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
WIERZCHACZEWSKI
forename(s)
Maximilian (pl. Maksymilian)
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]
RC Military Ordinariate of Polandmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.12.20]
date and place
of death
14.05.1944
Krakówtoday: Kraków city pov., Lesser Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.07]
details of death
From 04.09.1919, based on daily order No. 219 of the Supreme Command of the Polish Army, chaplain of the POW Camp No. 1 near Strzałkowo — from 04.1920 called the POW and Internment Camp No. 1 in Strzałkowo. The camp, which was located on the border of his parish — established by the Germans at the turn of 1914‐1915, literally on the German–Russian border before the outbreak of World War I 1914–1918, for prisoners captured by them, when the German–Russian front was about 100 km to the east — because of its location was used Poland already in 1919, even though his Staw parish was still formally part of Germany, i.e. its Germ. Provinz Posen (Eng. Province of Poznań), although in reality it was located in the area of Greater Poland, controlled by the insurgent Greater Poland Army (by the daily order of the Supreme Command of the Polish Army of 28.08.1919 incorporated into the Polish Army). Formally, it became part of Poland on 10.01.1920, after the ratifications of the Treaty of Versailles, concluded on 28.06.1919, by all parties. Already in 1919, however, Russian POWs taken during the Polish–Russian War of 1919‐1921 were held there; and from 1921, soldiers of the Active Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic, interned after the lost war with the Russians, who in 11.1920 crossed the border river Zbruch and entered Poland.
After German invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and start of the World War II, after start of German occupation, evicted by the Germans from his parish and prob. in 1941 deported to German‐run Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate).
There perished.
cause of death
exile
perpetrators
Germans
sites and events
GeneralgouvernementClick to display the description, Deportations from Reichsgau WarthelandClick to display the description, Reichsgau WarthelandClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, Polish‐Russian war of 1919‐1921Click to display the description, Greater Poland UprisingClick to display the description
date and place
of birth
04.04.1879
Bydgoszcztoday: Bydgoszcz city pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.20]
presbyter (holy orders)
ordination
10.02.1907 (Gnieznotoday: Gniezno urban gm., Gniezno pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18])
positions held
1932 – 1941
parish priest — Śnieciskatoday: Zaniemyśl gm., Środa Wielkopolska pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.25] ⋄ St Martin, the Bishop and Confessor RC parish ⋄ Środatoday: Środa Wielkopolska, Środa Wielkopolska gm., Środa Wielkopolska pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.20] RC deanery
1923 – 1932
parish priest — Gołaszyntoday: Bojanowo gm., Rawicz pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.15] ⋄ St Michael the Archangel RC parish ⋄ Krobiatoday: Krobia gm., Gostyń pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18] RC deanery — also: prison chaplain
1914 – 1923
parish priest — Stawtoday: Strzałkowo gm., Słupca pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.25] ⋄ St Hedwig of Silesia RC parish ⋄ Powidztoday: Powidz gm., Słupca pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.20] RC deanery
1919 – 1921
RC auxiliary military chaplain — Strzałkowotoday: Strzałkowo gm., Słupca pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] ⋄ POW and Internment Camp No. 1, Polish Armed Forces — by L. 2683 decree of the Commander‐in‐Chief of 14.04.1921, at the request of the Bishop's Curia of the Polish Army, demobilised from the Polish Army
1914
parish priest — Brudzewotoday: Strzałkowo gm., Słupca pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18] ⋄ St Mary Magdalene RC parish ⋄ Powidztoday: Powidz gm., Słupca pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.20] RC deanery
1913 – 1914
administrator — Stawtoday: Strzałkowo gm., Słupca pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.25] ⋄ St Hedwig of Silesia RC parish ⋄ Powidztoday: Powidz gm., Słupca pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.20] RC deanery
1910 – 1913
administrator — Brudzewotoday: Strzałkowo gm., Słupca pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18] ⋄ St Mary Magdalene RC parish ⋄ Powidztoday: Powidz gm., Słupca pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.20] RC deanery
1907 – 1909
vicar — Pleszewtoday: Pleszew gm., Pleszew pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.05.30] ⋄ Beheading of St John the Baptist RC parish ⋄ Pleszewtoday: Pleszew gm., Pleszew pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.05.30] RC deanery
1907
vicar — Łeknotoday: Wągrowiec gm., Wągrowiec pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18] ⋄ St Peter and St Paul the Apostles RC parish ⋄ Łeknotoday: Wągrowiec gm., Wągrowiec pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18] RC deanery
1905 – c. 1907
student — Gnieznotoday: Gniezno urban gm., Gniezno pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] ⋄ philosophy and theology, Archbishop's Practical Theological Seminary (Lat. Seminarium Clericorum Practicum)
1903 – 1905
student — Poznańtoday: Poznań city pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18] ⋄ philosophy and theology, Archbishop's Theological Seminary (Collegium Leoninum)
others related
in death
ADAMSKIClick to display biography Ignatius, BINEKClick to display biography Silvester, DĄBROWSKIClick to display biography Steven, DUDZIŃSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, GIEBUROWSKIClick to display biography Vaclav Casimir, GRASZYŃSKIClick to display biography Alphonse, HAŁASClick to display biography Anthony, HEYDUCKIClick to display biography Ceslav, KAŹMIERSKIClick to display biography Boleslav, KRUSZKAClick to display biography Steven, MICHALSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, PANEWICZClick to display biography Roman, PANKOWSKIClick to display biography Peter Romualdo Casimir, ROSENBERGClick to display biography Louis, SOŁTYSIŃSKIClick to display biography Romualdo, ŚPIKOWSKIClick to display biography Marian, TACZAKClick to display biography Theodore, THEINERTClick to display biography Roman Sigismund, WOLSKIClick to display biography Francis, ZWOLSKIClick to display biography Steven, BAJEROWICZClick to display biography Adalbert Stanislav, KANIEWSKIClick to display biography Zbigniew, NIKLEWICZClick to display biography Ceslav Stanislav, PACEWICZClick to display biography Vaclav, STEINMETZClick to display biography Paul, ZALEWSKIClick to display biography Edward
