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
surname
SEKRECKI
forename(s)
Henry (pl. Henryk)
function
diocesan priest
creed
Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
diocese / province
Lublin diocesemore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
academic distinctions
Doctor of Theology
date and place
of death
12.03.1945
KL Buchenwaldconcentration camp
today: n. Weimar, Weimar urban dist., Thuringia state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.09]
alt. dates and places
of death
13.03.1945
details of death
In 1937 expelled from the gymnasium in Chełm, where served as a prefect — accused of warning „in religion lessons about the Masonic danger”, recommending the purchase of books in Catholic bookstores, a critical attitude towards the coeducational system (according to sources, there were were Jewish teachers in the gymnasium, who apparently openly taught against the Catholic religion, spread communist, godless, pornographic views).
After German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and start of the World War II, after start of German occupation, for the first time arrested by the Germans on 15.12.1939.
Jailed in Castle prison in Lublin.
Released on 13.03.1940.
Took part in clandestine educational network (part of Polish Clandestine State) — after Germans closed down most of the secondary schools and universities.
Arrested again by the Germans on 12.11.1942.
Jailed in Castle prison again.
Next held in KL Plaszow concentration camp in Kraków.
From there on 03.10.1943 transported to KL Auschwitz concentration camp.
Finally on 23.10.1943 moved to KL Buchenwald concentration camp where perished.
prisoner camp's numbers
33237Click to display source page (KL BuchenwaldClick to display the description), 155681Click to display source page (KL AuschwitzClick to display the description)
cause of death
extermination
perpetrators
Germans
sites and events
KL BuchenwaldClick to display the description, KL AuschwitzClick to display the description, Regierungsbezirk KattowitzClick to display the description, KL PlaszowClick to display the description, Lublin (Castle)Click to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion»Click to display the description, GeneralgouvernementClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description
date and place
of birth
04.01.1904
Zamośćtoday: Zamość gm., Zamość pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.07]
alt. dates and places
of birth
11.01.1904, 13.01.1904
presbyter (holy orders)
ordination
1927
positions held
1940 – 1942
rector — Lublintoday: Lublin city pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.20] ⋄ Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Victorious RC church ⋄ Lublintoday: Lublin city pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.20] RC deanery
1939
councillor — Lublintoday: Lublin city pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.20] ⋄ City Council
1937 – c. 1939
prefect — Lublintoday: Lublin city pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.20] ⋄ August and Julius Vetters' Merchant gymnasium and Commercial High School
moderator — Sodality for Men ⋄ Lublin RC diocese
1935 – 1937
prefect — Chełmtoday: Chełm city pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.20] ⋄ Stephen Czarniecki's State Gymnasium and High School ⋄ Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC parish ⋄ Chełmtoday: Chełm city pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.20] RC deanery
1934 – 1935
vicar — Lublintoday: Lublin city pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.20] ⋄ St Paul RC parish ⋄ Lublintoday: Lublin city pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.20] RC deanery
1933 – 1934
student — Viennatoday: Vienna state, Austria
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.07.31] ⋄ theology — prob. post–doctoral studies
c. 1932
PhD student — Rometoday: Rome prov., Lazio reg., Italy
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] ⋄ Pontifical Biblical Institute (Lat. Pontificium Institutum Biblicum), known as „Biblicum” (from 1909)
1927 – c. 1932
student — Lublintoday: Lublin city pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.20] ⋄ Department of Theology, Catholic University of Lublin KUL [i.e. Catholic University of Lublin KUL (since 1928) / clandestine Catholic University of Lublin KUL (1939‐1944) / University of Lublin (1918‐1928)] — in‐depth studies
till 1927
student — Lublintoday: Lublin city pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.20] ⋄ philosophy and theology, Theological Seminary
others related
in death
BUKOWSKIClick to display biography Leopold, DOMERACKIClick to display biography Joseph, DRWALClick to display biography Francis, DRWĘSKIClick to display biography Stanislav (Bro. Felician), GLAKOWSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, HANKEClick to display biography Francis, HAROŃSKIClick to display biography Leo, HUWERClick to display biography Joseph, KULISZClick to display biography Charles, KUPILASClick to display biography Francis, LANGNERClick to display biography Herbert, PANKOWSKIClick to display biography Marian, POLEDNIAClick to display biography Paul, ROGACZEWSKIClick to display biography Adalbert Theophilus, SCHULZClick to display biography Joseph Valentine, STOCKClick to display biography Joseph
