function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Culm (Chełmno) diocese
more on: pl.wikipedia.org [access: 2012.11.23]

date and place of death

01.11.1939

Klamry
Chełmno pow., Kuyavia-Pomerania voiv., Poland

details of death

While studying at gymnasium in Chojnice — during Prussian times (partitions of Poland) — member and librarian (1909‑13) of the gymnasium chapter of a clandestine Polish self–education Pomeranian Philomaths organization — Thomas Zan Society. In 1913‑4 leader of Polish clandestine Scout unit in Chojnice. In 1918, after rebirth of Poland and during struggles for its borders member of County People’s Council in Łęg and delegate to Polish District Parliament in Poznań 03‑05.12.1918. After German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and start of the World War II arrested by the Germans on 30.10.1939— together with his vicar, Fr Henry Schmelter, and prefect at local gymnasium, Fr Stanislaus Jarzębowski. Jailed in Chełmno prison. Next taken to Klamry (5 km off Chełmno) and murdered in a mass execution.

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Germans

date and place of birth

10.03.1892

Owśnice
Kościerzyna pow., Pomerania voiv., Poland

alt. dates and places of birth

10.10.1892

presbyter (holy orders)/
ordination

16.03.1918 (Pelplin)

positions held

1936–1939 — dean {dean.: Chełmno}
1935–1939 — parish priest {parish: Chełmno, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; dean.: Chełmno}
from 1925 — General secretary {Association of Polish Catholic Youth; dioc.: Łódź}
from 1922 — prefect {Wąbrzeźno, junior high school(s)}
vicar {parish: Wąbrzeźno, St Simon and St Judas Thaddaeus the Apostles}
vicar {parish: Chełmno, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; dean.: Chełmno}
vicar {parish: Wiele}
from 1918 — vicar {parish: Łęg}
1918 — vicar {parish: Gdańsk–Śródmieście, King's Chapel}
till 1918 — student {Pelplin, philosophy and theology, Theological Seminary}
1919–1925 — membership {Toruń, scientific society}
editor {quarterly, „Pomeranian Youth”}
{writer}

others related in death

BROCKI Anthony, DRĄŻKOWSKI Valerian, GREGORKIEWICZ Leo, JARZĘBOWSKI Stanislaus, MARCINKOWSKI Anthony, MIĘTKI Anthony, ODYA Joseph, PUTYNKOWSKI Maximilian, RYNGWELSKI Joseph, SADOWSKI Anastasius, SCHMELTER Henry, SOWIŃSKI Emil Bronislaus, WILCZEWSKI Francis

murder sites
camps (+ prisoner no)

Klamry: In Klamry from 12.10 till 11.11.1939 Germans murdered approx. 2,000‑2,500 inhabitants of the Culm (Chełmno) region, mainly Polish intelligentsia, in mass executions. (more on: pl.wikipedia.org [access: 2012.11.23])

Chełmno: Detention centre run by Germans. Death sentences were probably carried out there. In particular in 1939–40 the prison was used to jail, as a part of „Intelligenzaktion” – extermination of Polish intelligentsia in Pomerania – Polish intelligentsia from Chełmno county prior to sending them to mass execution sites and concentration camps. (more on: www.sw.gov.pl [access: 2013.10.05])

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: www.sw.gov.pl [access: 2013.10.05], en.wikipedia.org [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 II World War in 09.1939. „The 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 Stanislaus 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.org [access: 2015.09.30])

Thomas Zan Societies: Secret societies of Polish youth, aiming at self–education, patriotic in form and content, functioning 1830‑1920, in mutiny against enforced Germanisation and censure of Polish culture, mainly in secondary schools — gymnasia — mainly in Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) and later in Silesia. The first groups were formed in 1817. In 1897 a congress in Bydgoszcz was held when rules of clandestine activities were formulated. At other congress in Bydgoszcz in Poznań a „Red Rose” society was formed, heading all others groups in various gymnasiums and coordinating their activities. In 1900 „Red Rose” consolidated Philomaths organizations from Pomerania as well. After Toruń trial of Pomeranian Philomaths in Toruń Germans arrested 24 members of Thomas Zan Society from Gniezno. 21 of them were sentenced up to 6 weeks in prison and reprimands. All were relegated from schools without the right to continue education in secondary and higher schools in Prussia. Despite repression the Societies existed till 1918 and rebirth of Poland. (more on: pl.wikipedia.org [access: 2018.11.18])

Pomeranian Philomaths: Secret societies of Polish youth, aiming at self–education, patriotic in form and content, functioning 1830‑1920, mainly in secondary schools — gymnasia — in Pomerania around Vistula river (Gdańsk Pomerania and Chełmno county), in Prussian–occupied Polish territories (one of the partitions of Poland). On 08.01.1901 Germans conducted a series of interrogations of students at Chełmno, Brodnica and Toruń gymnasiums. On 09‑12.09.1901 the first of court trials of Polish students from those gymnasiums and students of Theological Seminary in Pelplin was held in Toruń. 1 person was sentenced to 3 months in prison, 1 to 2 months, 3 to 6 weeks, 7 to 3 weeks, 2 to 2 weeks, 19 to a week, 2 to 1 day, 10 were reprimanded. 15 were cleared. More definitive penalties were relegations from the schools with so‑called wolf’s ticket, forbidding sentenced students to continue secondary and higher studies in Prussia (Germany). Among those penalized were a few future Catholic priests — those were able to continue their education for the Chełmno diocese bishop, Bp August Rosentreter, refused to relegate students from Theological Seminary. (more on: pl.wikipedia.org [access: 2018.11.18])

sources

personal:
www.niedziela.diecezja.torun.pl [access: 2012.11.23], www.niedziela.diecezja.torun.pl [access: 2013.01.13], www.nasza-rodzina.net.pl [access: 2013.06.11]
original images:
www.nasza-rodzina.net.pl [access: 2015.09.30], www.nasza-rodzina.net.pl [access: 2015.09.30], www.myheritage.pl [access: 2018.11.18], www.niedziela.diecezja.torun.pl [access: 2013.01.13], regionalia.bibliotekaceglow.pl [access: 2013.05.19], www.fluidi.pl [access: 2014.10.04], gdansk.ipn.gov.pl [access: 2020.10.02]