function

diocesan priest

creed

Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore 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

11.11.1939

Paterektoday: Nakło nad Notecią gm., Nakło nad Notecią pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

alt. dates and places
of death

12.11.1939

details of death

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

PaterekClick to display the description, VSH GorkaClick to display the description, VSH LobsensClick 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, Greater Poland UprisingClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

15.12.1881

alt. dates and places
of birth

Zbąszyńtoday: Zbąszyń gm., Nowy Tomyśl pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.20]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

09.02.1908 (Gniezno cathedralmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.11.14])

positions held

others related
in death

SZALBOTClick to display biography Anne (Sr Rachela), BIEDRZYCKIClick to display biography Stanislav (Bro. Kleofas), BIAŁASIKClick to display biography Stanislav (Bro. Lucyn), BRYGMANClick to display biography Louis (Bro. Hillary), CAŁKAClick to display biography Adalbert, CHOJNACKIClick to display biography Casimir, CODROClick to display biography Joseph Francis, CZAPIEWSKIClick to display biography Conrad (Bro. Conrad), DORSZClick to display biography Bruno, DRAEGERClick to display biography Felix (Bro. Benon), DZIKOWSKAClick to display biography Josefa (Sr Mary Benigna), GŁYSZClick to display biography Florian (Bro. Florian), GOTÓWKAClick to display biography Marianne (Sr Mieczyslava Mary), GÓRNYClick to display biography John, GRZĘDAClick to display biography Stanislav, GRZYWACZClick to display biography Maximilian (Bro. Louis), GURDAClick to display biography Francis (Bro. Benedykt), GWIŹDZIELClick to display biography Ignatius (Bro. Paschalis), JACHECKIClick to display biography John, KALISZClick to display biography Stanislav (Bro. Stanislav), KIEŁCZEWSKIClick to display biography Casimir (Bro. Isidore), KRYGIERClick to display biography Henry, LEWANDOWSKIClick to display biography Valerian (Bro. Gerard), LORKIEWICZClick to display biography Caesar Vladislav, ŁANGOWSKIClick to display biography Francis (Bro. Sigismund), ŁONIEWSKIClick to display biography Joseph (Bro. Bonaventure), ŁUKASZEWSKIClick to display biography Casimir (Bro. Casimir), MAŃKOWSKIClick to display biography John, MORAWSKIClick to display biography Edmund (Bro. Jack), MUZOLFClick to display biography Ignatius (Bro. Ignatius), MYRWAClick to display biography Joseph, NOWAKClick to display biography Leonard, OSSOWSKIClick to display biography John (Bro. John), ROCHOWIAKClick to display biography Martin, ROSENTALClick to display biography Roman, SENDROBYClick to display biography John (Bro. Felix), SKRZYPIŃSKIClick to display biography Felix, SWORNOWSKIClick to display biography Sigismund (Bro. Eugene), SZAŁKOWSKIClick to display biography Vaclav, TOMALAClick to display biography John (Bro. Angel), TOMASZClick to display biography Vincent, WALKOWSKIClick to display biography Henry, WARKOCZEWSKIClick to display biography Henry, WILEMSKIClick to display biography Alphonse (Bro. Paul), WILEMSKIClick to display biography Conrad (Bro. Dominic), WILEMSKIClick to display biography Vaclav (Bro. Methodius), WOJCIECHOWSKIClick to display biography Eustace, ZAWADAClick to display biography Peter

sites and events
descriptions

Paterek: As part of their "Intelligenzaktion" – extermination of Polish intelligentsia and leading classes in Pomerania – Germans organized In Paterek n. Nakła a series of mass executions. From 04.10.1939 till 24.11.1939 more then 218 people were murdered, mainly from Wyrzysk county and its vicinity, including 48 priests and religious (among whom were 2 nuns), interned in VSH Gorka custody – transit camp – in Górka Klasztorna set up by the genocidal German paramilitary organization Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz. Members of the Selbstschutz shot the victims over dug ditches – in a valley located next to a dirt road, in the area of a former gravel pit – and brutally finished off the wounded, with blows of a shovel among others, and then covered the grave. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19], pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06])

