function

nun

creed

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

congregation

Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary CSICmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
(i.e. Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the BVM)

diocese / province

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

date and place
of death

23.08.1944

Rusylivtoday: Zolotyi Potik hrom., Chortkiv rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
uk.wikipedia.org
[access: 2023.03.02]

alt. dates and places
of death

08.1944

details of death

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Ukrainians

sites and events

«Genocidium Atrox»Click to display the description, Help to the JewsClick to display the description, VL BelzecClick to display the description, VL TreblinkaClick to display the description, Secret educational systemClick 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

04.06.1909Birth certification on:
photos.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl
[access: 2026.07.13]

Wysocko Wielkietoday: Ostrów Wielkopolski gm., Ostrów Wielkopolski pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

parents

SZEMBEK Bogdan Mieczyslav Mary
🞲 07.08.1880, Wysocko Wielkietoday: Ostrów Wielkopolski gm., Ostrów Wielkopolski pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] — 🕆 30.03.1956, Gorzów Wielkopolskitoday: Gorzów Wielkopolski city pov., Lubusz voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.12]

PONIŃSKA Sophia
🞲 18.05.1883, Żernikitoday: Kórnik gm., Poznań pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2025.02.11] — 🕆 10.06.1930, Wysocko Wielkietoday: Ostrów Wielkopolski gm., Ostrów Wielkopolski pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

religious vows

08.12.1933 (temporary)
08.12.1939 (permanent)

positions held

others related
in death

KOSIOROWSKAClick to display biography Hedwig (Sr Francesca), KULPAClick to display biography Sophia (Sr Mary Leocadia), SKAŁECKAClick to display biography Anne (Sr Mary Therese), USTYANOWICZClick to display biography Matilde Stephanie Anne (Sr Mary Sophia of Heart of Jesus), FURKAŁOWSKAClick to display biography Mary (Sr Ursula of St Joseph), KRAŚNICKIClick to display biography Andrew

sites and events
descriptions

«Genocidium Atrox»: In 1939‐1947, especially in 1943‐1944, independent Ukrainian units, mainly belonging to genocidal Ukrainian organizations OUN (political arm) and UPA (military arm), supported by local Ukrainian population, murdered — often in extremely brutal way — in Volyn and surrounding regions of pre‐war Poland, from 130,000 to 180,000 Poles, all civilians: men, women, children, old and young. Polish‐Ukrainian conflict that openly emerged during and after World War I (in particular resulting in Polish‐Ukrainian war of 1918‐1919), that survived and even deepened later when western Ukraine became a part Poland, exploded again after the outbreak of the World War II in 09.1939. During Russian occupation of 1939‐1941, when hundreds of thousands of Poles were deported into central Russia, when tens of thousands were murdered (during so‐called Katyń massacres, among others), this open conflict had a limited character, helped by the fact that at that time Ukrainians, Ukrainian nationalists in particular, were also persecuted by the Russians. The worst came after German‐Russian war started on 22.06.1941 and German occupation resulted. Initially Ukrainians supported Germans (Ukrainian police was initiated, Ukrainians co—participated in extermination of the Jews and were joining army units fighting alongside Germans). Later when German ambivalent position towards Ukraine became apparent Ukrainians started acting independently. And in 1943 one of the units of aforementioned Ukrainian OUN/UPA organization, in Volyn, started and perpetrated a genocide of Polish population of this region. In mere few weeks OUN/UPA murdered, with Germans passively watching on the sidelines, more than 40,000 Poles. This strategy was consequently approved and adopted by all OUN/UPA organisations and similar genocides took place in Eastern Lesser Poland (part of Ukraine) where more than 20,000 Poles were slaughtered, meeting however with growing resistance from Polish population. Further west, in Chełm, Rzeszów, etc. regions this genocide turned into an extremely bloody conflict. In general genocide, perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists, partly collaborating with German occupants, on vulnerable Polish population took part in hundreds of villages and small towns, where virtually all Polish inhabitants were wiped out. More than 200 priests, religious and nuns perished in this holocaust — known as «Genocidium Atrox» (Eng. „savage genocide”) The nature and purpose of genocide is perhaps best reflected in the song sung by the murderers: „We will slaughter the Poles, we will cut down the Jews, we must conquer the great Ukraine” (ukr. „Поляків виріжем, Євреїв видусим, велику Україну здобути мусим”). This holocaust and conflict ended up in total elimination of Polish population and Polish culture from Ukraine, in enforced deportations in 1944‐1945 of remaining Poles from Ukraine and some Ukrainians into Ukraine proper, and finally in deportation of Ukrainians from East‐South to the Western parts of Polish republic prl by Commie‐Nazi Russian controlled Polish security forces („Vistula Action”). (more on: www.swzygmunt.knc.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.06.20])

