beatification date

13.06.1999more on
www.swzygmunt.knc.pl
[access: 2013.05.19]

the RC Pope John Paul IImore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]

function

religious cleric

creed

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

congregation

Society of St Francis de Sales SDBmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
(i.e. Salesians of Don Bosco)

diocese / province

St Jack Cracow Inspectorate SDB
Cracow archdiocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]

date and place
of death

04.07.1942

KL Auschwitzconcentration camp
today: Oświęcim, Oświęcim gm., Oświęcim pov., Lesser Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.09]

details of death

cause of death

murder

perpetrators

Germans

date and place
of birth

13.03.1911

Siedliskatoday: Lubenia gm., Rzeszów pov., Subcarpathia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

religious vows

24.07.1928 (temporary)
29.06.1934 (permanent)

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

29.05.1938 (St Francis of Assisi basilica in Krakówmore on
lt.wikipedia.org
[access: 2018.09.02])

positions held

biography (own resources)

Click to read biography details from our resources

others related
in death

ANTONOWICZClick to display biography Ignatius Thaddeus, CZADERNAClick to display biography Joseph, DOBIASZClick to display biography Ignatius, HARAZIMClick to display biography Francis Louis, MROCZEKClick to display biography Louis, NIEMIRClick to display biography Vladislav, PACIOREKClick to display biography Joseph, ŚWIERCClick to display biography John, WOJCIECHOWSKIClick to display biography Casimir, WYBRANIECClick to display biography Joseph

murder sites
camp 
(+ prisoner no)

KL Auschwitz (prisoner no: 17350Click to display biography): German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL and Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Auschwitz was set up by Germans around 27.01.1940 n. Oświęcim, on the German territory (initially in Germ. Provinz Schlesien — Silesia Province; and from 1941 Germ. Provinz Oberschlesien — Upper Silesia Province). Initially mainly Poles were interned. From 1942 it became the centre for holocaust of European Jews. Part of the KL Auschwitz concentration camps’ complex was Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Auschwitz II Birkenau, located not far away from the main camp. There Germans murder possibly in excess of million people, mainly Jews, in gas chambers. Altogether In excess of 400 priests and religious went through the KL Auschwitz, approx. 40% of which were murdered (mainly Poles). (more on: en.auschwitz.org.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], www.meczennicy.pelplin.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06])

KL Dachau: KL Dachau in German Bavaria, set up in 1933, became the main German Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL for Catholic priests and religious during World War II: 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. The priests were forced to slave labor in the Germ. „Die Plantage” — the largest herb garden in Europe, managed by the genocidal SS, consisting of many greenhouses, laboratory buildings and arable land, where experiments with new natural medicines were conducted — for many hours, without breaks, without protective clothing, no food. They slaved in construction, e.g. of camp's crematorium. In the barracks ruled hunger, freezing cold in the winter and suffocating heat during the summer, especially acute in 1941‑1942. 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: www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10], en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.05.30])

Cracow (Montelupich): Cracow penal prison, during occupation run by the Germans — from 28.02.1941 by Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police, known as Gestapo. In 1940‑1944 Germans jailed there approx. 50,000 prisoners, mainly Poles and Jews. Some of them were transported to KL Auschwitz concentration camp, some were executed. After cease in war effort the prison was used by UB — a Polish unit of Russian NKVD — as a prison for Polish independence resistance fighters, some of which were subsequently sent to prisons and slave labour camps in Russia. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.10.31])

23.05.1941 arrests (Cracow): On 23.05.1941 Germans arrested in Cracow 10 Salesian Fathers (two others were apprehended few days earlierl yet two others were arrested few days later in Kielce), ostensibly for assumed collaboration with Polish resistance movement (part of future Polish Clandestine State) and support and help given to Polish army officers in hiding. All were taken to Montelupich Str. prison and next to German KL Auschwitz concentration camp, where only two survived. Most of the rest where cruelly murdered. (more on: cejsh.icm.edu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2017.11.07])

General Governorate: A separate administrative territorial region set up by the Germans in 1939 after defeat of Poland, which included German‑occupied part of Polish territory that was not directly incorporate into German state. Created as the result of the Ribbentrop‑Molotov Pact, in a political sense, was to recreate the German idea of 1915 (after the defeat of the Russians in the Battle of Gorlice in 05.1915 during World War I) of establishing a Polish enclave within Germany (also called the General Governorate at that time). It was run by the Germans till 1945 and final Russian offensive, and was a part of so‑called Big Germany — Grossdeutschland. Till 31.07.1940 formally known as Germ. Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete (Eng. General Governorate for occupied Polish territories) — later as simply Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate). From 07.1941 expanded to include district Galicia. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.04])

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:
swzygmunt.knc.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23]
bibliographical:
„Salesian Society in Poland under occupation 1939‑1945”, Fr John Pietrzykowski SDB, Institute of National Remembrance IPN, Warsaw, 2015
original images:
pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.11.06], braciawasowicz.blogspot.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.11.06], www.salesiansireland.ieClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.11.06], www.salesiansireland.ieClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.11.06], www.salesiansireland.ieClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.11.06], wsdts.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.11.06], www.diecezja.rzeszow.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19], mtrojnar.rzeszow.opoka.org.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.11.06], www.bj.uj.edu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19], pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.04], www.szczecin.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.09.21]