function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Włocławek diocese
more on: en.wikipedia.org [access: 2013.05.19]

date and place of death

18.11.1939

Mniszek - Grupa
Świecie pow., Kuyavia-Pomerania voiv., Poland

details of death

Arrested on 21.10.1939 together with clergy from his deanery. Jailed in Aleksandrów Kujawski's prison. Next transported to Fort VII (Toruń) concentration camp. From there on 04.11.1939 moved to Świecie prison or f. mentally ill Institute patients of which had already been exterminated by that time. Two day later on 06.11.1939 driven to Górna Grupa transit camp. Finally taken to a place of execution and murdered.

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Germans

date and place of birth

02.10.1910

Kierzkowo
Radom pow., Masovia voiv., Poland

presbyter (holy orders)/
ordination

20.06.1937 (Włocławek)

positions held

1938–1939 — prefect {parish: Aleksandrów Kujawski, Transfiguration of the Lord; dean.: Nieszawa}, elementary schools
1937–1938 — vicar {parish: Kowal, St Ursula the Virgin and Martyr; dean.: Włocławek}
1932–1937 — student {Włocławek, philosophy and theology, Theological Seminary}

others related in death

BERTEL Czeslav, BORUCKI, BRZÓSKOWSKI Vladislav, BURDYN Bernard, BUSS Casimir, CZOGAŁA Ignatius, DĄBROWSKI, ECHAUST Bronislaus, HOŁUBOWSKI Bonaventure, KNEBLEWSKI Vaclav, KOTEWICZ Stanislaus, KOWAL Henry Stanislaus, KUCZYŃSKI Marian, MAKOWSKI Roman, MALORNY Francis, MAŃKIEWICZ Henry, MEGGER Vladislav, MIKUCZEWSKI Louis, NODZYŃSKI Andrew, PEŁKA Leo, REPIŃSKI Sigismund Louis, ROGALSKI John, SOŁTYSIAK John, WALECKI Vaclav, WOJTASZEWSKI Casimir, ŻUKOWSKI Vincent

murder sites
camps (+ prisoner no)

Mniszek / Grupa forest: From 10.1939 till approx. 04.1940 in the complex of forests by villages of Mniszek (in a former gravel mine) and Grupa (on the former Polish military training ground), c. 16 km to the north–east of Świecie and c. 10 km to the west of Grudziądz, Germans murdered in mass executions approx. 10,000 Poles, brought from prison in Świecie, from Psychiatric Hospital in Świecie (c. 1,000 patients — the patients were brought in parties 60‑strong, having been given sedatives prior to dispatch), prison in Grudziądz, internment camp in Nowe on Vistula, from Steyler Missionaries (Verbite friars) missionary house in Górna Grupa — mainly intelligentsia, from Świecie, Bydgoszcz, Chełmno, Grudziądz and Starogard Gdański counties in Pomerania. Among the victims were c. 120 children brought out under a school trip guise. Murders were perpetrated by Germans from Selbstschutz and SS genocidal organisations. Wehrmacht soldiers served as truck drivers. The victims were being killed of with shovels, sticks, sometimes buried alive. Those who attempted to defend themselves were hung. In 1944 Germand dug out most of the bodies and burnt them. (more on: groby.radaopwim.gov.pl [access: 2013.01.13], pl.wikipedia.org [access: 2013.06.23])

Górna Grupa: From 10.1939 till approx. 04.1940 in Górna Grupa in Divine Word Missionaries (SVD) congregation house Germans organised — as part of „Intelligenzaktion”, extermination of Polish intelligentsia in Pomerania — a transit camp for Poles, including 95 priests, from Świecie, Bydgoszcz, Chełmno, Grudziądz and Starogard Gdański counties. Approx. of them perished, including 17 that were subsequently executed in Mnichek‑Grupa. In the same place in 1945 Russians set up a concentration camp for Germans, among whom two priests perished. (more on: pl.wikipedia.org [access: 2013.06.23], www.kpbc.ukw.edu.pl [access: 2013.12.27])

Świecie (Institute): In the autumn of 1939 Germans— as part of „Aktion T4” program — murdered almost all patients from the Świecie psychiatric hospital. On 15‑21.10.1939 c. 1,000 patients were murdered in the forest by Mniszek village, in groups of 60. Among the victims were 120 children. And hospital’s Polish director who stayed with his patients till the end. The victims were pushed — three aside — into specially prepared ditches and shot from machine guns. C. 300 patients were transported to Kocborowo psychiatric hospital and murdered later in Szpęgawsk forest. (more on: ipn.gov.pl [access: 2015.05.09])

Świecie: Detention centre run by Germans. Most of the prisoners in 1939 Germans took to Mniszek‑Grupa and executed. (more on: pl.wikipedia.org [access: 2013.06.23])

Toruń (Fort VII): Between 10.1939 and 01.1940 in Fort VII in Toruń Germans set up — as part of their „Intelligenzaktion”, extermination of Polish intelligentsia from Pomerania — a prison for local, chiefly from Toruń, Poles, mainly from intelligentsia, 1,500 of which were subsequently murdered in Barbarka and Przysieka. The remaining approx. 600 prisoners were transported in 01.1940 to KL Stutthof concentration camp. (more on: pl.wikipedia.org [access: 2013.08.10])

Piaski (Aleksandrów Kujawski): In Piaski (today district of Aleksandrów Kujawski) Germans in 10‑11.1939 held in provisional(?) prison priests from Alekandrów Kujawski and Nieszawa deanery, prior to sending them to the Fort VII camp in Toruń. (more on: salezjanie.pl [access: 2013.08.31])

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: salezjanie.pl [access: 2013.08.31], en.wikipedia.org [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 II World War in 09.1939. „The 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 Stanislaus Gądecki, 01.09.2019). The decisions taken 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.org [access: 2015.09.30])

sources

personal:
www.kowal.q4.pl [access: 2012.12.28], groby.radaopwim.gov.pl [access: 2013.01.13], pl.wikipedia.org [access: 2013.06.23]
bibliograhical:
„Victims of German crime among Włocławek diocese clergy”, Fr Stanislau Librowski, „Włocławek Diocese Chronicle”, 07‑08.1947
„Annals of the Włocławek diocese — 1926‑39 (also: Catalogus Ecclesiarum et Utriusque Cleri tam Saecularis quam Regularis dioecesis Wladislaviensis seu Calissiensis — till 1925)”, Włocławek and Włocławel-Kalisz diocesan Curia