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
MAJKA
forename(s)
Bronislav (pl. Bronisław)
function
diocesan priest
creed
Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
diocese / province
Lviv archdiocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
date and place
of death
15.09.1943
Shypivtsitoday: Tovste hrom., Chortkiv rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
uk.wikipedia.org
[access: 2023.03.02]
alt. dates and places
of death
16.09.1943
Myshkivtoday: Bilche Zolote hrom., Chortkiv rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
uk.wikipedia.org
[access: 2023.03.02]
Bilche Zolotetoday: Bilche Zolote hrom., Chortkiv rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.08.05]
details of death
From 1939, right after ordination, ministered in the small town of Tovste, in the south of the Polish Ternopil Voivodeship, on the road and railway line connecting Ternopil with the then Romanian city of Chernivtsi, c. 25 km north of Zalishchyky on the Dniester, a border town between Poland and Romania. In 1939, it had an estimated population of c. 4,200, including c. 29% Poles — Roman Catholics, 34% Ukrainians, and 36% Jews.
After the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the start of World War II, the road to Zalishchyky became the main evacuation route for the Polish political and military leadership, as well as troops and civilians, to Romania. Tens of thousands of Polish refugees had to pass through Tovste escaping the German and Russian invasion.
After the Russian occupation began, the Russian Commie‐Nazi occupier imposed exorbitant taxes on the Polish population, especially the Catholic Church. Many teachers, military officers and settlers, political activists, estate owners, businessmen, officials, and other wealthy individuals, considered a „hostile and harmful element”, were deported by the Russians deep into Russia, „to Siberia”, particularly around 10.02.1940, the date of the great deportation of Poles. This was the case, i.a. with Sr Mary Furkałowski, a nun who tried to seek refuge with family in the nearby village of Bila. It was generally believed that much of the responsibility for the actions against the Poles‐and Ukrainians as well‐was borne by local Jews, who willingly served the Russian occupier, participated in the deportations, held key administrative positions, and implemented Russia's repressive policies‐which in some respects were of genocidal nature.
Therefore, a completely unusual situation took place in Tovste in 1941, after the German attack on 22.06.1941, on their erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the beginning of the German occupation. The town became part of the Germ. Landkreis Chortkiv (Eng. Chortkiv County), becoming part of the Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng. District of Galicia), which in turn became part of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. German troops passed through Tovste very quickly, chasing the panicked fleeing Russians, leaving no large occupation units behind. In this part of the former Polish voivodeships of Ternopil and Stanislaviv, administrative power was quickly taken over by Ukrainians — Poles were deprived of their leaders, deported by the Russians „to Siberia” in 1940. They established their own „commune councils” — in Tovste this happened on 07.07.1941. Organized police militias, which they often called — as was the case in Tovste, where a 150‐person unit was formed — „Ukrainian Sich”. Organized large demonstrations, supported by the Greek Catholic clergy, on which they built mounds/graves in honor of the fallen Ukrainians, shouting Ukr. „Смерть' Лахам та єврейкомуністом” (Eng. „Death to the Poles and Jewish‐communists”). And they began hunting enemies — initially mainly Jews.
In the area around Tovste, they began with neighboring villages, including the Ulashkivtsi, c. 10 km away. The Ukrainians murdered then c. 200 Jews. The terrified Jews fled to Tovste. And then the local Greek Catholic parish priest, Fr Anthony Nawolski, from the Stanislaviv eparchy, organized Ukrainian outposts on the outskirts of the town, which stopped the influx of Ukrainian murderers into the town. Himself wandered the town for days, calming down the Jews. Also did not consecrate the mound/grave erected by the Ukrainians in Tovste.
Polish priest, Fr Stanislav Szkodziński, his parish priest, also supported him. According to Jewish sources, was supposed to have told his faithful in sermons not to „stain their hands with Jewish blood”. Was supposed to have quoted the words of the Lord from Deuteronomy 31:38 about the unfaithful people, addressed to Moses: „And I will hide my face on that day because of all the evil they have committed by turning to other gods”. And commented: „Now God is hiding his face from the Jews, delivering them into the hands of their persecutors. But we must not harm them, lest God's anger be kindled against us and do to us what happened to the Jews”.
