function

diocesan seminarian

creed

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

diocese / province

Vilnius archdiocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]

date and place
of death

18.02.1943

Aukštieji Paneriaitoday: district of Vilnius, Aukštieji Paneriai eld., Vilnius city dist., Vilnius Cou., Lithuania
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.06]

details of death

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

PaneriaiClick to display the description, Vilnius (Lukiškės)Click to display the description, 03.03.1942 arrests (Vilnius)Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

18.08.1911

Naujoji Vilniatoday: district of Vilnius, Vilnius city dist., Vilnius Cou., Lithuania
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

positions held

others related
in death

ŚWIRKOWSKIClick to display biography Romualdo, WĘCKIEWICZClick to display biography Peter, KOCHANOWSKIClick to display biography Felix, PIÓRKOClick to display biography Augustine, SOKOŁOWSKIClick to display biography Joseph, WASILEWSKIClick to display biography Anastasius, WENTAClick to display biography Steven, ŻYŹNIEWSKIClick to display biography Henry

sites and events
descriptions

Paneriai: In 1941‐1944 in Paneriai (also: Ponary) n. Vilnius Germans murdered c. 100,000 victims, among them 60‐70% Polish Jews and 20% Poles, mainly from intelligentsia, including professors of Stephen Batory University in Vilnius and Polish priests. Executions were carried out mainly by Lithuanian Ypatingasis būrys units, known as Ponary riflemen. The victims were brought on trains or marched on foot from Vilnius. Then they were executed — in stages. Some were forced to wait a dozen or so hours or even days. In the meantime Ponary riflemen beat them up with rubber battons and set dogs on them. Every dozen or so minutes another party of victims were marched into the compound, forced to undress and step into a pre‐dug ditch. From there, in group of 10‐12, were dragged out to the a mass grave and shot. The exact number of victims remains unknown — at the end of the war Germans dug out the graves and burnt out most of the bodies. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.10.04])

Vilnius (Lukiškės): Vilnius prison used both by Russians and Germans. Thousands of Poles were kept there. From 2,000 to 16,000 prisoners were jailed at any time there. In 06.1941, after German invasion, Russians murdered most of the prisoners. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.07.04])

03.03.1942 arrests (Vilnius): On 03.03.1942 in Vilnius Germans arrested 28 professors and 81 seminarians of Vilnius Theological Seminary, prob. denounced by the Lithuanians. A few weeks later, on 26.03.1942, the Germans and the Lithuanians who collaborated with them arrested 9 religious fathers, 5 brothers, 2 novices and 1 boy helping in the kitchen, from the Jesuit College of Vilnius. All were locked in Lukiškės prison in Vilnius. Professors were on 18.03.1942 transported to Wyłkowyszki and interned there. In 10.1942 were subsequently sent to concentration camp (i.e. Szałtupie, IL Panevėžiukas). The seminarians were transported out on 04.05.1942 to Germany for slave labour (most of them escaped during the transport). Theological seminary was closed. Few weeks after Vilnius seminary arrests, on 26.03.1942 Germans arrested Vilnius religious friars and clerics (Jesuits and Missionary Fathers of St Vincent a Pauli, among others) who got exposed to the same prison treatment. (more on: www.tygodnik.ltClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19])

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:
wspolnotapolska.org.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.ogrodywspomnien.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.12.28], rodzinaponarska.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.05.09]
bibliographical:
„Vilnius archdiocese clergy martyrology 1939‐1945”, Fr Thaddeus Krahel, Białystok, 2017
original images:
www.archiwumwilenskie.ltClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.05.09]