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Roman Catholic
St Sigismund parish
05-507 Słomczyn
85 Wiślana Str.
Konstancin deanery
Warsaw archdiocese, Poland

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    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
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Martyrology of the clergy — Poland

XX century (1914 – 1989)

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  • RZYMEŁKA Francis (Fr Alphonse); source: Roman Dzwonkowski, SAC, „Lexicon of Polish clergy repressed in USSR in 1939—1988”, ed. Science Society KUL, 2003, Lublin, own collection; CLICK TO ZOOM AND DISPLAY INFORZYMEŁKA Francis (Fr Alphonse)
    source: Roman Dzwonkowski, SAC, „Lexicon of Polish clergy repressed in USSR in 1939—1988”, ed. Science Society KUL, 2003, Lublin
    own collection
  • RZYMEŁKA Francis (Fr Alphonse), source: www.bildarchiv-ostpreussen.de, own collection; CLICK TO ZOOM AND DISPLAY INFORZYMEŁKA Francis (Fr Alphonse)
    source: www.bildarchiv-ostpreussen.de
    own collection

surname

RZYMEŁKA

surname
versions/aliases

ŻYMEŁKA, RZYMELKA

forename(s)

Francis (pl. Franciszek)

forename(s)
versions/aliases

John (pl. Jan)

religious forename(s)

Alphonse (pl. Alfons)

function

religious cleric

creed

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

congregation

Order of Friars Minor OFMmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]

(i.e. Franciscans, Minorites)

diocese / province

St Hedwig od Silesia province OFMmore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.08.18]

Warmia diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2018.09.02]

date and place
of death

27.01.1946

Katowicetoday: Katowice city pov., Silesia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.12]

alt. dates and places
of death

30.01.1946

details of death

During Russian winter 1945 advance at the end of World War II — started by German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 — left in 01.1945 his monastery in Stoczek Klasztorny, together with co–friars, Fr Stephen Maruszczyk among them.

Reached prob. Malbork and there decided to return.

After Stoczek capture by the Russians (nearby Lidzbark Warmiński Russians overtaken on 31.01.1945) arrested by the Russians and held in local jail.

Released but soon rearrested, prob. in the beginning of 02.1945.

Through Jeziorany, Lidzbark Warmiński and Insterburg transit camp deported to Stalino slave labour concentration camp, in Donetsk region.

Slaved in coal mines.

Soon got sick and left out in the camp's barracks where helped as a paramedic.

Released (according to other sources: managed to escape) and through Lviv arrived on 22.12.1945 at Kraków.

Totally exhausted and ill transported to Katowice, where perished in the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth hospital.

alt. details of death

According to some sources initially held — together with Fr Stephen Maruszczyk, among others — in a concentration camp in Vsesvyetskaya village, in Chusovoy region, c. 150 km east from Perm (then known as Molotov) at the foot of Ural mountains — later, from 1946, part of famous Perm‑36 concentration camp where Russians held political prisoners till 1987.

Prob. slaved in a sawmill.

From there was to be transported to camps in Donetsk region.

It is also possible, though less probable, that was held in Donez village n. Kharkiv.

cause of death

extermination: exhaustion and disease

perpetrators

Russians

date and place
of birth

11.12.1902

Wełnowiectoday: part of Katowice, Katowice city pov., Silesia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.12]

religious vows

05.10.1925 (temporary)
05.10.1928 (permanent)

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

07.03.1929 (Innsbrucktoday: Innsbruck–Land dist., Upper Austria state, Austria
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2024.03.19]
)

positions held

1939 – 1945

guardian — Stoczek Klasztornytoday: part of Stoczek village, Kiwity gm., Lidzbark Warmiński pov., Warmia–Masuria voiv., Poland
more on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.10.15]
⋄ Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary monastery, Franciscans OFM — retirees home director?

1936 – 1939

friar — Malborktoday: Malbork urban gm., Malbork pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28]
⋄ Holy Spirit monastery, Franciscans OFM

c. 1933 – c. 1936

friar — Borki Wielkietoday: Olesno gm., Olesno pov., Opole voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
⋄ St Francis of Assisi monastery, Franciscans OFM

c. 1931 – c. 1932

friar — Wrocławform.: Karłowice village
today: part of Karłowice–Różanka neighborhood, Wrocław miasto pov., Lower Silesia voiv., Poland

more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.04.02]
⋄ St Anthony of Padua monastery (at 26 John Kasprowicz Ave.), Franciscans OFM

c. 1925 – 1929

student — (Austria and Switzerland territory) ⋄ philosophy and theology, Franciscans OFM — also: treatment of tuberculosis, in Lugano (Switzerland), among others

04.10.1924 – 05.10.1925

novitiate — Franciscans OFM

others related
in death

MARUSZCZYKClick to display biography Steven (Fr Laurentius)

murder sites
camp 
(+ prisoner no)

Stalino camps: Headquarters of a series of Russian slave labour concentration and POW camps, founded starting from 1942‑1943, in Stalino (now Donetsk), centre of Donbas coal mining and steel making region in southern Ukraine. In 1944‑1946 a control and filtration camp no 240 was set up and at the beginning of 1945 had c. sub camps, including in Yenakiyeve. POW camp no 280 was operational longer. Russians brought there internees from the regions captured by their army who had not managed to escape with withdrawing Germans, among others from Warmia. Most slaved in Donbas coal mines. Among those held were c. 4,782 soldiers of Polish Home Army AK and other independent resistance organizations (part of Polish Clandestine State). In 04‑05.1945 Russians sent tens of thousands of miners from Silesia to slave labour in Donbas mines — only some returned to Poland, 10 years later. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.09.02]
)

Ural: In Ural mountains there were a numer of Russian concentration camsp and forced labour camps (part of Gulag penal system), eg. SevUralLag, TagilLag, VosUralLag, etc., and POW camps. (more on: www.gulagmuseum.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.11.28]
)

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. Up to 12 mln prisoners were held there at one time, i.e. c. 5% of Russia's population. In his book „The Gulag Archipelago”, Alexander Solzhenitsyn estimated that c. 60 mln people were killed in the Gulag until 1956. Formally dissolved on 20.01.1960. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.05.09]
, en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.05.09]
)

Insterburg: Russian transit camp, set up after capture on 21‑22.01.1945 of Insterburg by the Russians, for German population of East Prussia — on the site of the DL Insterburg camp, i.e. the German prisoner of war camp Germ. Durchgangslager der Luftwaffe (Eng. Air Force Transit Camp), managed by the German Luftwaffe Air Force, where the Germans held, among others, French and British — one of concentration centers of defeated Germans marked for slave work in Russia. In Insterburg (pl. Wystruć, now: Chernyakhovsk) and in nearby Yurbork c. 60,000 people were held: men, women, girls and old. All were transported — in rail transfers lasting 4‑7 weeks, without hot food, proper sanitation — to Russians slave labour camps. Many perished before reaching destination… (more on: bazhum.muzhp.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.09.02]
)

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 Stanislaus 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:
encyklo.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19]
, files.bildarchiv-ostpreussen.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18]
, silesia.edu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2022.10.15]

bibliographical:
Lexicon of the clergy vicimised in prl in 1945‑1989”, collective work edited by Jerzy Myszor, Warsaw, 2002
Lexicon of Polish clergy repressed in USSR in 1939‑1988”, Roman Dzwonkowski, SAC, ed. Science Society KUL, 2003, Lublin
original images:
www.bildarchiv-ostpreussen.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18]

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