzyń nad Wisłątoday: Dobrzyń nad Wisłą gm., Lipno pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] RC deanery
1928 – 1935
student — Płocktoday: Płock city pov., Masovia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] ⋄ philosophy and theology, Theological Seminary
comments
The urn containing the ashes of the victim — the body was prob. cremated at Germ. Ostfriedhof (Eng. Eastern cemetery) in Munich — is being kept in Am Perlacher Forst cemetery, at place known as Germ. Ehrenhain I (Eng. „Remembrance Grove nr 1”), in Munich (marked as urn no K1696)
others related
in death
ANDRZEJCZAKClick to display biography Stanislav Kostka, BUKOWYClick to display biography Stanislav, DACHTERAClick to display biography Francis, FELCZAKClick to display biography Stanislav, GLISZCZYŃSKIClick to display biography Francis, JANECKIClick to display biography Mieczyslav, KAŁUŻAClick to display biography Joseph, KŁOCZKOWSKIClick to display biography Mieczyslav John, KOCOTClick to display biography Joseph Francis, KOŁODZIEJClick to display biography Stanislav, KONOPIŃSKIClick to display biography Marian Vaclav, LEŚNIEWICZClick to display biography Louis, LIGUDAClick to display biography Paul Louis, LISClick to display biography Thomas, ŁAGODAClick to display biography Leo, NOWICKIClick to display biography Casimir, PAJDOClick to display biography Francis, RYGUSClick to display biography Leo, SEJBUKClick to display biography Ceslav, SEWIŁŁOClick to display biography Stanislav, STABRAWAClick to display biography Joseph, STACHOWSKIClick to display biography Bruno, STOPCZAKClick to display biography Marian, TRZASKOMAClick to display biography John, ZUSKEClick to display biography Stanislav Witold
sites and events
descriptions
Medical experiments: Criminal medical experiments conducted by German specialists on concentration camp inmates. Among tests, in KL Dachau, KL Auschwitz, KL Buchenwald and other camps, performed by German murderers were malaria injections, liver tests, injections of tuberculosis, typhoid, phlegmon germs, flying tests (in pressure chambers), blood crystallization and coagulation tests, hypothermia, sterilization, starvation tests, etc. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.04])
KL Dachau: KL Dachau in German Bavaria, set up in 1933, became the main German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL for Catholic priests and religious during World War II: On c. 09.11.1940, Reichsführer‐SS Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, Gestapo and German police, as a result of the Vatican's intervention, decided to transfer all clergymen detained in various concentration camps to KL Dachau camp. The first major transports took place on 08.12.1940. In KL Dachau Germans held approx. 3,000 priests, including 1,800 Poles. The priests were forced to slave labor in the Germ. „Die Plantage” — the largest herb garden in Europe, managed by the genocidal SS, consisting of many greenhouses, laboratory buildings and arable land, where experiments with new natural medicines were conducted — for many hours, without breaks, without protective clothing, no food. They slaved in construction, e.g. of camp's crematorium. In the barracks ruled hunger, freezing cold in the winter and suffocating heat during the summer, especially acute in 1941‐1942. Prisoners suffered from bouts of illnesses, including tuberculosis. Many were victims of murderous „medical experiments” — in 11.1942 c. 20 were given phlegmon injections; in 07.1942 to 05.1944 c. 120 were used by for malaria experiments. More than 750 Polish clerics where murdered by the Germans, some brought to Schloss Hartheim euthanasia centre and murdered in gas chambers. At its peak KL Dachau concentration camps’ system had nearly 100 slave labour sub‐camps located throughout southern Germany and Austria. There were c. 32,000 documented deaths at the camp, and thousands perished without a trace. C. 10,000 of the 30,000 inmates were found sick at the time of liberation, on 29.04.1945, by the USA troops… (more on: www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.05.30])
KL Gusen I: German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL „Grade III” (Germ. „Stufe III”), part of KL Mauthausen‐Gusen complex, intended for the „Incorrigible political enemies of the Reich”. The prisoners slaved at a nearby granite quarry, but also in local private companies: at SS guards houses' construction at a nearby Sankt Georgen for instance. Initially opened in 05.1940 as the „camp for Poles”, captured during the program of extermination of Polish intelligentsia («Intelligenzaktion»). Till the end most of the prisoners were Poles. Many Polish priests from the Polish regions incorporated in the Germany were brought there in 1940, after start of German occupation of Poland, from KL Sachsenhausen and KL Dachau concentration camps. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.03.10])
