Roman Catholic
St Sigismund parish
05-507 Słomczyn
85 Wiślana Str.
Konstancin deanery
Warsaw archdiocese, Poland
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Martyrology of the clergy — Poland
XX century (1914 – 1989)
personal data
surname
OLSZAK
forename(s)
Henry (pl. Henryk)
function
diocesan priest
creed
Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
diocese / province
Katowice diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Wrocław archdiocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Wrocław diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
date and place
of death
01.04.1940
KL Mauthausenconcentration camp
today: Mauthausen, Perg dist., Salzburg state, Austria
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.09]
details of death
After German invasion of Poland on 01.09.1939 (Russians invaded Poland 17 days later) and start of the World War II, after start of German occupation, arrested by the Germans on 02.09.1939.
Held in prison — concentration camp — KZ Skrochowice n. Opawa (later incorporated into Polenlager system of slave labour camps).
From there taken to Rawicz prison and next to KL Buchenwald concentration camp.
Finally in 03.1940 transported to KL Gusen I concentration camp — part of KL Mauthausen‐Gusen concentration camps' complex — where was meant to slave in quarries.
There murdered — sick, unable to do slave work, left out in barrack where was forced to repeatedly clean it up by a German thug, drenched in cold water, beaten by a wooden stick all over the head, forced to consume, despite diarrhea, a thick fat soup, and finally left out without support to freeze to death.
prisoner camp's numbers
9749Click to display source page (KL BuchenwaldClick to display the description)
cause of death
murder
perpetrators
Germans
sites and events
KL MauthausenClick to display the description, KL Mauthausen‐GusenClick to display the description, KL BuchenwaldClick to display the description, RawiczClick to display the description, PolenlagerClick to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion Schlesien»Click to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion»Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description
date and place
of birth
11.07.1887
Šenovtoday: Ostrava city dist., Moravian‐Silesian reg., Czechia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2024.03.19]
presbyter (holy orders)
ordination
19.07.1911
positions held
1928 – 1939
parish priest — TřinecTrans‐Olza
today: Frýdek‐Místek dist., Moravian‐Silesian reg., Czechia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.02.15] ⋄ St Albert of Jerusalem and Our Lady of Sorrows RC parish ⋄ JablunkovTrans‐Olza
today: Frýdek‐Místek dist., Moravian‐Silesian reg., Czechia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28] RC deanery
1914 – 1928
vicar — FryštátTrans‐Olza
today: Karviná‐město r. mun., Karviná dist., Moravian‐Silesian reg., Czechia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] ⋄ Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC parish ⋄ FryštátTrans‐Olza
today: Karviná‐město r. mun., Karviná dist., Moravian‐Silesian reg., Czechia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] RC deanery
1913 – 1914
vicar — Czechowicetoday: Czechowice‐Dziedzice, Czechowice‐Dziedzice gm., Bielsko‐Biała pov., Silesia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.10.09] ⋄ St Catherine of Alexandria the Virgin and Martyr RC parish ⋄ Bielskotoday: part of Bielsko‐Biała, Bielsko‐Biała city pov., Silesia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] RC deanery
1911 – 1913
vicar — Dolní BludoviceTrans‐Olza
today: Bludovice, part of Havířov town, Karviná dist., Moravian‐Silesian reg., Czechia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.02.15] ⋄ St Margaret RC parish ⋄ KarvináTrans‐Olza
today: Karviná dist., Moravian‐Silesian reg., Czechia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28] RC deanery
till 1911
student — Vidnavatoday: Jeseník dist., Olomouc reg., Czechia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] ⋄ philosophy and theology, Theological Seminary
others related
in death
ADAMECKIClick to display biography Joseph, BARABASZClick to display biography John Nepomucene, GALOCZClick to display biography Clement, KAŁUŻAClick to display biography Francis Matthew, KAŁUŻAClick to display biography Charles, KUKLAClick to display biography Stanislav, KULAClick to display biography Joseph, PAŹDZIORAClick to display biography Augustine, SZYMECZEKClick to display biography Frederick, TOMANEKClick to display biography Rudolph, WRZOŁClick to display biography Louis, KNYPSClick to display biography Louis, MAROSZClick to display biography John, PŁOSZEKClick to display biography Rudolph, SOSNAClick to display biography Charles
sites and events
descriptions
KL Mauthausen: German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL, „Grade III” (Germ. „Stufe III”), part of KL Mauthausen‐Gusen complex, intended for the „Incorrigible political enemies of the Reich”. The prisoners slaved at a nearby granite quarry, but also in local private companies. Set up in 08.1938 initially served as a prison camp for common criminals, prostitutes and other categories of „Incorrigible Law Offenders”, but on 08.05.1939 was converted into a labour camp for political prisoners. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.03.10])