Both priests protected their flocks in Tovste from participating in attacks on the Jews prob. also later, for the next two years. For the tragedy of the Jews from Tovste lasted longer than in other places in the Germ. Distrikt Galizien. The strategically located town, near the above‐mentioned railway line, became a local gathering center for Jews. Already in 07‐08.1941, when the Hungarian troops fighting alongside Germany formally took over power, several thousand Jews from Hungary were brought to Tovste. A Germ. Judenrat (Eng. Jewish Council) was established, responsible for the management of the Jewish community, and when in c. 09.1941 the Germans took power from the Hungarians, the collaborationist Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng. Jewish Order Service) was also established. The ghetto was formally established later in 03.1942, after the start of the German genocidal plan, the Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution to the Jewish Question), which from 1942 in the GG carried out under the German codename Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Reinhardt Operation). The Germans and the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police) collaborating with them, operating also as the Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. Schuma, established as a result of the transformation of the aforementioned „Ukrainian Sich”, were constantly bringing new groups of Jews to the ghetto from many nearby towns and ghettos. At the same time, the process of distributing Jews to other places was taking place — and so, i.a. Hungarian Jews were deported to Kamyanets‐Podilskyi as early as in 1941; in 1942, under the guise of moving to a new place of settlement, c. 1,300‐2,300 were transported to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. Extermination Camp) VL Belzec, where they were all murdered. A large number of Jews, however, were forced — with the help of the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst — to slave labor, including on the plantations of the Kazakh dandelion (i.e. Taraxacum kok‐saghyz), a plant from Central Asia, cultivated for the rubber contained in the milky sap of its roots, which the German company Continental AG produced for the German war machine. The murders in Tovste de facto began in the autumn of 1942. The ghetto was crowded — at one point, c. 5,000 Jews were held there. Plagues were spreading. The mortality rate was high. The Germans — with the help of the Germ. Ukrainian Police and the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst — carried out the extermination of the ghetto in Tovste on 27‐28.05.1943, and 06.06.1943, when 3,000‐4,100 people were murdered in the Jewish cemetery, and in the following days both collaborationist police organizations hunted down those in hiding, murdering several hundred more. In the next few months, Jews were still being murdered in Tovste itself, but also in the surrounding area.
The Polish and Ukrainian communities of Tovste must have been overwhelmed by these events. Any kind of help was punishable by death — from 25.10.1941, a decree issued by the Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor) of the GG, Hans Frank, was in force, according to which „Jews who leave their assigned district without authorization are subject to the death penalty. The same punishment applies to persons who knowingly provide such Jews with a hiding place”, and „Instigators and accomplices are subject to the same punishment as the perpetrator; an attempted act will be punished as a completed act. In less serious cases, heavy imprisonment or prison may be imposed”. Nevertheless, assistance to Jews was provided whenever possible, and Jewish sources state that „Jews in Tovste suffered little from their Polish and Ukrainian neighbors”.
Not only had to know about these activities of his parish priest, Fr Szkodziński, but also had to actively participate in them.
But, to quote the 1905 Nobel Prize winner, Henry Sienkiewicz, „hatred grew into hearts and poisoned the blood of our kin”. The Germans pursued a policy that one of the nuns of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the BVM CSIC described as follows: „The two‐faced German policy sought to arouse an ever‐increasing national hatred. Towards the Poles, they pretended to be their guardians and attempted to establish social relations, while promising the Ukrainians an independent Ukraine, secretly allowing them to accumulate weapons and form armed organizations to exterminate the Poles”.
