function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Gniezno and Poznań archdiocese (aeque principaliter)more on
www.archpoznan.pl
[access: 2012.11.23]

date and place of death

14.10.1940

KL Gusen Iconcentration camp
today: n. St. Georgen an der Gusen, Sankt Georgen an der Gusen, Perg dist., Salzburg state, Austria
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.09]

details of death

alt. details of death

cause of death

extermination: exhaustion and starvation

perpetrators

Germans

date and place of birth

14.02.1884

Sławoszewtoday: Kotlin gm., Jarocin pow., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18]

presbyter (holy orders)/
ordination

10.02.1907 (Gnieznotoday: Gniezno urban gm., Gniezno pow., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18])

positions held

murder sites
camps (+ prisoner no)

KL Gusen I: „Grade III” (niem. „Stufe III”) camp, 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: at SS guards houses' construction at a nearby Sankt Georgen for instance. Initially opened in 05.1940 as the „camp for Poles”, captured during the program of extermination of Polish intelligentsia („Intelligenzaktion”). Till the end most of the prisoners were Poles. Many Polish priests from the Polish regions incorporated in the Germany were brought there in 1940, after start of German occupation of Poland, from KL Sachsenhausen and KL Dachau concentration camps. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.03.10])

KL Mauthausen-Gusen: A large group of German concentration 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 Dachau (prisoner no: 11073Click to display biography): KL Dachau in German Bavaria, set up in 1933, became the main concentration camp for Catholic priests and religious during II World War: On c. 09.11.1940, Reichsführer–SS Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, Gestapo and German police, as a result of the Vatican's intervention, decided to transfer all clergymen detained in various concentration camps to KL Dachau camp. The first major transports took place on 08.12.1940. In KL Dachau Germans held approx. 3,000 priests, including 1,800 Poles. They were forced to slave at so‑called „Plantags”, doing manual field works, at constructions, including crematorium. In the barracks ruled hunger, freezing cold in the winter and suffocating heat during the summer. Prisoners suffered from bouts of illnesses, including tuberculosis. Many were victims of murderous „medical experiments” — in 11.1942 c. 20 were given phlegmon injections; in 07.1942 to 05.1944 c. 120 were used by for malaria experiments. More than 750 Polish clerics where murdered by the Germans, some brought to Schloss Hartheim euthanasia centre and murdered in gas chambers. At its peak KL Dachau concentration camps’ system had nearly 100 slave labour sub–camps located throughout southern Germany and Austria. There were c. 32,000 documented deaths at the camp, and thousands perished without a trace. C. 10,000 of the 30,000 inmates were found sick at the time of liberation, on 29.04.1945, by the USA troops… (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.05.30])

KL Posen: German Posen — Fort VII — camp founded in c. 10.10.1939 in Poznań till mid of 11.1939 operated formally as KL Posen concentration camp (Germ. Konzentrationslager), and this term is used throughout the White Book, also later periods. It was first such a concentration camp set up by the Germans on Polish territory — in case of Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) directly incorporated into German Reich. In 10.1939 in KL Posen for the first time Germans used gas to murder civilian population, in particular patients of local psychiatric hospitals. From 11.1939 the camp operated as German political police Gestapo prison and transit camp (Germ. Übergangslager), prior to sending off to concentration camps, such as KL Dachau or KL Auschwitz. In 28.05.1941 the camp was rebranded as police jail and slave labour corrective camp (Germ. Arbeitserziehungslager). At its peak up to 7‑9 executions were carried in the camp per day, there were mass hangings of the prisoners and some of them were led out to be murdered elsewhere, outside of the camp. Altogether in KL Posen Germans exterminated approx. 20,000 inhabitants of Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) region, including many representatives of Polish intelligentsia, patients and staff of psychiatric hospitals and dozen or so Polish priests. Hundreds of priests were held there temporarily prior to transport to other concentration camps, mainly KL Dachau. From 03.1943 the camp had been transformed into an industrial complex (from 25.04.1944 — Telefunken factory manufacturing radios for submarines and aircrafts). (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.27])

Chludowo: In the Divine Word Missionary (SVD) congregation house, in 1940, Germans set up a transit camp for religious and priests from the nearby counties. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23])

Lubiń: At the Benedictine abbey in Lubiń near Kościan, at the beginning of 1940, the Germans organized an temporary internment camp for priests and monks from Greater Poland. E.g. in 04.1941 Franciscan friars from Goruszki monastery were brought in. In total, 104 clergymen were held in the monastery. On 06.10.1941, as part of the third great operation of arrests of the Polish clergy of Greater Poland — more precisely, from the Germ. Reichsgau Wartheland province (Eng. Warta Country District), established in the German–occupied Greater Poland — all interned priests were transported to the KL Dachau concentration camp. Religious brothers were allowed to return to their family homes. The monastery was turned into an old people's home, and later as a training center for national–socialist German youth, Hitler–Jugend. Rich library collections and other goods were plundered. The Benedictines returned to the monastery on 25.01.1945, after the German defeat. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10])

02-03.1940 arrests (Warthegau): First large wave of arrests in 1940 of Polish clergy from German occupied Warthegau region (Greater Poland), started in fact in 01.1940 but the largest numbers of priest were held in 02‑03.1940. In accordance with a plan of „Ohne Gott, ohne Religion, ohne Priesters und Sakramenten” — „without God, without religion, without priest and sacrament” — drafted by the Gaulaiter of Warthegau, Artur Greiser, few hundred of Polish priests were interned in transit camps in Puszczykowo, Bruczków, Goruszki, Chludowo and KL Posen (Fort VII) concentration camp prior to transfer to concentration camps deep within Germany.

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])

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. 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 Stanislaus 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])

sources

personal:
www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.gedenkstaetten.atClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.10.04], kuik.domenomania.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06], www.grzybno.info.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19],
original images:
www.grzybno.info.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19]