sites and events
descriptions
KL Buchenwald: In German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL Buchenwald concentration camp, founded in 1937 and operational till 1945, Germans held c. 238,380 prisoners and murdered approx. 56,000 of them, among them thousands of Poles. Prisoners were victims of pseudo‐scientific experiments, conducted among others by Behring‐Werke from Marburg and Robert Koch Institute from Berlin companies. They slaved for Gustloff in Weimar and Fritz‐Sauckel companies manufacturing armaments. To support Erla‐Maschinenwerk GmbH in Leipzig, Junkers in Schönebeck (airplanes) and Rautal in Wernigerode Germans organized special sub‐camps. In 1945 there were more than 100 such sub‐camps. Dora concentration camp was initially one of them, as well as KL Ravensbrück sub‐camps (from 08.1944). On 08.04.1945 Polish prisoner, Mr Guido Damazyn, used clandestinely constructed short wave transmitter to sent, together with a Russian prisoner, a short message begging for help. It was received and he got a reply: „KZ Bu. Hold out. Rushing to your aid. Staff of Third Army” (American). Three days later the camp was liberated. (more on: www.buchenwald.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10])
KL Auschwitz: German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL and Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Auschwitz was set up by Germans around 27.01.1940 n. Oświęcim, on the German territory (initially in Germ. Provinz Schlesien — Silesia Province; and from 1941 Germ. Provinz Oberschlesien — Upper Silesia Province). Initially mainly Poles were interned. From 1942 it became the centre for holocaust of European Jews. Part of the KL Auschwitz concentration camps’ complex was Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Auschwitz II Birkenau, located not far away from the main camp. There Germans murder possibly in excess of million people, mainly Jews, in gas chambers. Altogether In excess of 400 priests and religious went through the KL Auschwitz, approx. 40% of which were murdered (mainly Poles). (more on: en.auschwitz.org.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.meczennicy.pelplin.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06])
Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz: 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). From two separate new provinces were created. The two remaining were incorporated into existing German provinces. One of those was Polish Upper Silesia, which on 08.09.1939, by decree of the German leader Adolf Hitler (formally came into force on 26.10.1939), was incorporated into Germany as the Germ. Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz (Eng. Katowice Regency) and became part of the Germ. Provinz Schlesien (Eng. Province of Silesia) based in Wrocław. On 01.04.1940, the Germ. Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz was enlarged by several pre‐war German counties, and on 18.01.1941, a new German province was created, the Germ. Provinz Oberschlesien (Eng. Province of Upper Silesia), which, apart from the Germ. Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz, also included the Opole region. From 26.10.1939, when the regency was established, the law of the German state was in force there, the same as in Berlin. The main axis of the policy of the new regency, the territory of which the Germans recognized as the Germ. „Ursprünglich Deutsche” (Eng. „natively German”), despite the fact only 6% of its pre–war Polish part were Germans, was Germ. „Entpolonisierung” (Eng. „Depolonisation”), i.e. forced Germanization. The main mechanism was the introduction of the Germ. Deutsche Volksliste DVL, a German nationality list that was supposed to specify the national affiliation of the inhabitants of the region. The largest group marked in the compulsory registrations was Group 3, people who identified themselves as „Silesians” (in 1943 about 41%), and people remaining outside the DVL (about 36%). The latter group was intended to be deported to the Germ. Generalgouvernement (which did not happen en masse because German industry needed slave labor). Group 3, considered by the Germans as capable of Germanization, was subject to certain legal restrictions, and was subject to, among others, to conscription into the German Wehrmacht army. Children could only learn in German. A policy of terror was pursued against the Polish population. There was a special police court, controlled by the Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. the Gestapo, before which c. 4,000‐5,000 people were detained. For the years 1942‐1945 over 2,000 of them were verified, of which 1,890 were sentenced to death, including 286 in public executions. Thousands of people were murdered during the so‐called «Intelligenzaktion Schlesien», including 300‐650 Polish teachers and c. 61 Polish Catholic priests. The regency hosted a German concentration and extermination camp KL Auschwitz, where the Germans imprisoned c. 1,100,000 Jews (murdering c.1,000,000, i.e. c. 90% of them) and c. 140,000 Poles (murdering c. 70,000, i.e. c. 50% of them). 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, Fritz Brecht, committed suicide. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.24])