KL Mauthausen‐Gusen: A large group of German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL camps set up around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, c. 30 km east of Linz, operational from 1938 till 05.1945. Over time it became of the largest labour camp complexes in the German‐controlled part of Europe encompassing four major camps concentration camps (Mauthausen, Gusen I, Gusen II and Gusen III) and more than 50 sub‐camps where inmates slaved in quarries (the granite extracted, previously used to pave the streets of Vienna, was intended for a complete reconstruction of major German towns according to Albert Speer plans), munitions factories, mines, arms factories and Me 262 fighter‐plane assembly plants. The complex served the needs of the German war machine and also carried out extermination through labour. Initially did not have a its own gas chamber and the intended victims were mostly moved to the infamous Hartheim Castle, 40.7 km east, or killed by lethal injection and cremated in the local crematorium. Later a van with the exhaust pipe connected to the inside shuttled between Mauthausen and Gusen. In 12.1941 a permanent gas chamber was built. C. 122,000‐360,000 of prisoners perished. Many Polish priests were held, including those captured during the program of extermination of Polish intelligentsia («Intelligenzaktion»). The camp complex was founded and run as a source for cheap labour for private enterprise. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.03.10])
KL Soldau: German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL Soldau (in modern Działdowo city) — since the pre‐war Polish Działdowo county was incorporated into Germ. Regierungsbezirk Allenstein (Eng. Olsztyn regency) the camp was located in occupied territories where general German law was in force, i.e. in Germany proper — was founded in 09.1939, when in former barracks of 32nd Infantry Regiment of Polish Army Germans set up a temporary camp for POW captured during September 1939 campaign. In autumn 1939 was also used as police jail. In 1939‐1940 changed into Germ. Durchgangslager für polnische Zivilgefangene (Eng. Transit Camp for Polish Civilians), prior to transport to other concentration camps. In reality it was used then as a place of extermination of Polish intelligentsia within Germ. «Intelligenzaktion» genocidal program and extermination of sick and disabled within «Aktion T4» program. Next in 05.1940 the camp was changed again into Germ. Arbeitserziehungslager (Eng. Work Education Camp), and finally into penal comp for criminal and political prisoners, most of whom were sentenced to death. In 1939‐1941 Germans imprisoned, maltreated and tortured in KL Soldau hundreds of Polish priests and religious. Approx. 80 priests, religious and nuns perished. They were murdered in the camp itself, by a shot into a head, or in places of mass executions in nearby forests — Białuty forest, Malinowo forets, Komorniki. Dates and precise locations of these murders remain unknown. Altogether in KL Soldau approx. 15,000 prisoners were murdered, including thousands victims — patients of psychiatric institutions (within «Aktion T4» plan). (more on: mazowsze.hist.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.17], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.09.02])
Płock: In its present location, the prison in Płock was built in 1803 by the Prussians (after the Third Partition of Poland, Płock was initially part of the Prussia). From 1815, it functioned as a Russian prison (among others, the November insurgents were detained there). During World War II, during the German occupation — Płock found itself in the so‐called Germ. Regierungsbezirk Zichenau (Eng. Ciechanów regency), part of the Germ. Provinz Ostpreußen (Eng. East Prussia province) — it was managed by the Germans. The jail ran by the German political police Gestapo was located in a different place — initially in the basement of the present town hall in Płock. From 1941 it was transferred — as an investigative prison — to a building at 1st of May Str., built in 1905. Many of the Polish prisoners were next transported to German concentration camps, mainly KL Soldau, where they perished. After the German defeat, this building was taken over by the Russians, and then by the Polish Commie‐Nazis in the service of the Russian KGB, and treacherous murders of former soldiers of the Polish Clandestine State were prob. carried out there. In 1991, the main prison was visited by Pope St John Paul II, who said to the inmates: „You are condemned, but not doomed”.
