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
LEŚNIAK
forename(s)
Thomas (pl. Tomasz)
function
diocesan priest
creed
Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
diocese / province
Tarnów diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Military Ordinariate of Polandmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.12.20]
date and place
of death
13.03.1941
Nowy Sącztoday: Nowy Sącz pov., Lesser Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.04.01]
details of death
After German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and start of the World War II supported his parish priest, Fr Francis Dyda, in running a crossing point for Poles attempting to climb over the mountains to Slovakia.
Listened to radio broadcasts from the West on a radio hidden in the rectory (Germans made a sole possession of such a radio illegal) and made notes used later by members of clandestine Polish Armed Struggle Union ZWZ army (part of Polish Clandestine State) to publish resistance leaflets and communiqués.
arrested on 28.02.1941 by the Germans (according to other sources on 22.01.1941) for refusal to reveal his parish priests' place of hiding.
Beaten up.
Next transported to Nowy Sącz prison where tortured and soon murdered: prob. bitten by the prison dogs and trampled to death by a German guard.
cause of death
murder
perpetrators
Germans
sites and events
Nowy SączClick to display the description, GeneralgouvernementClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description
date and place
of birth
13.08.1913
Stronietoday: Łukowica gm., Limanowa pov., Lesser Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.04.01]
presbyter (holy orders)
ordination
29.06.1939 (Tarnów cathedral)
positions held
1939 – 1941
vicar — Czarny Potoktoday: Łącko gm., Nowy Sącz pov., Lesser Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.04.01] ⋄ St Martin the Bishop RC parish ⋄ Łąckotoday: Łącko gm., Nowy Sącz pov., Lesser Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.27] RC deanery
1934 – 1939
student — Tarnówtoday: Tarnów city pov., Lesser Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.07] ⋄ philosophy and theology, Theological Seminary
sites and events
descriptions
Nowy Sącz: Penal prison run by the Germans. In 1939‐1945 it was also an execution site, mainly Poles arrested by the Germans. After end of warfare used by Commie‐Nazi UB, Polish branch of Russian KGB, to hold „forgotten soldiers” who continued to fight against Russian occupation after 1945. (more on: www.sw.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.17])
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])
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:
www.miejscapamiecinarodowej.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.lacko.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.28], naszaprzeszlosc.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.04.02]
bibliographical:
„Roman Catholic Church in Sącz country during II World War”, Fr John Kudelka, PhD dissertation, Zielona Góra 2014
original images:
www.rdn.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30], strony.tarman.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.06]
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