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

21.10.1939

Paparzyntoday: Stolno gm., Chełmno pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

alt. dates and places
of death

Klamrytoday: Chełmno gm., Chełmno pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

details of death

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

KlamryClick 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

date and place
of birth

24.07.1872

Chmielonkotoday: Chmielno gm., Kartuzy pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

01.04.1900 (Pelplintoday: Pelplin gm., Tczew pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.05.06])

positions held

others related
in death

KLEBBAClick to display biography Michael Edmund

sites and events
descriptions

Klamry: From 12.10 till 11.11.1939, in the forest called „Rybieniec” — a forest complex c. 6 km from Chełmno and the Fort VIII concentration camp, stretching latitudinally, on the west‐east axis (neighboring villages of Klamry, Rybieniec, Wabcz, Paparzyn, among others) — the Germans murdered c. 2,000‐2,500 inhabitants of the Chełmno Land, mainly Polish intelligentsia, in mass executions. The victims were brought to the place of the murders three times a day. Members of the German Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz — a paramilitary formation composed of representatives of the German national minority in Poland — prob. with the support of the SS‐Einsatzgruppen units, used machine guns. Among those shot were teachers (at least 21 educators), officials, engineers, craftsmen, farmers, several Catholic priests, political and social activists. In the second half of 1944, due to the approach of the Russians, the Germans forced a group of Jewish prisoners to dig up the graves and burn the bodies. After this job, the Jews were murdered. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23])

«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])

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])

sources

personal:
www.niedziela.diecezja.torun.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.sanktuariumwlisewie.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.13]
bibliographical:
„Biographical dictionary of priests of the Chełmno diocese ordained in the years 1821‐1920”, Henry Mross, Pelplin, 1995
original images:
gdansk.ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.10.02]