beatification date

13.06.1999more on
www.swzygmunt.knc.pl
[access: 2013.05.19]

the RC Pope John Paul IImore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]

function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Gniezno and Poznań archdiocese (aeque principaliter)more on
www.archpoznan.pl
[access: 2012.11.23]
Military Ordinariate of Polandmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.12.20]

date and place
of death

25.01.1945

KL Dachauconcentration camp
today: Dachau, Upper Bavaria reg., Bavaria state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2016.05.30]

details of death

prisoner camp's numbers

37193Click to display source page (KL DachauClick to display the description)

cause of death

extermination: exhaustion and starvation

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

KL DachauClick to display the description, Bydgoszcz (prison)Click to display the description, Reichsgau Danzig‐WestpreußenClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

27.03.1909

Pobiedziskatoday: Pobiedziska gm., Poznań pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.01]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

10.06.1933 (Poznań cathedralmore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.11.14])

positions held

biography (own resources)

Click to read biography details from our resources

sites and events
descriptions

KL Dachau: KL Dachau in German Bavaria, set up in 1933, became the main German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL for Catholic priests and religious during World War II: On c. 09.11.1940, Reichsführer‐SS Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, Gestapo and German police, as a result of the Vatican's intervention, decided to transfer all clergymen detained in various concentration camps to KL Dachau camp. The first major transports took place on 08.12.1940. In KL Dachau Germans held approx. 3,000 priests, including 1,800 Poles. The priests were forced to slave labor in the Germ. „Die Plantage” — the largest herb garden in Europe, managed by the genocidal SS, consisting of many greenhouses, laboratory buildings and arable land, where experiments with new natural medicines were conducted — for many hours, without breaks, without protective clothing, no food. They slaved in construction, e.g. of camp's crematorium. In the barracks ruled hunger, freezing cold in the winter and suffocating heat during the summer, especially acute in 1941‐1942. Prisoners suffered from bouts of illnesses, including tuberculosis. Many were victims of murderous „medical experiments” — in 11.1942 c. 20 were given phlegmon injections; in 07.1942 to 05.1944 c. 120 were used by for malaria experiments. More than 750 Polish clerics where murdered by the Germans, some brought to Schloss Hartheim euthanasia centre and murdered in gas chambers. At its peak KL Dachau concentration camps’ system had nearly 100 slave labour sub‐camps located throughout southern Germany and Austria. There were c. 32,000 documented deaths at the camp, and thousands perished without a trace. C. 10,000 of the 30,000 inmates were found sick at the time of liberation, on 29.04.1945, by the USA troops… (more on: www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.05.30])

Bydgoszcz (prison): Detention centre and court prison run by Germans. Those arrested in the detention centre were usually transported next to concentration cams. In 1945 the prison was evacuated — out 350 prisoners marched off from prison only 27 survived. (more on: www.sw.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.10.05])

Reichsgau Danzig‐Westpreußen: 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). Two were added to existing German provinces. From two other separate new provinces were created. Vistula Pomerania region was one of them, incorporated into Germany on 08.10.1939, by decree of the German leader Adolf Hitler (formally came into force on 26.10.1939), and on 02.11.1939 transformed into the Germ. Reichsgau Danzig‐Westpreußen (Eng. Reich District of Gdańsk‐West Prussia) province, in which the law of the German state was to apply. The main axis of the policy of the new province, the territory of which the Germans recognized as the Germ. „Ursprünglich Deutsche” (Eng. „natively German”), despite the fact that 85% of its inhabitants were Poles, was Germ. „Entpolonisierung” (Eng. „Depolonisation”), i.e. forced Germanization. C. 60,000 Poles were murdered in 1939‐1940, as part of the Germ. „Intelligenzaktion”, i.e. extermination of Polish intelligentsia and ruling classes, in c. 432 places of mass executions — including c. 220 Polish Catholic priests. The same number were sent to German concentration camps, from where few returned (over 300 priests were arrested, of whom c. 130 died in concentration camps). C. 124,000‐170,000 were displaced, including c. 90,000 to the Germ. Generalgouvernement. Poles were forced en masse to sign the German nationality list, the Germ. Deutsche Volksliste DVL. Polish children could only learn in German. It was forbidden to use the Polish language during Catholic Holy Masses and during confession. Polish landed estates were confiscated..To further reduce the number of the Polish population, Poles were sent to forced labor deep inside Germany. The remaining Poles were treated as low‐skilled labor, isolated from the Germans and strictly controlled — legally, three or three of them could only meet together, even in their own apartments. Many were conscripted into the German Wehrmacht army. 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, Albert Maria Forster, was executed. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.24])

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])

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.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20], www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.ipgs.usClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23]
original images:
www.archidiecezja.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30], mbnppobiedziska.ns48.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.10.13], www.panipobiedzisk.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30], commons.wikimedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.06], www.kepnosocjum.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.06], www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.szczecin.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.09.21], www.kepnosocjum.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.07.15]