beatification date

20.11.2021

the RC Pope Francismore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2018.09.08]

function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Katowice diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Military Ordinariate of Polandmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.12.20]

academic distinctions

Theology MA

date and place
of death

03.12.1942

Katowicetoday: Katowice city pov., Silesia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.12]

details of death

cause of death

beheading

perpetrators

Germans

date and place
of birth

18.01.1914

Chorzówtoday: Chorzów Stary district of Chorzów /from 1934/, Chorzów city pov., Silesia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

25.06.1939 (St Peter and St Paul church in Katowice)

positions held

others related
in death

GÜRTLERClick to display biography Joachim Anthony

murder sites
camp 
(+ prisoner no)

KL Auschwitz: German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL and Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Auschwitz was set up by Germans around 27.01.1940 n. Oświęcim, on the German territory (initially in Germ. Provinz Schlesien — Silesia Province; and from 1941 Germ. Provinz Oberschlesien — Upper Silesia Province). Initially mainly Poles were interned. From 1942 it became the centre for holocaust of European Jews. Part of the KL Auschwitz concentration camps’ complex was Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Auschwitz II Birkenau, located not far away from the main camp. There Germans murder possibly in excess of million people, mainly Jews, in gas chambers. Altogether In excess of 400 priests and religious went through the KL Auschwitz, approx. 40% of which were murdered (mainly Poles). (more on: en.auschwitz.org.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.meczennicy.pelplin.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06])

Katowice (prison): Detention centre run by Germans and later, in 1945, took over by the Commie‑Nazis.

Bytom: Prison built by the Germans in 1858‑1862. During World War II, many Poles were held there — prior to being transported to concentration camps. After the German defeat in 1945 and start of the Russian occupation, the prison was, inter alia, concentration point of the Silesian population (German and Polish, including members of the resistance Home Army AK, part of the Polish Underground State) before being deported to the NKVD concentration camp in Toszek and forced deportations to Russia. Until the 1970s, death sentences were carried out in the Bytom prison by hanging and beheading (including former members of AK). (more on: www.sw.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10])

EG Myslowitz: Germ. Polizei Ersatz Gefängnis in Myslowitz (Eng. Police Substitute Prison Mysłowice) was operational from 13.02.1941 till 22.01.1945. Altogether c. 18,000 people went through it, including c. 2,000 women, mainly citizens of the Katowice regency, part of Germ. Provinz Oberschlesien (Eng. Upper Silesia Province) — on average from 100 to 1,200 at any one time. Initially only men were held captive. From 1941 also women were admitted, and from the beginning of 1943 a part of camp was dedicated to underage boys (underage girls were held in women block). Tortures were used. Killings and executions took place. Germans used also the camp to select people for public executions, without a proper court proceedings. Most of the prisoners, including children and teens were subsequently dispatched to concentration and death camps (mainly to nearby KL Auschwitz). (more on: ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.05.25])

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])

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