sites and events
descriptions
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])
Deportations from Reichsgau Wartheland: After defeating Poland in 1939 a new province was created in Germany, Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland (Eng. Warta German Region) and defined as „indigenous German”, although in 1939 Germans constituted less than 10% of the total population there. In the same 1939, the national‐socialist leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler, announced the need to move Germans from the East to the Reich, mainly to the Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland. Another German leader, Robert Ley, stated, „In 50 years there will be a thriving German country where there will be neither a Pole nor a Jew! If someone asks me where they will be, I will answer: I don't know. In Palestine or in the Sahara desert, I don't care. But German people will live here!” Deportations began. By the end of 1939, c. 80 railway transports were sent to the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate) — a total of 87,883 people, mainly Poles and Jews. By 03.1941, over 280,000 people had been displaced. The deported had the right to take with them 12‐30 kg per person. They were given half an hour to pack. Over 60,000 Germans from Estonia, Latvia, Finland, later from other regions, were brought in to replace them. In 1941, c. 70,000 remaining Jewsa were displaced. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2022.11.20])
Reichsgau Wartheland: 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. Greater Poland 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 24.01.1940 transformed into the Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland 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 90% of its inhabitants were Poles, was Germ. „Entpolonisierung” (Eng. „Depolonisation”), i.e. forced Germanization. C. 100,000 Poles were murdered as part of the Germ. „Intelligenzaktion”, i.e. extermination of Polish intelligentsia and ruling classes. C. 630,000 were forcibly resettled to the Germ. Generalgouvernement, and their place taken by the Germans brought from other areas occupied by Germany (e.g. the Baltic countries, Bessarabia, Bukovina, etc.). Poles were forced to sign the German nationality list, the Germ. Deutsche Volksliste DVL. As part of the policy of „Ohne Gott, ohne Religion, ohne Priesters und Sakramenten” (Eng. „No God, no religion, no priest or sacrament”) most Catholic priests were arrested and sent to concentration camps. All schools teaching in Polish, Polish libraries, theaters and museums were closed. Polish landed estates confiscated. To further reduce the number of the Polish population, Poles were sent to forced labor deep inside Germany, and the legal age of marriage for Poles was increased (25 for women, 28 for men). The German state office, Germ. Rasse‐ und Siedlungshauptamt (Eng. Main Office of Race and Settlement) RuSHA, under the majesty of German law, abducted several thousand children who met specific racial criteria from Polish families and subjected them to forced Germanization, handing them over to German families. 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, Arthur Karl Greiser, was executed. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.21])
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])
Polish‐Russian war of 1919‐1921: War for independence of Poland and its borders. Poland regained independence in 1918 but had to fight for its borders with former imperial powers, in particular Russia. Russia planned to incite Bolshevik‐like revolutions in the Western Europe and thus invaded Poland. Russian invaders were defeated in 08.1920 in a battle called Warsaw battle („Vistula river miracle”, one of the 10 most important battles in history, according to some historians). Thanks to this victory Poland recaptured part of the lands lost during partitions of Poland in XVIII century, and Europe was saved from the genocidal Communism. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20])
Greater Poland Uprising: Military insurrection of Poles of former German Germ. Posen Provinz (Eng. Poznań province) launched against German Reich in 1918‐1919 — after the abdication on 09.11.1918 of the German Emperor William II Hohenzollern; after the armistice between the Allies and Germany signed on 11.1.1918 in the HQ wagon in Compiègne, the headquarters of Marshal of France Ferdinand Foch — which de facto meant the end of World War I — against the German Weimar Republic, established on the ruins of the German Empire, aiming to incorporate lands captured by Prussia during partitions of Poland in XVIII century into Poland. The Republic of Poland, reborn on 11.11.1918, initially formally included only the so‐called Germ. Königreich Polen (Eng. Kingdom of Poland), i.e. the territory that had been under Russian rule until 1915 and then under the control of Central States (Germany and Austria–Hungary), but did not include the Prussian partition. Started on 27.12.1918 in Poznań and ended on 16.02.1919 with the armistice pact in Trier, forced by the victorious Entente states, which included provisions ordering Germany to cease operations against Poland and, importantly, recognizing the Polish insurgent Greater Poland Army as an allied armed force of the Entente. De facto it turned out to be a Polish victory, confirmed in the main peace treaty after World War I, the Treaty of Versailles of 28.06.1919, which came into force on 10.01.1920 and in which most of the lands of the Prussian partition were recognized as Polish. Many Polish priests took part in the Uprising, both as chaplains of the insurgents units and members and leaders of the Polish agencies and councils set up in the areas covered by the Uprising. In 1939 after German invasion of Poland and start of the World War II those priests were particularly persecuted by the Germans and majority of them were murdered. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.08.14])
sources
personal:
www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10]
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MARTYROLOGY: WIERZCHACZEWSKI Maximilian
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