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]

honorary titles

Gold „Cross of Merit”more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.04.16]
„Cross of Independence”more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.02.02]

date and place
of death

14.07.1943

Kalisztoday: Kalisz city pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.12.16]

details of death

cause of death

extermination: exhaustion and disease

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

KaliszClick to display the description, RawiczClick to display the description, Reichsgau WarthelandClick to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion»Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, NeuhammerClick to display the description, Greater Poland UprisingClick to display the description, Thomas Zan SocietiesClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

08.05.1872

Żernikitoday: Janowiec Wielkopolski gm., Żnin pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

24.02.1898

positions held

sites and events
descriptions

Kalisz: Prison for men and women built in 1840‐1846, during the Russian occupation. It consisted of c. 120 individual cells. After the outbreak of World War II and start of German occupation, it was a pre‐trial detention center and a prison administered by the German Gestapo Secret Political Police. Mainly Poles, but also Germans, including those considered to be political prisoners (members of the Polish resistance movement), were held there. Inmates — if they were not murdered as a result of torture or sentenced to death — were next transported to concentration camps. The prison was overcrowded — e.g. on 30.04.1943, 422 men and 126 women were held there. The prisoners were tortured — c. 700 people were murdered in total (shot, hanged, and those who died as a result of torture and diseases). After the German defeat and the start of the Russian occupation, the prison was run by the Commie‐Nazi UB, a unit of the genocidal Russian MGB. In 12.1952, 599 people were detained there — some of them soldiers of the clandestine Greater Poland Independent Volunteer Group WARTA and the NSZ, as well as pre—war Polish policemen, and young high school students opposing the Russian occupation. (more on: sw.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2022.08.17])

Rawicz: Prison, founded in 1819‐1821, in place of the Franciscan Friars Minor's monastery, which was liquidated by the Prussian occupation authorities. During the World War II, during the German occupation of 1939‐1945, the German Germ. Zuchthaus (Eng. heavy prison), intended for men sentenced to long‐term imprisonment and penal camp sentences, levied mainly by the Germ. Warthegau (Eng. Wartha region) occupation courts. A large part of the prisoners were next transported from there to German concentration camps. After the end of the military operations of World War II, the prison was managed by the Commie‐Nazi authorities of the Russian prl republic. Many activists of the Polish clandestine independence underground were detained there, including soldiers of the Home Army AK. Political prisoners were finally released in 1956. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.17])

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 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 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])

«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 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])

Neuhammer: During World War I (1914‐1918) in the vicinity of contemporary Świętoszów, Żagań and Konin Żagański Germans set up POW camp for Russian soldiers (up to 33,000 inmates). In 1919 in Neuhammer (Świętoszów) Greater Poland Uprising insurgents, including Polish priests, were held captive. During World War II Germans set up a Stalag VIII E Neuhammer POW camp for Polish, French captured soldiers, next Stalag 308 for Russian soldiers. Soldiers of other nationalities were also held captive (including Warsaw Uprising Polish combatants). At least 50,000 perished. On 13.02.1945, at camp liberation, at Stalag 308 only 200 Russian prisoners were found alive. 10 days later they were executed by Russian NKVD as Russian traitors. In 1945‐1954 camp was used as Russian NKVD maximum security prison. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.08.14], www.ziemialubuska.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.08.14])

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, reborn in 1918. Started on 27.12.1918 in Poznań and ended on 16.02.1919 with the armistice in Trier (which included provisions ordering the Germans to stop their actions against Poland), which meant a de facto Polish victory. 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.bibliotekakepno.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19], www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19]
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.kepnosocjum.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.27], kepnosocjum.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.01.26], www.kepnosocjum.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.08.14], historialomzy.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.08.14], mzk.locloud.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.08.14], kepnosocjum.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.01.26], kepnosocjum.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.01.26], kepnosocjum.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.01.26], kepnosocjum.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.01.26], marcosbox.flog.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.10.13], kepnosocjum.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.01.26]