function

laybrother

creed

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

congregation

Order of Friars Minor Conventual OFMConvmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
(i.e. Conventual Franciscans)

diocese / province

Immaculate Mary province OFMConvmore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.08.18]

date and place
of death

11.06.1942

TA HartheimSchloss Hartheim „euthanasia” center
today: Alkoven, Eferding dist., Salzburg state, Austria
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.07.18]

alt. dates and places
of death

02.07.1942 (KL Dachau „death certificate” date)

details of death

prisoner camp's numbers

28473Click to display source page (KL DachauClick to display the description)

cause of death

extermination: gassing in a gas chamber

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

TA HartheimClick to display the description, «Aktion T4»Click to display the description, KL DachauClick to display the description, SieradzClick to display the description, KaliszClick to display the description, Reichsgau WarthelandClick to display the description, Stalag XXI A SchildbergClick to display the description, Stalag III B Fürstenberg/Oder — Amtitz branchClick to display the description, Stalag VIII B LamsdorfClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

26.06.1880

Ostrowskotoday: Uniejów gm., Poddębice pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28]

alt. dates and places
of birth

25.06.1880

religious vows

13.03/05.1926 (last)

positions held

others related
in death

POPŁAWSKIClick to display biography Michael, WĘGRZYNIAKClick to display biography Isidore, WILCZYŃSKIClick to display biography Vladislav, WIŚNIEWSKIClick to display biography Joseph, WITKOWSKIClick to display biography Gustave, WOJCIECHOWSKIClick to display biography Mieczyslav, WOLNIARSKIClick to display biography Joseph (Bro. Vincent), WOLNIEWICZClick to display biography Julian, WYSZYŃSKIClick to display biography Boleslav, ZAGAŃCZYKClick to display biography Steven Vaclav, ZAŁUSKAClick to display biography Paul, ZAWADZKIClick to display biography Stanislav, ZGAGOWSKIClick to display biography Mieczyslav, ZMYSŁOWSKIClick to display biography Vladislav

sites and events
descriptions

TA Hartheim: From 05.1940, in the Germ. Tötungsanstalt (Eng. Killing/Euthanasia Center) TA Hartheim, at the Schloss Hartheim castle in Alkoven in Upper Austria, belonging to KL Mauthausen‐Gusen complex of concentration camps, as part of «Aktion T4» program, the Germans murdered victims — people mentally retarded and disabled — in gas chambers with carbon monoxide. Till 24.08.1941 and the formal end of the «Aktion T4» program, c. 18,000 people were murdered in TA Hartheim. In 04.1941 the program was extended to include concentration camp prisoners. Most, if not all, of the murdered clergy from the KL Dachau concentration camp were taken to TA Hartheim in the so‐called Germ. „Invalidentransport” (Eng. „transport of invalids”), prisoners who were sick and, according to the Germans, „unable to work” (initially under the pretext of transfer to a better camp) — after the formal end of «Aktion T4» as part of the program codenamed «Aktion 14 f 13». It is estimated that at this stage — until 11.12.1944 — c. 12,000 prisoners were gassed at TA Hartheim.
Note: The dates of death of victims murdered in Schloss Hartheim indicated in the „White Book” are the dates of deportations from the last concentration camp the victims where held in. The real dates of death are unknown — apart from c. 49 priests whose names were included in the niem. „Invalidentransports”, but who did not arrive at TA Hartheim. Prob. perished on the day of transport, somewhere between KL Dachau and Munich, and their bodies were thrown out of the transport and cremated in Munich. The investigation conducted by Polish Institute of National Remembrance IPN concluded, that the other victims were murdered immediately upon arrival in Schloss Hartheim, bodies cremated and the ashes spread over local fields and into Danube river. In order to hide details of the genocide Germans falsified both dates of death (for instance those entered into KL Dachau concentration camp books, which are presented in „White Book” as alternative dates of death) and their causes. (more on: ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30])

«Aktion T4»: German state euthanasia program, systematic murder of people mentally retarded, chronically, mentally and neurologically ill — „elimination of live not worth living” (Germ. „Vernichtung von lebensunwertem Leben”). At a peak, in 1940‐1941, c. 70,000 people were murdered, including patients of psychiatric hospitals in German occupied Poland — German formalists noted then that, among others, „performing disinfection [i.e. gassing] of 70,273 people with a life expectancy of up to 10 years saved food in the amount of 141,775,573.80 Deutschmark”. From 04.1941 also mentally ill and „disabled” (i.e. unable to work) prisoners held in German concentration camps were included in the program — denoted then as «Aktion 14 f 13». C. 20,000 inmates were then murdered, including Polish Catholic priests held in KL Dachau concentration camp, who were murdered in Hartheim gas chambers. The other „regional extension” of «Aktion T4» was «Aktion Brandt» program during which Germans murdered chronically ill patients in order to make space for wounded soldiers. It is estimated that at least 30,000 were murdered in this program. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.10.31])