Help to the Jews: During World War II on the Polish occupied territories Germans forbid to give any support to the Jews under penalty of death. E.g., on 15.10.1941, the Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor) of the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG, Hans Frank, issued the „3rd Ordinance on Restrictions on Residence in the General Governorate”, in which §1 stated that: „1) Jews who leave their designated district without authorization are subject to the death penalty. The same penalty applies to persons who knowingly provide such Jews with a hiding place”; and „2) Instigators and accomplices are subject to the same punishment as the perpetrator; an attempted act will be punished as a completed act. In less serious cases, severe imprisonment or prison may be imposed”. This ordinance was further elaborated by the district leaders of GG. E.g., on 10.11.1941, the Germ. Gouverneur (Eng. Governor) of the Germ. Distrikt Warschau (Eng. Warsaw District) in GG, Ludwig Fischer, issued a proclamation stating that: „A Jew who in the future unauthorizedly leaves the residential district assigned to him will be punished with death”. And added: „The same punishment applies to anyone who knowingly provides shelter to such Jews or helps them in any other way (e.g., by providing accommodation, board, by taking them on vehicles of any kind, etc.)”. In practice, this meant that responsibility for hiding Jews rested not only with the owners of the premises, but also with all the people being there, generally the family of the person hiding them. When at the turn of 1941/1942 the Germans began to implement the genocidal plan Germ. Endlösung der Judenfrage (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), when the deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Treblinka was underway, the Polish writer Sophie Kossak–Szczucka on 11.08.1942 issued an appeal „Protest!”, published in the underground press in a circulation of 5,000 copies. She wrote: „The world looks at this crime, more terrible than anything history has ever seen, and — it remains silent […] This silence cannot be tolerated any longer. Whatever its motives — it is despicable. We cannot remain passive in the face of crime. Whoever remains silent in the face of murder becomes an accomplice to the murderer. Whoever does not condemn, consents. Therefore, we, Catholics — Poles, are speaking out. Our feelings towards Jews have not changed. We do not cease to consider them political, economic, and ideological enemies of Poland. Moreover, we realize that they hate us more than they hate Germans […] Awareness of these feelings, however, does not release us from the obligation to condemn the crime […] Whoever does not understand this, whoever would dare to link Poland's proud, free future with the despicable joy of their neighbor's misfortune — is therefore neither a Catholic nor a Pole!” The „Protest” was signed by the „Front for the Rebirth of Poland”, i.e. FOP, a clandestine Catholic organization that was a continuation of Catholic Action during the German occupation. On 27.09.1942, the Polish Clandestine State, the largest resistance organization in German–occupied Europe, at the initiative of Sophie Kossak–Szczucka and Wanda Krahelska–Filipowicz, a member of the Polish Socialist Party, established the Provisional Committee to Aid Jews. On 04.12.1942, the Council to Aid Jews at the Polish Government Delegature in occupied Poland, codenamed „Conrad Żegota”, was established in its place. Hundreds of Polish priests and religious extended help to the Jews, under threat of life. Many of them were caught and murdered.

