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]
RC Military Ordinariate of Polandmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.12.20]

honorary titles

Minor Canonmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.11.14]
(St Peter and St Paul the Apostles and Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC collegiate church, Kruszwicatoday: Kruszwica gm., Inowrocław pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18])
Gold „Cross of Merit”more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.04.16]
(03.12.1938)

date and place
of death

31.12.1941

NL Schmückertconcentration camp for nuns
today: Bojanowo, Bojanowo gm., Rawicz pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2025.08.19]

details of death

cause of death

exhaustion

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

NL SchmückertClick to display the description, KL PosenClick to display the description, 06.10.1941 arrests (Warthegau)Click to display the description, Reichsgau WarthelandClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, Polish‐Russian war of 1919‐1921Click to display the description, Greater Poland UprisingClick to display the description, Thomas Zan SocietiesClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

30.01.1875Birth certification on:
photos.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl
[access: 2025.08.19]

Koźmintoday: Koźmin Wielkopolski, Koźmin Wielkopolski gm., Krotoszyn pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.05.20]

parents

NIEDŹWIEDZIŃSKI John
🞲 ?, ? — 🕆 ?, ?

DORSZEWSKA Marianne
🞲 ?, ? — 🕆 ?, ?

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

01.12.1902

Gnieznotoday: Gniezno urban gm., Gniezno pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC archcathedral churchmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2025.03.14]

positions held

others related
in death

DERKACZEWSKAClick to display biography Stanislava (Sr Raphaella of the Holy Face), DWULECKAClick to display biography Mary (Sr Fabiola), GRYGIERClick to display biography Anne (Sr Wunibalda), GRZANKAClick to display biography Francesca (Sr Romualda), KĄKOLEWSKAClick to display biography Wanda (Sr Veronica), LEWICKAClick to display biography Claire (Sr Cordelia), ŁOPACZEWSKIClick to display biography Stanislav Kostka, MULKOWSKAClick to display biography Josefa (Sr Vestina), OSIŃSKAClick to display biography Leocadia (Sr Radegundis), SZKUDLAREKClick to display biography Helen (Sr Hermana), BŁOCIŃSKAClick to display biography Anne (Sr Iucunda), CHWOŁKAClick to display biography Hedwig (Sr Bonifacia), FIEREKClick to display biography Francesca (Sr Potamia), GRZECHOWSKAClick to display biography Mary (Sr Sapientia), KACZMAREKClick to display biography Elisabeth (Sr Rita), KŁECZEKClick to display biography (Sr Benita), ŁUCZAKClick to display biography Marianne (Sr Siriana), PIOTRZKOWSKAClick to display biography Pauline (Sr Anacleta), SIWECKAClick to display biography Regina Stephanie (Sr Angela), TUŻYNAClick to display biography Constantina (Sr Rusticula), WANIOREKClick to display biography Theodosia (Sr Flaviana), WOJCIECHOWSKAClick to display biography Theophilusa (Sr Reinharda)

sites and events
descriptions

NL Schmückert: German concentration camp Germ. Nonnenlager (Eng. camp for nuns), set up in Bojanowo (from 1943 formally known as Schmückert by the Germans, today Rawicz county), mainly for Polish nuns. Organized by the Germans in the province of Germ. Warthegau (Eng. Warta country), after the liquidation in early 1941 of c. 248 Catholic religious houses and institutions run by the Church, 30 of which were transferred directly to the German National Socialist Party NSDAP, and the rest were administered by the Germ. Gauselbstverwaltung (Eng. Self–Government of the Region–Gau) GSV state institution. Therefore, initially formally called as Germ. Gauarbeitsanstalt Schmückert (Eng. Schmückert Gau employment office). On 25.02.1941 first group of 56 nuns was brought in. At the end of 1941 there were 293 prisoners held. On 11.12.1941 Germans brought in c. 40 old and sick priests, transported from KL Posen concentration camp. Altogether in 1941‐1945 615 nuns from 27 congregations were held captive in the camp. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.17], www.niedziela.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.04.16])