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])

Sieradz: Prison in Sieradz was built by the Russian occupational authorities in 1836. In 1939, after the capture of Sieradz on 05.09.1939 and the start of the German occupation, the Germans initially organized in the prison a POW camp for Polish soldiers. C. 3,000 prisoners were held in the place adapted to c. 1,100 prisoners. The prison became then the superior unit over the prisons and jails established by the Germans in the Sieradz region in 1940‐1943, one of the largest in the Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland province (Eng. Reichsgau Wartheland). The prison was successively called Germ. Justizhaus (Eng. house of justice), Germ. Zuchthaus, Germ. Strafanstalt (Eng. prison), Germ. Strafanstalt Schieratz —name Germ. Stammlager (Eng. main camp) was also used. In total, in 1940‐1945, c. 18,000 people were held in overcrowded cells, with or without a court sentence. Much more than 968 prisoners known by name and surname died (the highest death rate was recorded between 03‐10.1942 — 4‐5 a day). (more on: dlibra.bg.ajd.czest.pl:8080Click to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2022.08.17])

Kalisz: Prison for men and women built in 1840‐1846, during the Russian occupation. It consisted of c. 120 individual cells. After the outbreak of World War II and start of German occupation, it was a pre‐trial detention center and a prison administered by the German Gestapo Secret Political Police. Mainly Poles, but also Germans, including those considered to be political prisoners (members of the Polish resistance movement), were held there. Inmates — if they were not murdered as a result of torture or sentenced to death — were next transported to concentration camps. The prison was overcrowded — e.g. on 30.04.1943, 422 men and 126 women were held there. The prisoners were tortured — c. 700 people were murdered in total (shot, hanged, and those who died as a result of torture and diseases). After the German defeat and the start of the Russian occupation, the prison was run by the Commie‐Nazi UB, a unit of the genocidal Russian MGB. In 12.1952, 599 people were detained there — some of them soldiers of the clandestine Greater Poland Independent Volunteer Group WARTA and the NSZ, as well as pre—war Polish policemen, and young high school students opposing the Russian occupation. (more on: sw.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2022.08.17])

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])

Stalag XXI A Schildberg: Stalag XXI A Schildberg — German POW camp complex located in Schildberg (today: Ostrzeszów). Almost all inhabitants of the town were evicted to make space for the camp. During initial period 1939‐1940 civilians (c. 12,000) were also held there — apart from Polish POWs — brought from all over Poland, including Franciscan Fathers from Niepokalanów (11.11.1939‐08.12.1939). Later British and Norwegian POWs, among others, were held captive. In practice operated also as a Germ. Durchgangslager (Eng. transit camp). In 1939‐1945 c. 125,000 Polish and Allied POWs were held there. In peak up to 30,000 were incarcerated. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.11.17])

Stalag III B Fürstenberg/Oder — Amtitz branch: Stalag III B Fürstenberg/Oder — German POW camp. Founded in Fürstenberg/Oder (today part of Eisenhüttenstadt). POWs slaved at weapons and chemicals manufacture, among others. In 1938 in Amtitz (today Gębice) the camp’s branch, functioning in 1938‐1943, was constructed. Initially a few dozen Czechs were held there. After German attack of Poland in 09.1939 Poles were brought in, including c. 100 priests and friars (among them bl. Maximilian Kolbe). Altogether c. 20,000‐25,000 prisoners were held captive. From 1940 a transit camp for people sent subsequently for slave labour deep into Germany. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.11.06])

Stalag VIII B Lamsdorf: Stalag VIII B Lamsdorf (from 1943 Stalag 344 Lamsdorf) — German POW camp in Łambinowice, mainly for privates and NCOs. In 1930‐1940 in excess of 40,000 Poles where kept there. Altogether c. 100,000 prisoners from Australia, Belgium, British India, British Palestine, Canada, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, the United States and Yugoslavia passed through this camp. In 1941 a separate camp, Stalag VIII‐F was set up close by to house the Soviet prisoners. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.11.17])

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:
michaelstanislaus.salon24.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.06.01], www.ksiegazmarlych.franciszkanie.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.13], www.ipgs.usClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.12.28], arolsen-archives.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.05.30]
bibliographical:
„Martyrology of the Polish Roman Catholic clergy under nazi occupation in 1939‐1945”, Victor Jacewicz, John Woś, vol. I‐V, Warsaw Theological Academy, 1977‐1981
„Biographical–bibliographical dictionary of Polish Conventual Franciscan Fathers murdered and tragically dead in 1939‐1945”, Lukas Janecki, Franciscan Fathers’ Publishing House, Niepokalanów, 2016
„A martyrology of Polish clergy under German occupation, 1939‐1945”, Fr Szołdrski Vladislaus CSSR, Rome 1965
original images:
www.sowiniec.com.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.07.11]