KL Plaszow: German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) near Cracow. Founded by German genocidal SS organisation and German police in the autumn on 1942 as a slave labour camp (Germ. Zwangsarbeitslager), later — in 01.1944 — turned into a concentration camp. Initially, it was a camp for Jews from the ghetto in Kraków, closed down on 14.03.1943. Later, mainly Poles from Lesser Poland in the General Governorate were held there ‐ but also Hungarians and Slovaks ‐ and the number of prisoners exceeded 20,000. In total, about 40,000 people passed through the camp. c. 8,000 people were murdered by the Germans in the nearby Hujowa Górka The camp was liquidated at the turn of 1944/5 ‐ the last group of prisoners was marched out to KL Auschwitz on 14.01.1945. The Russians entered the camp on 20.01.1945. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.12.11])
Lublin (Castle): During World War II, the Germ. Gefängnis der Sicherheitspolizei und des Sicherheitsdienst Lublin (Eng. Police and Security Service SD Prison), through which c. 40,000‐80,000 Poles passed during the German occupation, mostly members of Polish clandestine independence organizations (part of the Polish Clandestine State), before being sent by the Germans to concentration camps. The inmates were held in inhumane conditions, in overcrowded cells — up to 3,000 were held at one time in the prison designed for 700 people — where they were starved, harassed, and disease was rampant. During interrogations were tortured. Many were murdered — the prison housed the genocidal Germ. Sondergericht (Eng. special court), which issued serial death sentences after a trial lasting several minutes. C. 2,200 perished during the investigation or in the prison; 4,500 were murdered in secret executions in the vicinity of Lublin. When the Russians were fast approached Lublin in 08.1944, c. 1,500 prisoners were sent to the KL Lublin concentration camp, where were murdered, and on 22.07.1944, after a few hours prior to escape, c. 300 remaining were murdered in the prison itself. After the expulsion of the Germans in 1944, the prison was first run by Russians, then UB, the Polish branch of the Russian NKVD, and 32,000‐33,000 soldiers of the Home Army AK, part of the Polish Clandestine State, and the National Armed Forces NSZ, fighting against the Russian occupation, were detained there (in similar conditions to the Germans — in 04.1945 c. 8,000 people were held in the prison) and tortured. C. 515 were sentenced to death and 333 were murdered. The prison began to be liquidated in 02.1954. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30])
«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 Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. 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])
Generalgouvernement: 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. In two of them new German provinces were created, two other were incorporated into other provinces. However, the fifth part was treated separately, and in a political sense it was supposed to recreate the German idea from 1915 (during World War I, after the defeat of the Russians in the Battle of Gorlice in 05.1915) of creating a Polish enclave within Germany. Illegal in the sense of international law, i.e. Hague Convention, and public law, managed by the Germans according to separate laws — especially established for the Polish Germ. Untermenschen (Eng. subhumans) — till the Russian offensive in 1945 it constituted part of the Germ. Großdeutschland (Eng. Greater Germany). Till 31.07.1940 formally called Germ. Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete (Eng. General Government for the occupied Polish lands) — later simply Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), as in the years 1915‐1918. From 07.1941, i.e. after the German attack on 22.06.1941 against the erstwhile ally, the Russians, it also included the Galicia district, i.e. the Polish pre‐war south‐eastern voivodeships. A special criminal law was enacted and applied to Poles and Jews, allowing for the arbitrary administration of the death penalty regardless of the age of the „perpetrator”, and sanctioning the use of collective responsibility. After the end of the military conflict of the World War UU, the government of the Germ. Generalgouvernement was recognized as a criminal organization, and its leader, governor Hans Frank, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and executed. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.12.13])
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:
pl.auschwitz.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], ltg.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.12.28], www.straty.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.04.18], www.wbc.poznan.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.09.29]
original images:
www.worldvitalrecords.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.09.21], www.miejscapamiecinarodowej.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.05.09]
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MARTYROLOGY: SEKRECKI Henry
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