KL Posen: The German camp established at Fort VII of the former Prussian Germ. Festung Posen (Eng. Poznań Fortress), built in 1876‐1880 in Poznań, formally until mid‐11.1939 operating as the Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL Posen, a term used in «Liber Albus» also for the later period of the camp's operation. It was the first such camp established by the Germans on Polish soil — in the case of Greater Poland, incorporated directly into the German state in 1939. As early as 10.1939, at KL Posen, the Germans for the first time used gas to murder Polish civilians, particularly psychiatric patients. Its first commandant was the génocidaire SS‐Sturmbannführer Herbert Lange, who later used his acquired „experience” in murdering Poles to murder Jews, i.e. to establish the first — even before the start of genocidal program Germ. „Endlösung der Judenfrage” (Eng. „Final Solution of the Jewish Question") — Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Kulmhof in Chełm on River Ner. From 11.1939, the camp functioned as a prison for the Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. Gestapo, and as the Germ. Übergangslager (Eng. transit camp), before dispatching prisoners to concentration camps such as KL Dachau or KL Auschwitz. On 28.05.1941, the camp was renamed a police prison and correctional slave labor camp, Germ. Arbeitserziehungslager (Eng. labor and education camp), i.e. AEL. At its peak, the camp carried out seven to nine executions daily, with prisoners being hanged en masse, and some being taken to executions outside the camp grounds. In total, the Germans murdered c. 20,000 residents of Greater Poland at KL Posen, including many members of the Polish intelligentsia, officials, landed gentry, participants in the 1918‐1919 Greater Poland Uprising, patients and staff of psychiatric hospitals, and more than a dozen priests. Hundreds of Catholic priests passed through the camp before being sent to concentration camps, primarily KL Dachau. From 03.1943, the period of transformation of the camp into industrial plants of the German armaments industry began (e.g. from 25.04.1944, the Telefunken Gesellschaft für drahtlose Telegraphie m.b.H. factory, manufacturing radio i.a. for submarines and aircraft). (more on: www.wmn.poznan.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.02.02], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.27])

06.10.1941 arrests (Warthegau): In the Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland (Eng. Warta Country Reich District), a new province created by the Germans in occupied Greater Poland, its Germ. Gauleiter (Eng. district leader), criminal Arthur Greiser, sought to make the province under his jurisdiction a Germ. „Mustergau” (Eng. model district). One of the pillars of his policy was the postulate Germ. „Ohne Gott, ohne Religion, ohne Priesters und Sakramenten” (Eng. „without God, without religion, without priest and sacrament”). In 1940, the preparation of the practical assumptions of this policy in the Germ. Gauleiter Greiser's Office was led by a German Evangelical theologian, Germ. Regierungsrat (Eng. Government Counselor) and head of the department for religious affairs, Germ. Kirchenreferent (Eng. Church Referent), Wilhelm Dudzus. On 10.07.1940, prob. at a party meeting in Munich, he revealed the „13 Points”, which were to become the basis of German policy in the Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland. The content of the „13 Points” de facto became public knowledge — for which, incidentally, he was dismissed from his position in early 1941. Point 1 read: „There are no churches in the national sense, but only religious groups in the sense of associations”, and Dudzus added that „Churches cease to be corporations under public law”. In point 2, he informed that „There are no relations with groups outside the Germ. Reichsgau, nor any ties of a legal, financial, or service nature with the Reich Church”. And explained: „The churches of the Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland are to be independent” and that „The union of the Catholic Church with the Vatican will be dissolved”. And in point 12, it informed that „All religious institutions and monastic associations are subject to dissolution because they are contrary to the German concept of decency and nationality policy”. These demands were then implemented step by step. Thus, on 06.02.1941, a ban was issued on all fundraising for religious and charitable purposes, including church collections. On 01.04.1941, the activities of Catholic diocesan curiae were banned. Finally, on 13.09.1941, Germ. Gauleiter Arthur Greiser issued the regulation Germ. „Verordnung des Reichsstatthalters im Wartheland über religiöse Vereinigungen und Religionsgesellschaften im Reichsgau Wartheland” (Eng. „Regulation of the Reich Governor in Wartheland regarding religious associations and religious unions in Reichsgau Wartheland”). §1.1 stated: „In the Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland […] [the three Churches and] the "Roman Catholic Church of German Nationality in the Wartheland" exist as legal entities under private law. They replace the legal entities of the Evangelical and Roman Catholic Churches that existed on September 1, 1939, in the Wartheland”. De facto, this meant the delegalization of the Roman Catholic Church, retroactively to 01.09.1939, the date of the German invasion of Poland. §1.3 stipulated that „The rights and obligations of religious legal entities existing in the Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland on 1 September 1939 shall be transferred to the legal entities under private law referred to in paragraph 1 […] Polish property is excluded from this transfer. Polish property is defined as the property of legal entities whose members on 1 September 1939 were exclusively or predominantly Polish or which were under predominant Polish influence at that time”. This meant the plunder of property from the Roman Catholic Church. At the same time, §6.1 sanctioned a racial policy towards religious denominations: „[…] a German may be a member of a religious association or society exclusively of German nationality. Poles may not be members of a religious association or society of German nationality”. Immediately thereafter, on 06‐07.10.1941, mass arrests of Polish priests took place — c. 352 religious were arrested. All were placed in the DL Konstantinow transit camp in Konstantynów and IL Lond in Ląd on the Warta River, or in the KL Posen concentration camp — in this case, the detainees were first registered, photographed, and interrogated at the notorious Poznań headquarters of the Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. the Gestapo, in the former Pl. „Dom Żołnierza” (Eng. „Soldier's House”). Most of them were deported to the KL Dachau concentration camp on 30.10.1941.

