Roman Catholic
St Sigismund parish
05-507 Słomczyn
85 Wiślana Str.
Konstancin deanery
Warsaw archdiocese, Poland
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Martyrology of the clergy — Poland
XX century (1914 – 1989)
personal data
religious status
Servant of God
surname
PASZKIEWICZ
forename(s)
Witold
function
diocesan priest
creed
Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
diocese / province
Riga archdiocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Minsk diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Mogilev archdiocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.06.23]
date and place
of death
01.07.1941
Krāslavatoday: Krāslava mun., Latvia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.06.29]
details of death
After Riga truce in 1921 ending the Polish–Russian war of 1919‐1921 remained in Russia (in Russian Belarus).
For the first time arrested by Russians in the autumn of 1927.
On 31.08.1928 formally charged for „anti–Russian activities” but soon released based on written undertaking not to leave Mogilev.
On 26/27.01.1930 arrested by Russians again.
Accused of maintaining contacts with Vatican and Catholics in Poland, „inciting against Russian authorities”.
On 13.05.1930 sentenced by a criminal Russian OGPU Council kangaroo court to 5 years of slave labour in Russian concentration camps (future Gulag) — on 28.07.1930 sentence got increased to 10 years.
At the same trial his sister got 3 years of slave labour.
From 07.1931 jailed in a concentration camp in Kiem on White Sea shore.
Next moved to ITL SLON Anzer Island concentration camp on Solovetsky Islands on White Sea.
On 05.07.1932 tried in a processes of jailed priests for „conducting secret religious ceremonies”.
Sentenced to a total isolation.
On 10.08.1933 got sick and was transferred to Butyrki prison in Moscow.
On 26.09.1933 (or 19.10.1933) exchanged in a group of 11 priests for Russian prisoners held in Lithuania and freed.
After German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and start of the World War II, after German attack in 06.1941 of their erstwhile ally, Russians, arrested on 30.06.1941 by the marauding Russian soldiers in his rectory, together with Fr Sigismund Tabore, local resident, and sacristian.
Taken to local genocidal NKVD HQ.
Tortured — Russians skinned him alive — and on the same day murdered with Fr Tabore and sacristian.
cause of death
mass murder
perpetrators
Russians
sites and events
06.1941 massacres (NKVD)Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, Moscow (Butyrki)Click to display the description, ITL SLONClick to display the description, Trial of 05.07.1932Click to display the description, OLP AnzerLagClick to display the description, GulagClick to display the description
date and place
of birth
1882
Strugi Krasnyetoday: Pskov oblast, Russia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2024.03.19]
presbyter (holy orders)
ordination
1906
positions held
till 1941
priest — Krāslavatoday: Krāslava mun., Latvia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.06.29] ⋄ RC parish
administrator — Vilniustoday: Vilnius city dist., Vilnius Cou., Lithuania
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.06] ⋄ St Bartholomew the Apostle RC church ⋄ Vilniustoday: Vilnius city dist., Vilnius Cou., Lithuania
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.06] RC deanery
1927 – 1930
vicar general — Mogilev RC archdiocese
priest — Mogilevtoday: Mogilev dist., Mogilev reg., Belarus
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.06]
1926 – 1927
administrator — Rukshenytsytoday: Glybochka, Ushachy ssov., Ushachy dist., Vitebsk reg., Belarus
more on
be.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.06.29] ⋄ Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC parish — also: other parishes near Połock
1922 – 1925
vicar general — in the part of diocese remaining in Russia
chaplain — Yanatrudvillage
today: non‐existent, Goryany ssov., Polotsk dist., Vitebsk reg., Belarus ⋄ Polotsktoday: Polotsk dist., Vitebsk reg., Belarus
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2023.01.18] RC deanery
1908 – 1918
administrator — Święciłowiczetoday: Lebedyanka ssov., Byalynichy dist., Mogilev reg., Belarus
more on
be.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.06.29] ⋄ St Louis the King and Confessor RC parish ⋄ Mohylew / Horkideanery names/seats
today: Mogilev reg., Belarus RC deanery
c. 1908
vicar — Kletsktoday: Kletsk dist., Minsk reg., Belarus
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.08.05] ⋄ Holy Trinity RC parish
till 1906
student — Sankt Petersburgtoday: Saint Petersburg city, Russia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.07.31] ⋄ philosophy and theology, Metropolitan Theological Seminary
others related
in death
TABOREClick to display biography Sigismund
sites and events
descriptions
06.1941 massacres (NKVD): After German attack of Russian‐occupied Polish territory and following that of Russia itself, before a panic escape, Russians murdered — in accordance with the genocidal order issued on 24.06.1941 by the Russian interior minister Lawrence Beria to murder all prisoners (formally „sentenced” for „counter‐revolutionary activities”, „anti‐Russian acts”, sabotage and diversion, and political prisoners „in custody”), held in NKVD‐run prisons in Russian occupied Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — c. 40,000‐50,000 prisoners. In addition Russians murdered many thousands of victims arrested after German attack regarding them as „enemies of people” — those victims were not even entered into prisons’ registers. Most of them were murdered in massacres in the prisons themselves, the others during so‐called „death marches” when the prisoners were driven out east. After Russians departure and start of German occupation a number of spontaneous pogroms of Jews took place. Many Jews collaborated with Russians and were regarded as co‐responsible for prison massacres. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19])
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])
