beatification date

13.06.1999more on
www.swzygmunt.knc.pl
[access: 2013.05.19]

the RC Pope John Paul IImore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]

function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Lublin diocesemore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]

date and place
of death

14.10.1942

TA HartheimSchloss Hartheim „euthanasia” center
today: Alkoven, Eferding dist., Salzburg state, Austria
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.07.18]

alt. dates and places
of death

30.10.1942 (KL Dachau „death certificate” date)

details of death

prisoner camp's numbers

22591Click to display source page (KL DachauClick to display the description), 013971, 005613 (KL SachsenhausenClick to display the description)

cause of death

extermination: gassing in a gas chamber

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

TA HartheimClick to display the description, «Aktion T4»Click to display the description, KL DachauClick to display the description, KL SachsenhausenClick to display the description, Lublin (Castle)Click to display the description, 11.1939 arrests (Lublin)Click to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion»Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

14.09.1896

Wojsławicetoday: Wojsławice gm., Chełm pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

05.1920 (Lublin cathedralmore on
www.osj-instytut.org
[access: 2021.12.19])

positions held

biography (own resources)

Click to read biography details from our resources

others related
in death

CIEŚLIKClick to display biography Stanislav, GINTOWT–DZIEWAŁTOWSKIClick to display biography Peter, GORALClick to display biography Vladislav, HUNICZClick to display biography Anthony, KOSIORClick to display biography Vaclav Justin, LENARTClick to display biography John, MICHALEWSKIClick to display biography John, NIECHAJClick to display biography Michael, OCHALSKIClick to display biography Zdislav Anthony, POBOŻYClick to display biography Anthony, SUROWSKIClick to display biography Dominic, SZYSZKOClick to display biography Louis, WOJSAClick to display biography Stanislav, ZAWISTOWSKIClick to display biography Anthony

sites and events
descriptions

TA Hartheim: From 05.1940, in the Germ. Tötungsanstalt (Eng. Killing/Euthanasia Center) TA Hartheim, at the Schloss Hartheim castle in Alkoven in Upper Austria, belonging to KL Mauthausen‐Gusen complex of concentration camps, as part of «Aktion T4» program, the Germans murdered victims — people mentally retarded and disabled — in gas chambers with carbon monoxide. Till 24.08.1941 and the formal end of the «Aktion T4» program, c. 18,000 people were murdered in TA Hartheim. In 04.1941 the program was extended to include concentration camp prisoners. Most, if not all, of the murdered clergy from the KL Dachau concentration camp were taken to TA Hartheim in the so‐called Germ. „Invalidentransport” (Eng. „transport of invalids”), prisoners who were sick and, according to the Germans, „unable to work” (initially under the pretext of transfer to a better camp) — after the formal end of «Aktion T4» as part of the program codenamed «Aktion 14 f 13». It is estimated that at this stage — until 11.12.1944 — c. 12,000 prisoners were gassed at TA Hartheim.
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 niem. „Invalidentransports”, but who did not 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 genocide Germans falsified both dates of death (for instance those entered into KL Dachau concentration camp books, which are presented in „White Book” as alternative dates of death) and their causes. (more on: ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30])

«Aktion T4»: German state euthanasia program, systematic murder of people mentally retarded, chronically, mentally and neurologically ill — „elimination of live not worth living” (Germ. „Vernichtung von lebensunwertem Leben”). At a peak, in 1940‐1941, c. 70,000 people were murdered, including patients of psychiatric hospitals in German occupied Poland — German formalists noted then that, among others, „performing disinfection [i.e. gassing] of 70,273 people with a life expectancy of up to 10 years saved food in the amount of 141,775,573.80 Deutschmark”. 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: KL Dachau in German Bavaria, set up in 1933, became the main German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL for Catholic priests and religious during World War II: 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, especially acute in 1941‐1942. 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: www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.05.30])

KL Sachsenhausen: In Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL Sachsenhausen, 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 1942‐1944 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])

Lublin (Castle): During World War II, the Germ. Gefängnis der Sicherheitspolizei und des Sicherheitsdienst Lublin (Eng. Police and Security Service SD Prison), through which c. 40,000‐80,000 Poles passed during the German occupation, mostly members of Polish clandestine independence organizations (part of the Polish Clandestine State), before being sent by the Germans to concentration camps. The inmates were held in inhumane conditions, in overcrowded cells — up to 3,000 were held at one time in the prison designed for 700 people — where they were starved, harassed, and disease was rampant. During interrogations were tortured. Many were murdered — the prison housed the genocidal Germ. Sondergericht (Eng. special court), which issued serial death sentences after a trial lasting several minutes. C. 2,200 perished during the investigation or in the prison; 4,500 were murdered in secret executions in the vicinity of Lublin. When the Russians were fast approached Lublin in 08.1944, c. 1,500 prisoners were sent to the KL Lublin concentration camp, where were murdered, and on 22.07.1944, after a few hours prior to escape, c. 300 remaining were murdered in the prison itself. After the expulsion of the Germans in 1944, the prison was first run by Russians, then UB, the Polish branch of the Russian NKVD, and 32,000‐33,000 soldiers of the Home Army AK, part of the Polish Clandestine State, and the National Armed Forces NSZ, fighting against the Russian occupation, were detained there (in similar conditions to the Germans — in 04.1945 c. 8,000 people were held in the prison) and tortured. C. 515 were sentenced to death and 333 were murdered. The prison began to be liquidated in 02.1954. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30])

11.1939 arrests (Lublin): As part of «Intelligenzaktion» — extermination of Polish leading classes — that in Lublin took form of Sonderaktion Lublin (Eng. Action Special Lublin) on 11.1939 c. 2,000 intellectuals from Lublin were arrested by the Germans. On 11.11.1939 Germans entered Lublin Catholic University KUL and arrested 15 professors and lecturers of Lublin Theological Seminary. On 17.11.1939 Lublin ordinary, Bp Marian Fulman, his deputy Bp Vladislav Goral and 11 other clerics were arrested. Curial building got robbed. In 11.1939 Germans formally closed KUL off, as well as Lublin schools and theatres. Altogether c. 100 clerics from Lublin and vicinity were arrested. All were locked in Castle prison in Lublin. On 27.11.1939 13 priests were sentenced by German Sondergericht (Eng. special court) to death. Those sentences were commuted later to life imprisonment. Most of the priests were on 04.12.1939 transported to KL Sachsenhausen concentration camp and from there to KL Dachau concentration camp. Many were murdered. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.03.14])

«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 Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. 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 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:
swzygmunt.knc.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], ltg.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.12.28], www.ipgs.usClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], arolsen-archives.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30]
bibliographical:
Ms Monika Liebscher, niem. Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen (Eng. Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen), private correspondence, 08.07.2020
original images:
www.gosc.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.06.05], www.kul.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.06.05], issuu.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.06.05], www.lublintravel.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.06.05], opencaching.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.06.05], www.miejscapamiecinarodowej.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.05.09], www.szczecin.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.09.21]