function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

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

date and place
of death

14.09.1943

Żabnicatoday: Węgierska Górka gm., Żywiec pov., Silesia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2024.12.13]

details of death

cause of death

disease

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

ŻywiecClick to display the description, EG MyslowitzClick to display the description, Regierungsbezirk KattowitzClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

24.03.1892

Klecza Dolnatoday: Wadowice gm., Wadowice pov., Lesser Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

16.06.1918 (Cracow cathedralmore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.11.14])

positions held

others related
in death

SKORUPKAClick to display biography Ignatius John

sites and events
descriptions

Żywiec: During World War II, the German Secret Political Police Gestapo was active in Żywiec. From 25.11.1939, it had its seat in the building of the Nicholas Copernicus' Gymnasium and Liceum at 2 Słowacki Str., closed by the Germans. Later, in c. 1941, it was prob. moved to the building at 2 Dworcowa Str. Gestapo run pre‐trial jail — there are reports of the beatings and torture of prisoners. Initially, it dealt mainly with the deportation of local Poles to the German‐run Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate) — Żywiec was incorporated into the Germ. Provinz Schlesien (Eng. Province of Silesia), directly into the Third Reich. Later, the nascent Polish resistance movement (part of the Polish Clandestine State) was targetted. From Żywiec, the detainees were transported to prisons in Bielsko and Biała, and Katowice, and then to German concentration camps. After the German defeat and start of the Russian occupation, the jail in Żywiec was used by the Commie‐Nazi UB, a branch of the genocidal Russian KGB. Imprisoned were, among others soldiers of the Polish clandestine NSZ, AK and WiN organizations.

EG Myslowitz: Germ. Polizei Ersatz Gefängnis in Myslowitz (Eng. Police Substitute Prison Mysłowice) was operational from 13.02.1941 till 22.01.1945. Altogether c. 18,000 people went through it, including c. 2,000 women, mainly citizens of the Katowice regency, part of Germ. Provinz Oberschlesien (Eng. Upper Silesia Province) — on average from 100 to 1,200 at any one time. Initially only men were held captive. From 1941 also women were admitted, and from the beginning of 1943 a part of camp was dedicated to underage boys (underage girls were held in women block). Tortures were used. Killings and executions took place. Germans used also the camp to select people for public executions, without a proper court proceedings. Most of the prisoners, including children and teens were subsequently dispatched to concentration and death camps (mainly to nearby KL Auschwitz). (more on: ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.05.25])

Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz: 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). From two separate new provinces were created. The two remaining were incorporated into existing German provinces. One of those was Polish Upper Silesia, which on 08.09.1939, by decree of the German leader Adolf Hitler (formally came into force on 26.10.1939), was incorporated into Germany as the Germ. Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz (Eng. Katowice Regency) and became part of the Germ. Provinz Schlesien (Eng. Province of Silesia) based in Wrocław. On 01.04.1940, the Germ. Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz was enlarged by several pre‐war German counties, and on 18.01.1941, a new German province was created, the Germ. Provinz Oberschlesien (Eng. Province of Upper Silesia), which, apart from the Germ. Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz, also included the Opole region. From 26.10.1939, when the regency was established, the law of the German state was in force there, the same as in Berlin. The main axis of the policy of the new regency, the territory of which the Germans recognized as the Germ. „Ursprünglich Deutsche” (Eng. „natively German”), despite the fact only 6% of its pre–war Polish part were Germans, was Germ. „Entpolonisierung” (Eng. „Depolonisation”), i.e. forced Germanization. The main mechanism was the introduction of the Germ. Deutsche Volksliste DVL, a German nationality list that was supposed to specify the national affiliation of the inhabitants of the region. The largest group marked in the compulsory registrations was Group 3, people who identified themselves as „Silesians” (in 1943 about 41%), and people remaining outside the DVL (about 36%). The latter group was intended to be deported to the Germ. Generalgouvernement (which did not happen en masse because German industry needed slave labor). Group 3, considered by the Germans as capable of Germanization, was subject to certain legal restrictions, and was subject to, among others, to conscription into the German Wehrmacht army. Children could only learn in German. A policy of terror was pursued against the Polish population. There was a special police court, controlled by the Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. the Gestapo, before which c. 4,000‐5,000 people were detained. For the years 1942‐1945 over 2,000 of them were verified, of which 1,890 were sentenced to death, including 286 in public executions. Thousands of people were murdered during the so‐called «Intelligenzaktion Schlesien», including 300‐650 Polish teachers and c. 61 Polish Catholic priests. The regency hosted a German concentration and extermination camp KL Auschwitz, where the Germans imprisoned c. 1,100,000 Jews (murdering c.1,000,000, i.e. c. 90% of them) and c. 140,000 Poles (murdering c. 70,000, i.e. c. 50% of them). 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, Fritz Brecht, committed suicide. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.24])

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:
ordynariat.wp.mil.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.12.13], www.grojcowianie.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.12.13]
original images:
www.parafiazabnica.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.12.13], grobonet.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.12.13]