VL Belzec: German Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. Extermination camp) VL — oficially known as SS‐Sonderkommando Belzec — operational from 03.1942 till 06.1943 n. Belzec village, c. 8 km to the south of Tomaszów Lubelski, founded as part of German „Reinhardt” program of extermination of Jewish population. Victims were mainly Polish Jews from ghettos and camps in German‐run General Governorate, mainly from Galicia, Cracow and Lublin districts; but also Austrian, Czech, German, Slovak and Hungarian Jews. The victims were murdered in stationary gas chambers with exhaust fumes. The number of exterminated is estimated to reach c. 450,000. The camp was run by c. 20. German and Austrian SS functionaries at any one time. They were supported by a company of watchmen (Germ. SS‐Wachmannschaften) — mainly former Russian POWs who switched sides, in general of Ukrainian nationality. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.02.08])

VL Treblinka: SS‐Sonderkommando Treblinka, Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. Extermination camp) VL, of Polish Jews. Operational from 07.1942 till 11.1943. Largest extermination camp in German‐run General Governorate. Main site of mass genocide of Jewish population from Warsaw ghetto and other ghettoes in German occupied Poland. Among the victims were Jews from Austria, Czechia, Greece, Yugoslavia, Germany and Slovakia, and Romani people. Victims were murdered in stationary gas chambers equipped as public showers. Corpses were burnt and cremated. The number of murdered is estimated at 700,000‐900,000. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.07.31])

Secret educational system: After the occupation began, the Germans started a ruthless fight against the Polish intelligentsia. The source of German law became the memorandum Germ. „Die Frage der Behandlung der Bevölkerung der ehemaligen polnischen Gebiete nach rassepolitischen Gesichtspunkten” (Eng. „The Treatment of the Population of the Former Polish Territories from the Point of View of Racial Policy”), issued on 28.09.1939 by two officials of the German Central Germ. Rassenpolitisches Amt der NSDAP (Eng. National Office of Racial Policy), Erhard Wetzel and Günther Hecht — both with doctoral degrees, of course: the former in law, the latter in herpetology, i.e. the branch of zoology that studies amphibians and reptiles — based on the guidelines articulated two days earlier by the German socialist leader, Adolf Hitler. These outstanding representatives of the „master race” wrote in it, i.a. that in the occupied Polish territories: „Universities and other higher education institutions, vocational schools and secondary schools have always been centers of Polish chauvinistic upbringing and therefore should be closed altogether. Only elementary schools should be allowed, which should teach only the most primitive things: arithmetic, reading and writing. Education in nationally important subjects, such as geography, history, the history of literature, and gymnastics, must be banned”. Even religious education higher than elementary has become illegal. And in areas directly incorporated to Germany, e.g. Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland (Eng. Warta Country Reich District), the Germans went further — shut down all schools teaching in Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish. The resistance Polish Clandestine State created a secret education system. In 1944, over 100,000 young people studied in secret high schools, and several thousand in secret universities (e.g. the University of Warsaw, the University of Western Territories, the Jagiellonian University, the John Casimir University in Lviv. Secret teaching was ruthlessly combated by the German occupation authorities ‐ in 1939‐ 1945 8,500 Polish teachers lost their lives. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2022.11.29])

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:
www.panorama.info.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], nawolyniu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06], www.niepokalanki.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.03.14], studiowschod.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2026.07.13], photos.szukajwarchiwach.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2026.07.13], cracovia-leopolis.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06], pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.13], www.niepokalanki.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.13]
bibliographical:
„Catholic nuns — victims of crimes of Ukrainian nationalists in Lviv metropolis of the Latin rite in 1939‐1947”, Sr Agnes Michna, IPN, Warsaw, 2010
„Mysterium iniquitatis. Clergy and religious of the Latin rite murdered by Ukrainian nationalists in 1939‐1945”, Fr Józef Marecki, Institute of National Remembrance IPN, Kraków 2020
„Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933‐1945”, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, ed. Martin Dean, volume II: „Ghettos in German–Occupied Eastern Europe”, part A
„Genocidium Atrox”, GTKRK, https://www.swzygmunt.knc.pl/GENOCIDEs/15 GENOCIDUM ATROX/vPOLISH/MAINs/GENATROXsearch01.htm
original images:
www.rmpm.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2026.07.13], nawolyniu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.07.31], www.rmpm.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2026.07.13], www.rmpm.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2026.07.13], nawolyniu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.07.31]