function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Vilnius archdiocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Vilnius diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Military Ordinariate of Polandmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.12.20]

academic distinctions

Sacred Theology Candidate

date and place
of death

04.06.1950

ITL StepLagGuLAG slave labour camp network
today: Jezkazgan, Karaganda reg., Kazakhstan
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.09]
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.06]

details of death

cause of death

extermination

perpetrators

Russians

date and place
of birth

16.06.1894

Vilniustoday: Vilnius city dist., Vilnius Cou., Lithuania
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.06]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

08.01.1917 (St Catherine of Alexandria church in Sankt Petersburgmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.06])

positions held

others related
in death

ŚWIRKOWSKIClick to display biography Romualdo, NURKOWSKIClick to display biography Vaclav

murder sites
camp 
(+ prisoner no)

ITL StepLag: Russian Rus. Исправи́тельно‑Трудово́й Ла́герь (Eng. Corrective Labor Camp) ITL Rus. Степной (Eng. Steppen) — concentration and slave forced labor camp (within the Gulag complex) — headquartered in Karaganda, then in the village of Rudnya, and finally in the town Zhezkazgan, today in Kazakhstan. Established on 28.02.1948, in place of the Russian POW camp Zhezkazgan No. 39 (which was in turn established on the site of the ITL ZhezkazganLag concentration camp), and until 1954 also functioning as the Rus. Особый лагерь (Eng. Special camp) GULAG No. 4. Prisoners slaved in mining copper and manganese ores, coal mines (Baikonur complex, Balkhash), copper smelters, construction of industrial facilities for ore processing, wood processing plants, brick burning plants, construction of a dam in Kengir and construction of a hydroelectric power plant, construction of residential buildings, workshops and renovation and repair plants , etc. At its peak — till the death on 05.03.1953 of Russian socialist leader, Joseph Stalin — c. 28,000 prisoners were held there: e.g. 18,572 (01.01.1949); 27,855 (01.01.1950); 18,572 (01.01.1951); 23,089 (01.01.1952); 20,869 (01.01.1953); 21,090 (01.01.1954); 10,481 (01.01.1955). The majority were people recognized by Russians as having Ukrainian nationality (c. 46%) — prob. a significant part of them had previously, in 1939, been citizens of the Polish state. In 05‑06.1954, an uprising took place in the camp, bloodily crushed by the Russians with the help of tanks. Formally ceased operations on 24.04.1956. (more on: old.memo.ruClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.04.08], www.gulagmuseum.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.05.09])

OsobLags: Pursuant to Decree No. 416‑159сс dated 21.02.1948 of the Russian government, the Russian criminal organization MVD (successor to the NKVD) issued a Decree No. 00219 of 28.02.1948 establishing a separate network of camps within the Gulag system for a „special group” of political prisoners sentenced under Art. 58 of the Penal Code (referring to „enemies of the people”, i.e. accused of treason, espionage, terrorism, etc.) Initially, the group of camps included the ITL MinLag, ITL GorLag, ITL DubravLag, ITL StepLag and ITL BerLag concentration camps. Later, the following ones were added: ITL RechLag, ITL OzerLag, ITL PeschanŁag, ITL LugLag, ITL Kamyshlag, ITL DalLag, ITL VodorazDelLag. After the death of the Russian socialist leader, Joseph Stalin, in 1953, the three largest revolts in the history of the Gulag took place there: the Norilsk Uprising, the Vorkuta Uprising and the Kengir Uprising. In c. 1954 the camps were converted into standard correctional camps. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.01.26])

ITL KarLag: Russian Rus. Исправи́тельно‑Трудово́й Ла́герь (Eng. Corrective Labor Camp) ITL Rus. Карагандинский (Eng. Karagandskiy) — concentration and slave forced labor camp (within the Gulag complex) — with headquarters in the city of Karaganda, Karaganda Oblast in Kazakhstan. Founded on 17.09.1931. One of the largest in the Gulag complex. It covered an area of 300 by 200 km, with its center in the Dolynka village, c. 45 km from Karaganda. One of the tasks was to grow food, especially animal husbandry, for the emerging centers of coal mining and heavy industry in Kazakhstan. Prisoners slaved in camp workshops (metal processing, drawing, tailoring), in the production of construction materials, in a glassworks, a sugar refinery, a vegetable drying plant, in coal mines, limestone mining, and in fishing. At its peak, c. 65,000 prisoners were held there: e.g. 45,798 (01.01.1943); 50,080 (01.01.1944); 53,946 (01.01.1945); 60,745 (01.01.1947); 63,555 (01.01.1948); 65,673 (01.01.1949); 54,179 (01.01.1950); 45,675 (01.01.1951). In total, c. 1,000,000 people passed through the camp, including many women and children. Many died. It ceased operations on 27.07.1959. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.10.13])

Gulag: The acronym Gulag comes from the Rus. Главное управление исправительно‑трудовых лагерей и колоний (Eng. Main Board of Correctional Labor Camps). The network of Russian concentration camps for slave labor was formally established by the decision of the highest Russian authorities on 27.06.1929. Control was taken over by the OGPU, the predecessor of the genocidal NKVD (from 1934) and the MGB (from 1946). Individual gulags (camps) were often established in remote, sparsely populated areas, where industrial or transport facilities important for the Russian state were built. They were modeled on the first „great construction of communism”, the White Sea‑Baltic Canal (1931‑1932), and Naftali Frenkel, of Jewish origin, is considered the creator of the system of using forced slave labor within the Gulag. He went down in history as the author of the principle „We have to squeeze everything out of the prisoner in the first three months — then nothing is there for us”. He was to be the creator, according to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, of the so‑called „Boiler system”, i.e. the dependence of food rations on working out a certain percentage of the norm. The term ZEK — prisoner — i.e. Rus. заключенный‑каналоармец (Eng. canal soldier) — was coined in the ITL BelBaltLag managed by him, and was adopted to mean a prisoner in Russian slave labor camps. Up to 12 mln prisoners were held in Gulag camps at one time, i.e. c. 5% of Russia's population. In his book „The Gulag Archipelago”, Solzhenitsyn estimated that c. 60 mln people were killed in the Gulag until 1956. Formally dissolved on 20.01.1960. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.04.08])

Help to the Jews: During World War II on the Polish occupied territories Germans forbid to give any support to the Jews under penalty of death. Hundreds of Polish priests and religious helped the Jews despite this official sanction. Many of them were caught and murdered.

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])

sources

personal:
biographies.library.nd.eduClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.05.09], catholic.ruClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.03.14]
bibliographical:
„Vilnius archdiocese clergy martyrology 1939‑1945”, Fr Thaddeus Krahel, Białystok, 2017
„Lexicon of Polish clergy repressed in USSR in 1939‑1988”, Roman Dzwonkowski, SAC, ed. Science Society KUL, 2003, Lublin
original images:
ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.02.02]