Moscow (Butyrki): Harsh transit and interrogation prison in Moscow — for political prisoners — where Russians held and murdered thousands of Poles. Founded prob. in XVII century. In XIX century many Polish insurgents (Polish uprisings of 1831 and 1863) were held there. During Communist regime a place of internment for political prisoners prior to a transfer to Russian slave labour complex Gulag. During the Great Purge c. 20,000 inmates were held there at any time (c. 170 in every cell). Thousands were murdered. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.05.01])
ITL SLON: Russian Rus. Исправи́тельно‐Трудово́й Ла́герь (Eng. Corrective Labor Camp) ITL Rus. Солове́цкий ла́герь осо́бого назначе́ния Ла́герь (Eng. Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp) SLON — concentration and slave forced labor camp (within what was to become Gulag complex) — headquartered in Solovetsky Islands in Arkhangelsk Oblast. Founded on 13.10.1923 in a famous Orthodox monastery. In the 1920s, one of the first and largest concentration camps in Russia. The place of slave labor of prisoners — at forest felling, sawmills, peat extraction, fishing, loading work on the Murmansk Railway Main Line, in road construction, production of food and consumer goods, at the beginning of the construction of the White Sea ‐ Baltic canal, etc. The concept of the later system of Russian Gulag concentration camps prob. had its origins in the Solovetsky Islands camp — from there the idea spread to the camps in the area covered by the construction of the White Sea ‐ Baltic canal, i.e. ITL BelBaltLag, and from there further, to the entire territory of the Russian state. From the network of camps on the Solovetsky Islands — also called the Solovetsky Islands archipelago — prob. also comes the concept of the „Gulag Archipelago” created by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. It is estimated that tens to hundreds of thousands of prisoners passed through the Solovetsky Islands concentration camps. At its peak, c. 72,000 prisoners were held there: e.g. 14,810 (12.1927); 12,909 (03.1928); 65,000 (1929); 53,123 (01.01.1930); 63,000 (01.06.1930); 71,800 (01.01.1931); 15,130 (1932); 19,287 (1933) — c. 43,000 of whom were murdered, including the years 1937‐1938 when c. 9,500 prisoners were transported from the camp and murdered in several places of mass executions, including Sandarmokh, Krasny Bor and Lodeynoye Polye. Among them were many Catholic and Orthodox priests. After the National Socialist Party came to power in Germany in 1933, a German delegation visited the ITL SLON camp, to „inspect” Russian solutions and adopt them later in German concentration camps. It operated until 04.12.1933, with a break from 16.11.1931 to 01.01.1932, when it was part of and later became a subcamp of the ITL BelBaltLag camp. It operated as such until 1939 (from 1936 as a prison). (more on: old.memo.ruClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.04.08])
Trial of 05.07.1932: Russian trial of Catholic priests held in Solovetsky Islands and Anzer Island, accused of „creation of an anti‐Russian group that conducted anti‐Russian agitation, clandestinely celebrated Mass and religious rites and maintained an illegal contact with a free worker for purposes of transmitting abroad information of an espionage character about the situation of Catholics in the Russia”. The prisoners were given prolonged sentences in concentration camp and spread them among the various Gułag camps.
OLP AnzerLag: Russian ros. Отдельный лагерный пункт (Eng. Separate Camp Unit) OLP on the Anzer Island on White Sea. On the Island, 47 km2, belonging to Solovetsky Islands archipelago, Russians organised one of the first concentration camps in Russia (part of ITL SLON Solovetsky Islands concentratoin camp). In 1930s c. 32 Catholic priests were held there most of who perished. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20])
Gulag: The acronym Gulag comes from the Rus. Главное управление исправительно‐трудовых лагерей и колоний (Eng. Main Board of Correctional Labor Camps). The network of Russian concentration camps for slave labor was formally established by the decision of the highest Russian authorities on 27.06.1929. Control was taken over by the OGPU, the predecessor of the genocidal NKVD (from 1934) and the MGB (from 1946). Individual gulags (camps) were often established in remote, sparsely populated areas, where industrial or transport facilities important for the Russian state were built. They were modeled on the first „great construction of communism”, the White Sea‐Baltic Canal (1931‐1932), and Naftali Frenkel, of Jewish origin, is considered the creator of the system of using forced slave labor within the Gulag. He went down in history as the author of the principle „We have to squeeze everything out of the prisoner in the first three months — then nothing is there for us”. He was to be the creator, according to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, of the so‐called „Boiler system”, i.e. the dependence of food rations on working out a certain percentage of the norm. The term ZEK — prisoner — i.e. Rus. заключенный‐каналоармец (Eng. canal soldier) — was coined in the ITL BelBaltLag managed by him, and was adopted to mean a prisoner in Russian slave labor camps. Up to 12 mln prisoners were held in Gulag camps at one time, i.e. c. 5% of Russia's population. In his book „The Gulag Archipelago”, Solzhenitsyn estimated that c. 60 mln people were killed in the Gulag until 1956. Formally dissolved on 20.01.1960. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.04.08])
sources
personal:
www.katolicy.euClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19], biographies.library.nd.eduClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.05.09]
bibliographical:
„Lexicon of Polish clergy repressed in USSR in 1939‐1988”, Roman Dzwonkowski, SAC, ed. Science Society KUL, 2003, Lublin
„Fate of the Catholic clergy in USSR 1917‐1939. Martyrology”, Roman Dzwonkowski, SAC, ed. Science Society KUL, 2003, Lublin
original images:
newsaints.faithweb.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19], ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.02.02]
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