function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Gniezno and Poznań archdiocese (aeque principaliter)more on
www.archpoznan.pl
[access: 2012.11.23]

date and place
of death

18.05.1942

KL Dachau - MunichGermany (Bavaria) – Austria

alt. dates and places
of death

16.06.1942 (KL Dachau „death certificate” date)

details of death

cause of death

extermination: gassing in a gas chamber

perpetrators

Germans

date and place
of birth

27.10.1902

Jabłkowotoday: Skoki gm., Wągrowiec pow., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

alt. dates and places
of birth

27.10.1908

Retkowotoday: Szubin gm., Nakło nad Notecią pow., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

14.06.1930 (Poznań cathedralmore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.11.14])

positions held

comments

others related
in death

CIEMNIAKClick to display biography Louis, DEMSKIClick to display biography Vladislav, FARULEWSKIClick to display biography Thaddeus, GOTOWICZClick to display biography Louis, KOMPFClick to display biography January, KUBICKIClick to display biography Telesphorus, KUBSKIClick to display biography Stanislaus, LUDWICZAKClick to display biography Anthony John, ŁÓJClick to display biography John, MATUSZEWSKIClick to display biography Francis, MĄKOWSKIClick to display biography John, NIEMIRClick to display biography Joseph, POMIANOWSKIClick to display biography Vladislav, SCHOENBORNClick to display biography Steven, SKOWRONClick to display biography Casimir, STREHLClick to display biography Mieczyslav, SZUKALSKIClick to display biography John, WĄSOWICZClick to display biography Sigismund, WŁODARCZYKClick to display biography Ignatius

murder sites
camp 
(+ prisoner no)

TA Hartheim: In Germ. Tötungsanstalt TA Hartheim (Eng. Killing/Euthanasia Center), in Schloss Hartheim castle in Alkoven village in Upper Austria, belonging to KL Mauthausen–Gusen complex of concentration camps, as part of „Aktion T4”, the victims — underdeveloped mentally — were murdered by Germans in gas chambers. In 04.1941 Germans expanded the program to include prisoners held in concentration camps. Most if not all religious from KL Dachau were taken to Hartheim in so called „transports of invalids” (denoted as „Aktion 14 f 13”) — prisoners sick and according to German standards „unable to work” — from KL Dachau concentration camp (initially under the guise of a transfer to a „better” camp).
Note: The dates of death of victims murdered in Schloss Hartheim indicated in the „White Book” are the dates of deportations from the last concentration camp the victims where held in. The real dates of death are unknown — apart from c. 49 priests whose names were included in the „transports of invalids”, but who did arrive at TA Hartheim. Prob. perished on the day of transport, somewhere between KL Dachau and Munich, and their bodies were thrown out of the transport and cremated in Munich. The investigation conducted by Polish Institute of National Remembrance IPN concluded, that the other victims were murdered immediately upon arrival in Schloss Hartheim, bodies cremated and the ashes spread over local fields and into Danube river. In order to hide details of the genocided Germans falsified both dates of death (for instance those entered into KL Dachau concentration camp books, presented in „White Book” as alternative dates of death) and their causes. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30])

Aktion T4: German euthanasia program, systematic murder of people mentally retarded, chronically, mentally and neurologically ill — „elimination of live not worth living” (Germ. „Vernichtung von lebensunwertem Leben”). In a peak, in 1940‑1, c. 70,000 people were murdered, including patients of psychiatric hospitals in German occupied Poland. From 04.1941 also mentally ill and „disabled” (i.e. unable to work) prisoners held in German concentration camps were included in the program — denoted then as „Aktion 14 f 13”. C. 20,000 inmates were then murdered, including Polish catholic priests held in KL Dachau concentration camp, who were murdered in Hartheim gas chambers. The other „regional extension” of Aktion T4 was „Aktion Brandt” program during which Germans murdered chronically ill patients in order to make space for wounded soldiers. It is estimated that at least 30,000 were murdered in this program. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.10.31])

KL Dachau (prisoner no: 22421Click to display biography): KL Dachau in German Bavaria, set up in 1933, became the main concentration camp for Catholic priests and religious during II World War: 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. 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: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.05.30])

