function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Włocławek diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Włocławek ie. Kalisz diocese

academic distinctions

Bachelor of Theology

date and place
of death

09.02.1943

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

details of death

cause of death

extermination: exhaustion and starvation

perpetrators

Germans

date and place
of birth

02.09.1895

Sielectoday: district of Sosnowiec, Sosnowiec city pov., Silesia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.12.11]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

13.06.1921

positions held

murder sites
camp 
(+ prisoner no)

KL Dachau (prisoner no: 22506Click to display biography): 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])

KL Sachsenhausen: In Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL Sachsenhausen, set up in the former Olympic village in 07.1936, hundreds of Polish priests were held in 1940, before being transported to KL Dachau. Some of them perished in KL Sachsenhausen. Murderous medical experiments on prisoners were carried out in the camp. In 1942‑1944 c. 140 prisoners slaved at manufacturing false British pounds, passports, visas, stamps and other documents. Other prisoners also had to do slave work, for Heinkel aircraft manufacturer, AEG and Siemens among others. On average c. 50,000 prisoners were held at any time. Altogether more than 200,000 inmates were in jailed in KL Sachsenhausen and its branched, out of which tens of thousands perished. Prior to Russian arrival mass evacuation was ordered by the Germans and c. 80,000 prisoners were marched west in so‑called „death marches” to other camps, i.e. KL Mauthausen‑Gusen and KL Bergen‑Belsen. The camp got liberated on 22.04.1945. After end of armed hostilities Germans set up there secret camp for German prisoners and „suspicious” Russian soldiers. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18])

KL Stutthof: In German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL Stutthof (then in Eastern Prussian belonging to Germany, today: Sztutowo village) concentration camp, that Germans started to build on 02.09.1939, a day after German invasion of Poland and start of the World War II, Germans held c. 110,000‑127,000 prisoners from 28 countries, including 49,000 women and children. C. 65,000 victims were murdered and exterminated. In the period of 25.01‑27.04.1945 in the face of approaching Russian army Germans evacuated the camp. When on 09.05.1945 Russians soldiers entered the camp only 100 prisoners were still there. In an initial period (1939‑1940) Polish Catholic priests from Pomerania were held captive there before being transported to KL Dachau concentration camp. Some of them were murdered in KL Stutthof or vicinity (for instance in Stegna forest). Also later some Catholic priests were held in KL Stutthof. (more on: stutthof.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06])

ZL Neufahrwasser: Germ. Zivilgefangenenlager (Eng. POW camp for civilians) organized by the Germans on the day of the outbreak of the war, on 01.09. 1939, in Gdańsk ‑ Nowy Port (New Port), in former artillery barracks belonging to Poland, for Poles from Pomerania arrested as part of the «Intelligenzaktion» action — extermination of Polish intelligentsia. Prisoners from ZL Neufahrwasser — 2,702 people were identified, but it is estimated that c. 10,000 arrestees passed through the camp — were sent to the KL Stutthof concentration camp or directly to the places of extermination. The camp operated till 01.04.1940 (more on: stutthof.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10], ofiaromwojny.republika.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.04])

IL Fort VII Thorn: Germ. „Internierungslager” (Eng. „Internment camp”) organized by the Germans on c. 15.10.1939 in Toruń, in the Fort VII artillery fort built in the years 1879‑1883 on a pentagonal plan, the last main fort of the Toruń fortress. Initially managed by Wehrmacht soldiers, but on 26.10.1939, taken over by members of the genocidal German paramilitary organization Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz. As part of the «Intelligenzaktion» operation, the extermination of the Polish intelligentsia of Pomerania, Polish citizens of Toruń and the surrounding area, men and women, were detained there. At one time, from 700 to 1,500 people, considered „politically suspect Polish elements”, were held captive — 50‑80 prisoners in each cell intended for 6‑12 people. In total, c. 3,000 Poles were to pass through the camp. Detainees were tortured, physically and mentally. More than 1,500 people were shot in the Barbarka and Przysieka forests. The rest, c. 600 people, were in 01.1940 transported to the KL Stutthof concentration camp. At the end of 01.1940, the camp was moved to nearby Fort VIII, where it operated until 07.1940. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10])

«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 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])

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:
stutthof.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], arolsen-archives.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.10.13], www.ipgs.usClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23]
bibliographical:
„Victims of German crime among Włocławek diocese clergy”, Fr Stanislav Librowski, „Włocławek Diocese Chronicle”, 07‑08.1947