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 i.e. Kalisz diocesemore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.10.13]
RC Military Ordinariate of Polandmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.12.20]

academic distinctions

Theology MA

honorary titles

Ten Years of Independence Medalmore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.10.13]

date and place
of death

20.03.1942

Zgierztoday: Zgierz urban gm., Zgierz pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

details of death

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

Zgierz (1942 murder)Click to display the description, Collective responsibility („Hostages”)Click to display the description, Łódź (Sterling Str.)Click to display the description, EtG RadegastClick to display the description, KaliszClick to display the description, 03.1941 arrests (Kalisz)Click to display the description, Reichsgau WarthelandClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

23.10.1884

Wilczogóratoday: Wilczyn gm., Konin pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

13.06.1913

positions held

others related
in death

BARTCZAKClick to display biography Vladislav (Bro. Theodore), BINIEWICZClick to display biography John, GOŁĘBIOWSKIClick to display biography Joseph, GORAJECKIClick to display biography Michael, HERBICHClick to display biography Henry Joseph Adam, ŁOPUSZYŃSKIClick to display biography Casimir Roman, MAKOWSKIClick to display biography Francis (Bro. Simon), MIROCHNAClick to display biography Steven Marian (Fr Julian), MOŻEJKOClick to display biography Joseph (Bro. Albert Mary), NIEWĘGŁOWSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, NOWACKIClick to display biography Octavian Mieczyslav Boleslav, ŚWIEŻEWSKIClick to display biography Casimir, ZAWADZKIClick to display biography Joseph

sites and events
descriptions

Zgierz (1942 murder): On 20.03.1942, at Stodół Square in Zgierz, then a garbage dump, the Germans murdered in a mass public execution 98 Poles ‐ 94 men and 4 women ‐ there were supposed to be 100, but one person died during transport to the execution site, one prob. was withdrawn at the last minute ‐ held in prisons in Łódź. The victims were murdered in groups of 15, tied with ropes, with their hands tied behind their backs. It was the largest such execution in Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland (Eng. Warta Country Reich's Realm) province, i.e. occupied Greater Poland, in retaliation for the shooting of two German Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. Gestapo, officers by a member of the resistance Home Army AK (part of the Polish Clandestine State), during his escape. C. 6,000 inhabitants of Zgierz were forced to watch it. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.03.14], ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.03.14])

Collective responsibility („Hostages”): A criminal practice implemented by the Germans in the occupied territories of Poland, applied from the very first day of World War II. At its core was an appointment and public announcement of a list of names of selected people whose lives depended on absolute compliance with German orders. Any violation of these ordinances, by any person, regardless of the circumstances, resulted in the murder of the designated „hostages”. In the first days of the war and occupation, it was used i.a. by the German Wehrmacht army to prevent acts of continuation of the defense by the Poles. Later, especially in the German‐run General Governorate, it was part of the official policy of the occupation authorities — collective responsibility for any acts of resistance to the occupier's practices. For the life of one German, even if death was due to customary reasons, the Germans carried out executions from a dozen to even a hundred Poles previously designated as „hostages”.

Łódź (Sterling Str.): Prison for men, founded in 1893, in a tenement houses at 16/18 Sterling Str. in Łódź, by the Russian occupiers (during partitions of Poland). In the interwar period, a Polish state prison. During World War II, a German police prison, used also by the Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. Gestapo. The prisoners were held in two three‐story buildings with 53 cells and 5 „sick rooms”. Interrogations of arrested Poles, combined with torture, as well as executions ‐ by hanging — were held there. After the German defeat and the beginning of the Russian occupation, the prison of the Commie‐Nazi of State Security Office UB — the unit of Russian genocidal MGB. Executions continued to take place there, this time of Germans and Poles convicted of collaborating with the German occupier, as well as of those convicted of anti‐communist activities and ordinary criminals. Closed in 1964. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30])

EtG Radegast: Resettlement camp (as part of German resettlement „program” for Poles in 1939), then co‐functioning with transit‐concentration camp (during genocidal German «Intelligenzaktion» Litzmannstadt in 1939‐1940), finally changed into Germ. Erweitertes Polizeigefängnis (Eng. Expanded Police prison), in Radogoszcz n. Łódź, operational from 1939 till 1945, for Poles from Łódź region. Probably in excess of 40,000 people were held there. For religious this was a transit camp before transfer to KL Dachau concentration camp. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30])

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 — initially Germ. Gefängnis (Eng. prison), from 10.03.1941 Germ. Haftanstalt (Eng. jail), from 01.1942 Germ. Stammlager/Haftanstalt (Eng. main penal camp / jail) — administered by the German Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. Gestapo. 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. From 18.09.1942, death sentences were carried out on Poles — c. 700 people were murdered in total (shot, hanged, and those who died as a result of torture and diseases). In total, over 15,000 people passed through the prison between 1939 and 1945. 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], www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.12.13])

03.1941 arrests (Kalisz): In 02‐03.1941 in Kalisz and vicinity Germans conducted mass arrests of Poles (c. 400 people), under the pretext of a beating of German policeman local Polish population was blamed of. Among the apprehended were people (c. 85) suspected of participation in Polish clandestine resistance National Unity Organisation OJN, belonging to National Fighting Organization NOB (part of Polish Clandestine State). Among those arrested on 04‐06.03.1941 were at least 9 priests and 4 religious friars and many of their parishioners. At least two of them were subsequently tried by German Sondergericht (Eng. special court) and sentenced to death. 204 prisoners among whom 65 were linked to OJN activities were on 02.05.1941 transported to KL Auschwitz concentration camp. Only 34 survived. All the arrested priests and friars perished. In retribution Germans prohibited activities of Conventual Franciscans in Warthegau province (Greater Poland). (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.03.14], www.info.kalisz.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.03.14])

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])

sources

personal:
spwilczyn.szkolnastrona.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.18], www.muzeumtradycji.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.16], ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.03.14], www.hbquik.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.16]
bibliographical:
„Victims of German crime among Włocławek diocese clergy”, Fr Stanislav Librowski, „Włocławek Diocese Chronicle”, 07‐08.1947
original images:
panaszonik.blogspot.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30], panaszonik.blogspot.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30], www.spycimierz.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.16]