And it was then, in 02.1943 — even before the extermination of the Jews in Tovste — Roman Shukhevych, nom de guerre „Taras Chuprynka”, the chief commander of the Ukrainian, genocidal OUN/UPA organisation, who in 1941 was a member of the Ukrainian Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall (Eng. Special Group Nightingale) — a unit of the Germ. Wehrmacht (Eng. Armed Forces) that took part in the German attack on Russians in 1941, accused of participating in the Jewish pogrom in Lviv in 1941 — and later a member of the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201 (Eng. Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201) — responsible for the murder of Jews and civilians in the territory of Belarus — issued an order: „The extermination operation should be carried out according to the following principles: Polish villages are to be burned, and their populations massacred. Attacks on towns will take place in broad daylight, not at night. In mixed villages, the Polish population alone should be liquidated, and farmsteads should be burned only if they are 15 meters away and when there is no risk of the fire spreading to neighboring Ukrainian buildings. The Ukrainian population will receive instructions as to where to gather during the attack […] For every Ukrainian murdered, whether by Poles or Germans, 100 (one hundred) Poles will be executed”.
It was the de facto signal for the commencement of the «Genocidium Atrox» — i.e. the genocide perpetrated by Ukrainians, known as „Volyn genocide”.
Immediately afterwards, in 03.1943, the UPA issued an appeal addressed to members of the collaborationist Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei and Schuma, to desert and join the ranks of the UPA. Perhaps as many as 10,000 Ukrainians did so. Though Shukhevych's appeal was not formally addressed to the units of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei in the Germ. Distrikt Galizien — there, in 1943, the genocidal OUN did not establish an armed wing under the name UPA, but formed armed units under a euphemistic name, to mislead the Germans, the Ukr. Українська Народна Самооборона (Eng. Ukrainian National Self‐Defense), i.e. UNS. But de facto also there the Ukrainian génocidaires, „unemployed” after the end of the Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt», deserted and joined the UNS. The UNS commander at that time was a certain Alexander Lutsky, nom de guerre Andriyenko, like his boss Shukhevych, experienced in the crimes of the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall and the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201.
In Tovste, the genocide of Jews lasted till 06‐09.1943, and then the UNS turned its attention to the Poles. The attack took place on 15.09.1943.
According to sources: „Having blackened their faces with soot and speaking Russian poorly, they drove a cart to the Roman Catholic rectory in Tovste, Zalishchyky district, and forcibly apprehended Fr Stanislav Szkodziński, Dean, and Fr Majka Bronislav”.
According to sources, „Banderites imprisoned the parish priest and vicar in basements”.
Next the detainees were taken c. 6 km east, to the forests along the Seret River.
There — between the villages of Shypivtsi, where i.a. one of his parishioners was hiding five Jews, and Myshkiv — they were tortured and murdered.
Sources state: „After torturing the parish priest, they tied him to a tree trunk and threw him into the river.
They tortured the vicar by driving three‐inch nails into his back (in the form of a cross). Then they stretched his body on a tree, and he remained tied there for three days, dying”.
Along with the priests, the Ukrainians kidnapped and murdered eight other Poles, including the postmaster, his wife, and one‐year‐old child, as well as two teachers. The second vicar survived hiding in the forest.
The aforementioned Fr Anthony Nawolski, who survived, was honored years later with the title of Righteous Among the Nations. A similar honor was bestowed upon the aforementioned Polish woman from Shypivtsi. As for the Polish priests whose deaths at the hands of their brethren, Fr Nawolski was unable to prevent, they were not.
However, on 12.10.2007, the génocidaire Roman Shukhevych was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. In several locations, monuments and commemorative plaques have been erected to these Lat. „hostis humani generis” ‐as well as to the génocidaire Alexander Lutsky‐ the schools were named after them.
Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”
alt. details of death
According to some sources‐unconfirmed elsewhere‐ the bodies of the murdered were found on 14.10.1943, in one of the caves near Bilche Zolote, c. 15 km from Tovste, though on the other bank of Seret River. The region is known for such gypsum caves: i.a. nearby is the famous Verteba Cave or Priest's Grotto, where several hiding Jews survived the Germ. Aktion Reinhardt.
cause of death
mass murder
perpetrators
Ukrainians
sites and events
«Genocidium Atrox»Click to display the description, Help to the JewsClick 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
1913
presbyter (holy orders)
ordination
18.06.1939
Lvivtoday: Lviv urban hrom., Lviv rai., Lviv obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.16]
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC archcathedral churchmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.07.17]
positions held
1939 – 1943
vicar — Tovstetoday: Tovste hrom., Chortkiv rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.12.03] ⋄ Holy Trinity RC parish ⋄ Yazlovetstoday: Buchach urban hrom., Chortkiv rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.15] RC deanery
1934 – 1939
student — Lvivtoday: Lviv urban hrom., Lviv rai., Lviv obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.16] ⋄ philosophy and theology, Metropolitan Theological Seminary
others related
in death
SZKODZIŃSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, FURKAŁOWSKAClick to display biography Mary (Sr Ursula of St Joseph)
sites and events
descriptions
«Genocidium Atrox»: In 1939‐1947, especially in 1943‐1944, independent Ukrainian units, mainly belonging to genocidal Ukrainian organizations OUN (political arm) and UPA (military arm), supported by local Ukrainian population, murdered — often in extremely brutal way — in Volyn and surrounding regions of pre‐war Poland, from 130,000 to 180,000 Poles, all civilians: men, women, children, old and young. Polish‐Ukrainian conflict that openly emerged during and after World War I (in particular resulting in Polish‐Ukrainian war of 1918‐1919), that survived and even deepened later when western Ukraine became a part Poland, exploded again after the outbreak of the World War II in 09.1939. During Russian occupation of 1939‐1941, when hundreds of thousands of Poles were deported into central Russia, when tens of thousands were murdered (during so‐called Katyń massacres, among others), this open conflict had a limited character, helped by the fact that at that time Ukrainians, Ukrainian nationalists in particular, were also persecuted by the Russians. The worst came after German‐Russian war started on 22.06.1941 and German occupation resulted. Initially Ukrainians supported Germans (Ukrainian police was initiated, Ukrainians co—participated in extermination of the Jews and were joining army units fighting alongside Germans). Later when German ambivalent position towards Ukraine became apparent Ukrainians started acting independently. And in 1943 one of the units of aforementioned Ukrainian OUN/UPA organization, in Volyn, started and perpetrated a genocide of Polish population of this region. In mere few weeks OUN/UPA murdered, with Germans passively watching on the sidelines, more than 40,000 Poles. This strategy was consequently approved and adopted by all OUN/UPA organisations and similar genocides took place in Eastern Lesser Poland (part of Ukraine) where more than 20,000 Poles were slaughtered, meeting however with growing resistance from Polish population. Further west, in Chełm, Rzeszów, etc. regions this genocide turned into an extremely bloody conflict. In general genocide, perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists, partly collaborating with German occupants, on vulnerable Polish population took part in hundreds of villages and small towns, where virtually all Polish inhabitants were wiped out. More than 200 priests, religious and nuns perished in this holocaust — known as «Genocidium Atrox» (Eng. „savage genocide”) The nature and purpose of genocide is perhaps best reflected in the song sung by the murderers: „We will slaughter the Poles, we will cut down the Jews, we must conquer the great Ukraine” (ukr. „Поляків виріжем, Євреїв видусим, велику Україну здобути мусим”). This holocaust and conflict ended up in total elimination of Polish population and Polish culture from Ukraine, in enforced deportations in 1944‐1945 of remaining Poles from Ukraine and some Ukrainians into Ukraine proper, and finally in deportation of Ukrainians from East‐South to the Western parts of Polish republic prl by Commie‐Nazi Russian controlled Polish security forces („Vistula Action”). (more on: www.swzygmunt.knc.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.06.20])