KL Sachsenhausen: In KL Sachsenhausen concentration camp, set up in the former Olympic village in 07.1936, hundreds of Polish priests were held in 1940, before being transported to KL Dachau. Some of them perished in KL Sachsenhausen. Murderous medical experiments on prisoners were carried out in the camp. In 1942‑4 c. 140 prisoners slaved at manufacturing false British pounds, passports, visas, stamps and other documents. Other prisoners also had to do slave work, for Heinkel aircraft manufacturer, AEG and Siemens among others. On average c. 50,000 prisoners were held at any time. Altogether more than 200,000 inmates were in jailed in KL Sachsenhausen and its branched, out of which tens of thousands perished. Prior to Russian arrival mass evacuation was ordered by the Germans and c. 80,000 prisoners were marched west in so‑called „death marches” to other camps, i.e. KL Mauthausen–Gusen and KL Bergen–Belsen. The camp got liberated on 22.04.1945. After end of armed hostilities Germans set up there secret camp for German prisoners and „suspicious” Russian soldiers. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18])

KL Stutthof: In KL Stutthof (then in Eastern Prussian belonging to Germany, today: Sztutowo village) concentration camp, that Germans started to build on 02.09.1939, a day after German invasion of Poland and start of the II World War, Germans held c. 100‑127 thousands prisoners from 28 countries, including 47 thousands women and children. C. 65,000 victims were murdered and exterminated. In the period of 25.01–27.04.1945 in the face of approaching Russian army Germans evacuated the camp. When on 09.05.1945 Russians soldiers entered the camp only 100 prisoners were still there. In an initial period (1939‑40) Polish Catholic priests from Pomerania were held captive there before being transported to KL Dachau concentration camp. Some of them were murdered in KL Stutthof or vicinity (for instance in Stegna forest). Also later some Catholic priests were held in KL Stutthof. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06])

Neufahrwasser: Neufahrwasser (Gdańsk — Nowy Port) was a transit camp organised by the Germans in 1939 for Polish prisoners, chiefly as a part of „Intelligenzaktion” — extermination of Polish intelligentsia in Pomerania. Z Neufahrwasser prisoners were being sent to KL Stutthof concentration camp or directly to execution sites. The camp was closed in 04.1940. (more on: ofiaromwojny.republika.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.04])

Górna Grupa: From 10.1939 till approx. 04.1940 in Górna Grupa in Divine Word Missionaries (SVD) congregation house Germans organised — as part of „Intelligenzaktion”, extermination of Polish intelligentsia in Pomerania — a transit camp for Poles, including 95 priests, from Świecie, Bydgoszcz, Chełmno, Grudziądz and Starogard Gdański counties. Approx. of them perished, including 17 that were subsequently executed in Mnichek‑Grupa. In the same place in 1945 Russians set up a concentration camp for Germans, among whom two priests perished. (more on: www.kpbc.ukw.edu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.27])

Świecie: Detention centre run by Germans. Most of the prisoners in 1939 Germans took to Mniszek‑Grupa and executed. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19])

Świecie (Institute): In the autumn of 1939 Germans— as part of „Aktion T4” program — murdered almost all patients from the Świecie psychiatric hospital. On 15‑21.10.1939 c. 1,000 patients were murdered in the forest by Mniszek village, in groups of 60. Among the victims were 120 children. And hospital’s Polish director who stayed with his patients till the end. The victims were pushed — three aside — into specially prepared ditches and shot from machine guns. C. 300 patients were transported to Kocborowo psychiatric hospital and murdered later in Szpęgawsk forest. (more on: ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.05.09])

Inowrocław: Internment camp (Germ. Interniertenlager Thalerhof) for Rusyns and Lemkovs for Galicia and Bukovina, accused of „ Moscow sympathies”, set up by Austro–Hungarian Empire in war with Russian Empire, built n. Graz in Austria (on the lands Graz airport today is located on), and operational during I World War, from 04.09.1914 to c. 10.05.1917. Altogether 14,000 – 20,000, including more than 350 priest of Greek Catholic Church — prisoner were held captive. Prisoners were subjected to very harsh, inhumane conditions. During first year there were no barracks and internees had to sleep on the ground. Typhus and cholera outbreaks were noted. Austrians recorded 1.757 death cases. Other sources claim 3,000. Executions were also carried out there. (more on: www.inowroclawfakty.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19])

02.11.1939 arrests (Inowrocław): On c. 01.11.1939 Germans „invited” local priests from Inowrocław and vicinity for a meeting on 02.11.1939 to „discuss terms and condition of collaboration with new authorities”. All present — 39 priests — were arrested on the spot and sent to concentration camps and execution sites.

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])

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 II World War 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 Stanislaus 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])

sources

personal:
www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19], znajdzprzodka.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30], www.ipgs.usClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], arolsen-archives.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30]
bibliograhical:, „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