function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Culm (Chełmno) diocesemore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2012.11.23]

date and place
of death

24.10.1939

Łopatkitoday: Książki gm., Wąbrzeźno pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

alt. dates and places
of death

14.10.1939, 17.10.1939

VSH Briesentemporary custody
today: Wąbrzeźno, Wąbrzeźno urban gm., Wąbrzeźno pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2023.12.09]

details of death

alt. details of death

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Germans

date and place
of birth

17.06.1879

Tucholatoday: Tuchola gm., Tuchola pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.02]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

22.03.1903 (Pelplintoday: Pelplin gm., Tczew pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.05.06])

positions held

others related
in death

BREJSKIClick to display biography John Casimir, GRZECHOWSKIClick to display biography Thaddeus

murder sites
camp 
(+ prisoner no)

Łopatki (Piaskownia): In a closed‑down sand mine n. Łopatki village from 10.1939 till 12.1939 the Germans — as a part of «Intelligenzaktion» aimed at extermination of Polish intelligentsia and ruling classes — murdered approx. 2,500 Poles, mainly interned in Wąbrzeźno and Rywałd transit camps and many inhabitants of Wąbrzeźno and Brodnica counties. At the end of 1944, due to the defeat on the Eastern Front, the Germans dug up the graves, extracted the bodies and cremated them. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.13], www.interklasa.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.03.10])

VSH Briesen: In Wąbrzeźno, in the factory halls belonging to the Polish Rubber Industry PPG plants in Wąbrzeźno and in police custody in the judicial prison building, from 09.1939 till 11.1939 the Germans run — as part of «Intelligenzaktion» aimed at extermination of Polish intelligentsia in Pomerania — a temporary Germ. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutzhaft (Eng. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz custody) VSH for Wąbrzeźno and its vicinity's inhabitants. C. 1,000 prisoners were held there by the German genocidal Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz organization — the decision to create Selbstschutz in the Polish lands occupied by German troops was made in Berlin on September 08‑10.09.1939 at a conference headed by Reichsführer‑SS Heinrich Himmler (the formal order bears the data 20.09.1939), and the chaotically formed units were directly subordinated to the officers of the genocidal SS organization — most of whom were subsequently murdered in Łopatki. Many were tortured to death by camp guards.

«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])

sources

personal:
www.niedziela.diecezja.torun.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], cgd.com.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30], www.geni.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30], www.kpbc.ukw.edu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.10.04]
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
„Biographical dictionary of priests of the Chełmno diocese ordained in the years 1821‑1920”, Henry Mross, Pelplin, 1995
original images:
www.parafia.kowalewopomorskie.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.03.10], www.eholiday.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.03.10], gdansk.ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.10.02]