KL Mauthausen‐Gusen: A large group of German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL camps set up around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, c. 30 km east of Linz, operational from 1938 till 05.1945. Over time it became of the largest labour camp complexes in the German‐controlled part of Europe encompassing four major camps concentration camps (Mauthausen, Gusen I, Gusen II and Gusen III) and more than 50 sub‐camps where inmates slaved in quarries (the granite extracted, previously used to pave the streets of Vienna, was intended for a complete reconstruction of major German towns according to Albert Speer plans), munitions factories, mines, arms factories and Me 262 fighter‐plane assembly plants. The complex served the needs of the German war machine and also carried out extermination through labour. Initially did not have a its own gas chamber and the intended victims were mostly moved to the infamous Hartheim Castle, 40.7 km east, or killed by lethal injection and cremated in the local crematorium. Later a van with the exhaust pipe connected to the inside shuttled between Mauthausen and Gusen. In 12.1941 a permanent gas chamber was built. C. 122,000‐360,000 of prisoners perished. Many Polish priests were held, including those captured during the program of extermination of Polish intelligentsia («Intelligenzaktion»). The camp complex was founded and run as a source for cheap labour for private enterprise. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.03.10])
KL Buchenwald: In German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL Buchenwald concentration camp, founded in 1937 and operational till 1945, Germans held c. 238,380 prisoners and murdered approx. 56,000 of them, among them thousands of Poles. Prisoners were victims of pseudo‐scientific experiments, conducted among others by Behring‐Werke from Marburg and Robert Koch Institute from Berlin companies. They slaved for Gustloff in Weimar and Fritz‐Sauckel companies manufacturing armaments. To support Erla‐Maschinenwerk GmbH in Leipzig, Junkers in Schönebeck (airplanes) and Rautal in Wernigerode Germans organized special sub‐camps. In 1945 there were more than 100 such sub‐camps. Dora concentration camp was initially one of them, as well as KL Ravensbrück sub‐camps (from 08.1944). On 08.04.1945 Polish prisoner, Mr Guido Damazyn, used clandestinely constructed short wave transmitter to sent, together with a Russian prisoner, a short message begging for help. It was received and he got a reply: „KZ Bu. Hold out. Rushing to your aid. Staff of Third Army” (American). Three days later the camp was liberated. (more on: www.buchenwald.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10])
Rawicz: Prison, founded in 1819‐1821, in place of the Franciscan Friars Minor's monastery, which was liquidated by the Prussian occupation authorities. During the World War II, during the German occupation of 1939‐1945, the German Germ. Zuchthaus (Eng. heavy prison), intended for men sentenced to long‐term imprisonment and penal camp sentences, levied mainly by the Germ. Warthegau (Eng. Wartha region) occupation courts. A large part of the prisoners were next transported from there to German concentration camps. After the end of the military operations of World War II, the prison was managed by the Commie‐Nazi authorities of the Russian prl republic. Many activists of the Polish clandestine independence underground were detained there, including soldiers of the Home Army AK. Political prisoners were finally released in 1956. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.17])
Polenlager: System of 30+ German concentration camps and slave labour camps for Poles, including women and children, from Silesia and Dąbrowa regions run by Germans during World War II in Silesia and Czech Republic. Operational in 1942‐1945, though some of them, for instance Gefangenlager Skrochowitz (known also as KZ Skrochowitz, i.e. concentration camp), was already set up in 08.1939, in preparation of German invasion of Poland in 09.1939. In each of the camps 200 to 1,200 prisoners were held at any one time. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.04.23])
«Intelligenzaktion Schlesien»: A planned action of arrests and extermination of Polish Upper Silesia intellectual elite in general recorded in a proscription list called „Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen” — participants of Upper Silesia uprisings, former Polish plebiscite activists, journalists, politicians, intellectuals, civil servants, priests — organised by Germans mainly in 04‐05.1940, aiming at total Germanisation of the region. The relevant decree, no IV‐D2‐480/40, was issued by the RSHA, i.e. Germ. Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Eng. Reich Security Office), and signed by Heinrich Himmler or Reinhard Heydrich. Some of those arrested were murdered in mass executions, some were deported to the German‐run Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), and some were sent to concentration camps. The personal details of 3,047 people deported within two months of 1940 were established. Among the victims were 33 Catholic priests, 22 of whom perished in concentration camps (the clergy were sent — in 5 transports — first to KL Dachau, and then to KL Gusen, where they slaved in quarries). Altogether, the Germans murdered c. 2,000 members of the Polish Upper Silesia intellectual elite. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.05.30])
«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 Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. 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])
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:
www.ceeol.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2017.11.07], www.gedenkstaetten.atClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.10.04], bsip.miastorybnik.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.05.25], 041940.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.10.04]
original images:
bsip.miastorybnik.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.05.25], okot.rajce.idnes.czClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2017.11.07], www.vets.czClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2017.11.07]
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