Help to the Jews: During World War II on the Polish occupied territories Germans forbid to give any support to the Jews under penalty of death. E.g., on 15.10.1941, the Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor) of the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG, Hans Frank, issued the „3rd Ordinance on Restrictions on Residence in the General Governorate”, in which §1 stated that: „1) Jews who leave their designated district without authorization are subject to the death penalty. The same penalty applies to persons who knowingly provide such Jews with a hiding place”; and „2) Instigators and accomplices are subject to the same punishment as the perpetrator; an attempted act will be punished as a completed act. In less serious cases, severe imprisonment or prison may be imposed”. This ordinance was further elaborated by the district leaders of GG. E.g., on 10.11.1941, the Germ. Gouverneur (Eng. Governor) of the Germ. Distrikt Warschau (Eng. Warsaw District) in GG, Ludwig Fischer, issued a proclamation stating that: „A Jew who in the future unauthorizedly leaves the residential district assigned to him will be punished with death”. And added: „The same punishment applies to anyone who knowingly provides shelter to such Jews or helps them in any other way (e.g., by providing accommodation, board, by taking them on vehicles of any kind, etc.)”. In practice, this meant that responsibility for hiding Jews rested not only with the owners of the premises, but also with all the people being there, generally the family of the person hiding them. When at the turn of 1941/1942 the Germans began to implement the genocidal plan Germ. Endlösung der Judenfrage (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), when the deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Treblinka was underway, the Polish writer Sophie Kossak–Szczucka on 11.08.1942 issued an appeal „Protest!”, published in the underground press in a circulation of 5,000 copies. She wrote: „The world looks at this crime, more terrible than anything history has ever seen, and — it remains silent […] This silence cannot be tolerated any longer. Whatever its motives — it is despicable. We cannot remain passive in the face of crime. Whoever remains silent in the face of murder becomes an accomplice to the murderer. Whoever does not condemn, consents. Therefore, we, Catholics — Poles, are speaking out. Our feelings towards Jews have not changed. We do not cease to consider them political, economic, and ideological enemies of Poland. Moreover, we realize that they hate us more than they hate Germans […] Awareness of these feelings, however, does not release us from the obligation to condemn the crime […] Whoever does not understand this, whoever would dare to link Poland's proud, free future with the despicable joy of their neighbor's misfortune — is therefore neither a Catholic nor a Pole!” The „Protest” was signed by the „Front for the Rebirth of Poland”, i.e. FOP, a clandestine Catholic organization that was a continuation of Catholic Action during the German occupation. On 27.09.1942, the Polish Clandestine State, the largest resistance organization in German–occupied Europe, at the initiative of Sophie Kossak–Szczucka and Wanda Krahelska–Filipowicz, a member of the Polish Socialist Party, established the Provisional Committee to Aid Jews. On 04.12.1942, the Council to Aid Jews at the Polish Government Delegature in occupied Poland, codenamed „Conrad Żegota”, was established in its place. Hundreds of Polish priests and religious extended help to the Jews, under threat of life. Many of them were caught and murdered.
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 part of 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: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.12.13])
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:
nawolyniu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06], cracovia-leopolis.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06]
bibliographical:
„Register of Latin rite Lviv metropolis clergy’s losses in 1939‐45”, Józef Krętosz, Maria Pawłowiczowa, editors, Opole, 2005
„Biographical lexicon of Lviv Roman Catholic Metropoly clergy victims of the II World War 1939‐1945”, Mary Pawłowiczowa (ed.), Fr Joseph Krętosz (ed.), Holy Cross Publishing, Opole, 2007
„Schematismus Universi Saecularis et Regularis Cleri Archi Diaeceseos Metropol. Leopol. Rit. Lat.”, Lviv Metropolitan Curia, from 1860 till 1938
„Mysterium iniquitatis. Clergy and religious of the Latin rite murdered by Ukrainian nationalists in 1939‐1945”, Fr Józef Marecki, Institute of National Remembrance IPN, Kraków 2020
„Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933‐1945”, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, ed. Martin Dean, volume II: „Ghettos in German–Occupied Eastern Europe”, part A
„Genocidium Atrox”, GTKRK, https://www.swzygmunt.knc.pl/GENOCIDEs/15 GENOCIDUM ATROX/vPOLISH/MAINs/GENATROXsearch01.htm
original images:
wegliniec.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.10.31]
LETTER to CUSTODIAN/ADMINISTRATOR
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