VSH Gorka: German Germ. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutzhaft (Eng. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz custody) VSH — established in 10.1939 by the genocidal German paramilitary organization Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz — the decision to create Selbstschutz in the Polish lands occupied by German troops was made in Berlin on 08‐10.09.1939 at a conference headed by Reichsführer‐SS Heinrich Himmler (the formal order bears the date 20.09.1939), and the chaotically formed units were directly subordinated to the officers of the genocidal SS organization — in the monastery of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Family in Górka Klasztorna n. Łobżenica, as part of the «Intelligenzaktion» action — the extermination of the Polish intelligentsia and leadership classes in Pomerania. Initially mainly priests from Wyrzysk county where held there. Almost all perished murdered in the monastery or at the place of mass murders in Paterek. The camp was closed down in 11.1939. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.06.23])

VSH Lobsens: In Łobżenica, c. 30 km from Nakło, occupied by the Germans from 01.09.1939, i.e. the first day of the war, from 08.09.1939 till 15.10.1939 Germans set up — as part of «Intelligenzaktion» aimed at extermination of Polish intelligentsia in Pomerania — the Germ. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutzhaft (Eng. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz custody) VSH for Łobżenica and its vicinity inhabitants. Initially, the camp was organized in judicial custody: the prisoners were crammed into small cells and subjected to interrogations, especially at night, when drunk members of the German genocidal Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz organization — the decision to create Selbstschutz in the Polish lands occupied by German troops was made in Berlin on 08‐10.09.1939 at a conference headed by Reichsführer‐SS Heinrich Himmler (the formal order bears the date 20.09.1939), and the chaotically formed units were directly subordinated to the officers of the genocidal SS organization — tortured their victims and raped women. Up to 500 prisoners were kept there at any one time, including up to 60 priests, who were fed in spittoons. About 200 people were murdered, including: inside the custody center — tortured to death, shot and hanged. However, most of the victims were murdered in executions outside the city — the convicts, often with their hands tied with barbed wire, were brought to the place of execution in trucks or horse‐drawn carts. The priest were subsequently taken to Górka Klasztorna camp. Some of them were executed in Paterek. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.04])

«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])

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])

Greater Poland Uprising: Military insurrection of Poles of former German Germ. Posen Provinz (Eng. Poznań province) launched against German Reich in 1918‐1919 — after the abdication on 09.11.1918 of the German Emperor William II Hohenzollern; after the armistice between the Allies and Germany signed on 11.1.1918 in the HQ wagon in Compiègne, the headquarters of Marshal of France Ferdinand Foch — which de facto meant the end of World War I — against the German Weimar Republic, established on the ruins of the German Empire, aiming to incorporate lands captured by Prussia during partitions of Poland in XVIII century into Poland. The Republic of Poland, reborn on 11.11.1918, initially formally included only the so‐called Germ. Königreich Polen (Eng. Kingdom of Poland), i.e. the territory that had been under Russian rule until 1915 and then under the control of Central States (Germany and Austria–Hungary), but did not include the Prussian partition. Started on 27.12.1918 in Poznań and ended on 16.02.1919 with the armistice pact in Trier, forced by the victorious Entente states, which included provisions ordering Germany to cease operations against Poland and, importantly, recognizing the Polish insurgent Greater Poland Army as an allied armed force of the Entente. De facto it turned out to be a Polish victory, confirmed in the main peace treaty after World War I, the Treaty of Versailles of 28.06.1919, which came into force on 10.01.1920 and in which most of the lands of the Prussian partition were recognized as Polish. Many Polish priests took part in the Uprising, both as chaplains of the insurgents units and members and leaders of the Polish agencies and councils set up in the areas covered by the Uprising. In 1939 after German invasion of Poland and start of the World War II those priests were particularly persecuted by the Germans and majority of them were murdered. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.08.14])

sources

personal:
www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.powstanie.szubin.netClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30], newsaints.faithweb.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19], www.archiwum.archidiecezja.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10]
bibliographical:
„Martyrology of the Polish Roman Catholic clergy under nazi occupation in 1939‐1945”, Victor Jacewicz, John Woś, vol. I‐V, Warsaw Theological Academy, 1977‐1981
original images:
www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.audiovis.nac.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30], www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], kpbc.umk.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.05.20], www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.polskaniezwykla.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.08.14], 4ict.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.05.30]