function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

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

date and place
of death

05.11.1939

Skarszewytoday: Skarszewy gm., Starogard Gdański pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.29]

alt. dates and places
of death

23.10.1939, 30.10.1939, 31.10.1939

Więckowytoday: Skarszewy gm., Starogard Gdański pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28]
VSH Neu‐Fietztemporary custody
today: Nowy Wiec, Skarszewy gm., Starogard Gdański pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28]
Szpęgawski foresttoday: Starogard Gdański gm., Starogard Gdański pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2018.09.23]

details of death

alt. details of death

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

SkarszewyClick to display the description, VSH Neu‐FietzClick to display the description, Szpęgawski forestClick to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion»Click to display the description, Reichsgau Danzig‐WestpreußenClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, Thomas Zan SocietiesClick to display the description, Pomeranian PhilomathsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

14.05.1901

Osówektoday: Osieczna gm., Starogard Gdański pov., Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

27.06.1926 (Pelpin cathedralmore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.11.14])

positions held

others related
in death

DUNAJSKIClick to display biography Maximilian, KAJUTClick to display biography John, KINKAClick to display biography Valerian, KŁOSClick to display biography Anthony, MAŁACHOWSKIClick to display biography Paul, RUCHNIEWICZClick to display biography Hugh Joseph, SITKIEWICZClick to display biography Bronislav, SZUCAClick to display biography Bruno Paul, WĘGIELEWSKIClick to display biography Anthony Francis, JANKClick to display biography Leo, LIPSKIClick to display biography Francis, ŚPICAClick to display biography Walter John, WRÓBLEWSKIClick to display biography Louis Stanislav, ŁOBOCKIClick to display biography Joseph John

sites and events
descriptions

Skarszewy: In the forests around Skarszewy (in Mestwinowo forest, among others) in 10‐11.1939 Germans — prob. Einsatzkommando EK 16 unit — murdered at least 400 Poles from Skarszewy region, in mass executions — as a part of «Intelligenzaktion» directed against Polish leading activists in occupied territories. Members of the German genocidal organization Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz (Eng. Self‐Defense) and SS and German police officers also took part in the executions. Wehrmacht soldiers sometimes secured places of execution. In the winter of 1944, when the triumphant Russians were approaching Pomerania, the Germans dug up and burned the bodies buried in some mass graves. Only c. 340 bodies of victims of German terror were exhumed. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19])

VSH Neu‐Fietz: German Germ. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutzhaft (Eng. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz custody) VSH for the inhabitants of the Skarszewy county and vicinity established in 09/10.1939 by Germans, members of the genocidal paramilitary Germ. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz formation — the decision to create Selbstschutz in the Polish lands occupied by German troops was made in Berlin on September 08‐10.09.1939 at a conference headed by Reichsführer‐SS Heinrich Himmler (the formal order bears the date 20.09.1939), and the chaotically formed units were directly subordinated to the officers of the genocidal SS organization — on the farm in Nowy Wiec village, the property of Vladislav Wiecki, whom the Germans murdered and had his family evicted and displaced. In 09‐10.1939, c. 60 Poles held in Skarszewy and the transit camp in Wielki Klincz were transported there. They were kept in three basements. On 19‐22.11.1939 the Germans murdered there 68 Polish citizens, in several executions (according to other sources 42‐43). Before being shot, the victims had to dig their own graves. At the same time, in 10‐11.1939, the Germans murdered an additional c. 50 Poles. After the end of hostilities in 1945, 5 mass graves were unearthed. In one, the bodies of 14 victims were found tied with barbed wire, covered with grass and poured with lime. In another, the bodies of 12 women and 1 man were found. In 1944, the Germans dug up the bodies from the remaining graves, took them to an unknown place and burned them. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06])

Szpęgawski forest: In Szpęgawsk forest Germans, as part of their «Intelligenzaktion» — extermination of Polish intelligentsia in Pomerania — between 09.1939 and 01.1940 in mass executions murdered 5,000‐7,000 Poles. Among them were c. 49 Catholic priests — all bar one from Starogard Gdański county, 30 from Culm diocese Curia and 5 from Pelplin. 1,692 psychiatric hospital patients in Kocborowo — in 15 mass executions starting from 22.09.1939 — part of «Aktion T4», i.e. Germ. „Vernichtung von lebensunwertem Leben” (Eng. „elimination of live not worth living”) extermination program, were also murdered there. The victims were brought from Starogard Gdański jail in trucks or buses with windows blackened at sunset or during the night. Transports avoided main roads. At murder site prisoners were forced to kneel at banks of the ditches and murdered by a shot to the back of the head. Wounded were finished off with rifle butts or buried alive. After World War II 39 mass graves were found. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.09.23])

«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])

Reichsgau Danzig‐Westpreußen: 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. Vistula Pomerania 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 02.11.1939 transformed into the Germ. Reichsgau Danzig‐Westpreußen (Eng. Reich District of Gdańsk‐West Prussia) 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 85% of its inhabitants were Poles, was Germ. „Entpolonisierung” (Eng. „Depolonisation”), i.e. forced Germanization. C. 60,000 Poles were murdered in 1939‐1940, as part of the Germ. „Intelligenzaktion”, i.e. extermination of Polish intelligentsia and ruling classes, in c. 432 places of mass executions — including c. 220 Polish Catholic priests. The same number were sent to German concentration camps, from where few returned (over 300 priests were arrested, of whom c. 130 died in concentration camps). C. 124,000‐170,000 were displaced, including c. 90,000 to the Germ. Generalgouvernement. Poles were forced en masse to sign the German nationality list, the Germ. Deutsche Volksliste DVL. Polish children could only learn in German. It was forbidden to use the Polish language during Catholic Holy Masses and during confession. Polish landed estates were confiscated..To further reduce the number of the Polish population, Poles were sent to forced labor deep inside Germany. The remaining Poles were treated as low‐skilled labor, isolated from the Germans and strictly controlled — legally, three or three of them could only meet together, even in their own apartments. Many were conscripted into the German Wehrmacht army. 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, Albert Maria Forster, was executed. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.24])

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])

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])

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.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19])

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.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18])

sources

personal:
www.kpbc.ukw.edu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.10.04], spmierzeszyn.edupage.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.10.31]
bibliographical:
„Biographical dictionary of priests ordained in the years 1921‐1945 working in the Chełmno diocese”, Fr Anastasius Nadolny, prof., Bernardinum publishing house 2021