Reichsgau Wartheland: 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. Greater Poland 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 24.01.1940 transformed into the Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland (Eng. Warta Country Reich District), 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 90% of its inhabitants were Poles, was Germ. „Entpolonisierung” (Eng. „Depolonisation”), i.e. forced Germanization. C. 100,000 Poles were murdered as part of the Germ. „Intelligenzaktion”, i.e. extermination of Polish intelligentsia and ruling classes. C. 630,000 were forcibly resettled to the Germ. Generalgouvernement, and their place taken by the Germans brought from other areas occupied by Germany (e.g. the Baltic countries, Bessarabia, Bukovina, etc.). Poles were forced to sign the German nationality list, the Germ. Deutsche Volksliste DVL. As part of the policy of „Ohne Gott, ohne Religion, ohne Priesters und Sakramenten” (Eng. „No God, no religion, no priest or sacrament”) most Catholic priests were arrested and sent to concentration camps. All schools teaching in Polish, Polish libraries, theaters and museums were closed. Polish landed estates confiscated. To further reduce the number of the Polish population, Poles were sent to forced labor deep inside Germany, and the legal age of marriage for Poles was increased (25 for women, 28 for men). The German state office, Germ. Rasse‐ und Siedlungshauptamt (Eng. Main Office of Race and Settlement) RuSHA, under the majesty of German law, abducted several thousand children who met specific racial criteria from Polish families and subjected them to forced Germanization, handing them over to German families. 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, Arthur Karl Greiser, was executed. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.21])

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])

Polish‐Russian war of 1919‐1921: War for independence of Poland and its borders. Poland regained independence in 1918 but had to fight for its borders with former imperial powers, in particular Russia. Russia planned to incite Bolshevik‐like revolutions in the Western Europe and thus invaded Poland. Russian invaders were defeated in 08.1920 in a battle called Warsaw battle („Vistula river miracle”, one of the 10 most important battles in history, according to some historians). Thanks to this victory Poland recaptured part of the lands lost during partitions of Poland in XVIII century, and Europe was saved from the genocidal Communism. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20])

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])

Thomas Zan Societies: Secret societies of Polish youth, aiming at self‐education, patriotic in form and content, functioning 1830‐1920, in mutiny against enforced Germanisation and censure of Polish culture, mainly in secondary schools — gymnasia — mainly in Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) and later in Silesia. The first groups were formed in 1817. In 1897 a congress in Bydgoszcz was held when rules of clandestine activities were formulated. At other congress in Bydgoszcz in Poznań a „Red Rose” society was formed, heading all others groups in various gymnasiums and coordinating their activities. In 1900 „Red Rose” consolidated Philomaths organizations from Pomerania as well. After Toruń trial of Pomeranian Philomaths in Toruń Germans arrested 24 members of Thomas Zan Society from Gniezno. 21 of them were sentenced up to 6 weeks in prison and reprimands. All were relegated from schools without the right to continue education in secondary and higher schools in Prussia. Despite repression the Societies existed till 1918 and rebirth of Poland. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19])

sources

personal:
www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], jarocin.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30], www.youtube.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19], photos.szukajwarchiwach.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2025.08.19], www.opiekun.kalisz.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30]
bibliographical:
„Social Activist Priests in Greater Poland”, collective work, Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 I‐O, 2007
original images:
www.youtube.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19], www.limis.ltClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.09], historiajarocina.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.12.13], jarocin.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30], historiajarocina.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.12.13], historiajarocina.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.12.13], historiajarocina.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.12.13], historiajarocina.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.12.13], www.youtube.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19], www.wbc.poznan.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.05.06], 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], www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23]