Pawiak: Investigative prison in Warsaw, built by the Russian occupiers of Poland in 1830‐1835. During the Poland partition's period, a Russian investigative prison, both criminal and political. During World War II and the German occupation, the largest German prison in the General Government. Initially, it was subordinate to the Justice Department of the General Governorate, and from 03.1940 Germ. Sicherheitspolizei und des Sicherheitsdienst (Eng. Security Police and Security Service) of the Warsaw District — in particular the German Secret Political Police Gestapo. c. 3,000 prisoners were kept in Pawiak permanently, of which about 2,200 in the men's unit and c. 800 in the women's unit (the so‐called Serbia) — with a „capacity” of c. 1,000 prisoners. In total, in the years 1939‐1944, c. 100,000 Poles passed through the prison, of which c. 37,000 were murdered in executions — from 10.1943 Pawiak prisoners were murdered in open executions on the streets of Warsaw (sometimes several times a day) — during interrogations, in cells or in a prison „hospital”, and c. 60,000 were taken in 95 transports to concentration camps (mainly KL Auischwitz), other places of isolation or to forced labor. The prison Germans demolished during the Warsaw Uprising in 08‐10.1944. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2022.08.17])
«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 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])
Regierungsbezirk Zichenau: 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). From two separate new provinces were created. The two remaining were incorporated into existing German provinces. One of those was the Germ. Regierungsbezirk Zichenau (Eng. Ciechanów regency), created from part of the occupied Warsaw voivodeship, and incorporated into the Germ. Provinz Ostpreußen (Eng. East Prussia) — on the basis of the decree of the German leader Adolf Hitler of 08.10.1939 (formally in force from 26.10.1939) — in which the law of the German state was applicable. The main axis of the policy of the new regency, the territory of which the Germans recognized as the Germ. „Ursprünglich Deutsche” (Eng. „natively German”), despite the fact only 6% of its pre–war Polish part were Germans, was Germ. „Entpolonisierung” (Eng. „Depolonisation”), i.e. forced Germanization, and Germ. Zwangsarbeit (Eng. forced slave labor). Most of the Germ. Zivilarbeiter (Eng. civilian worker) slaved in the Germ. Provinz Ostpreußen. Some Poles— c. 25,000 — were deported to the Germ. Generalgouvernement; some were sent to concentration camps. Children could only learn in German. A policy of terror was pursued against the Polish population — 8 large prisons operated in a small area, Polish organizations and institutions were closed. The Polish press was liquidated. 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, Erich Koch, initially went into hiding, then was captured and extradited to the Commie–Nazi republic of Poland prl, sentenced to death, but the sentence was not carried out and died in prison in 1986. The Germ. Regierungspräsidenten Zichenau (Eng. superpresident of the Ciechanów regency) hid better and his post‐war fate is still unknown. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.24])
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:
michaelstanislaus.salon24.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.06.01], arolsen-archives.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.10.13], www.ipgs.usClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23]
bibliographical:
„Płock diocese clergy martyrology during II World War 1939‐1945”, Fr Nicholas Marian Grzybowski, Włocławek–Płock 2002
„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
„Urns kept at the Am Perlacher Forst cemetery — analysis”, Mr Gregory Wróbel, curator of the Museum of Independence Traditions in Łódź, private correspondence, 25.05.2020
original images:
kosciol.wiara.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.18], idziemy.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.18]
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