function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Vilnius 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

21.01.1951

ITL MinLagGuLAG slave labour camp network
today: Inta, Komi rep., Russia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.09]

alt. dates and places
of death

23.01.1951

details of death

cause of death

extermination: murder / exhaustion

perpetrators

Russians

sites and events

ITL MinLagClick to display the description, ITL VorkutLagClick to display the description, GulagClick to display the description, Vilnius (Lukiškės)Click to display the description, Help to the JewsClick to display the description, ZAL PrawienischkienClick to display the description, LiškiavaClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

05.05.1906

Pyerasvyatoyetoday: Pyerasvyatoye ssov., Rechytsa dist., Gomel reg., Belarus
more on
be.wikipedia.org
[access: 2023.01.18]

parents

PEREŚWIET-SOŁTAN John Romualdo
🞲 ?, ? — 🕆 ?, ?

RODZIEWICZ Caroline
🞲 ?, ? — 🕆 ?, ?

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

04.06.1933

Vilniustoday: Vilnius city dist., Vilnius Cou., Lithuania
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.06]
St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist RC churchmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2017.05.20]

positions held

others related
in death

RAKICKASClick to display biography Joseph

sites and events
descriptions

ITL MinLag: Russian Rus. Исправи́тельно‐Трудово́й Ла́герь (Eng. Corrective Labor Camp) ITL Rus. Минеральный (Eng. Mineral) — concentration and slave forced labor camp (within the Gulag complex) — headquartered in the town of Inta in the Republic of Komi. Founded on 02.28.1948 on the premises of ITL IntaLag camp, until 1954 functioning as the Rus. Особый лагерь (Eng. Special camp) GULAG No. 1. Prisoners slaved in an industrial complex managed by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs — in coal mines, gold and quartz mining, construction of new mines, construction of roads and buildings, drainage of land, repair and mechanical workshops, brick kilns, hollow brick factories, logging, etc. At its peak — till the death on 05.03.1953 of Russian socialist leader, Joseph Stalin — c. 35,000 prisoners were held there: e.g. 24,112 (01.01.1949); 28,371 (01.01.1950); 33,056 (01.01.1951); 34,448 (01.01.1952); 27,785 (01.01.1953); 28,055 (01.01.1954). Ceased to exist on 03.06.1957 and got incorporated into the ITL PechorLag camp. (more on: old.memo.ruClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.04.08], old.memo.ruClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.04.08])

ITL VorkutLag: Russian Rus. Исправи́тельно‐Трудово́й Ла́герь (Eng. Corrective Labor Camp) ITL Rus. Воркутинский (Eng. Vorkutinskiy) — concentration and slave forced labor camp (within the Gulag complex) — headquartered in the town of Vorkuta in the Republic of Komi (initially prob. in Arkhangelsk Oblast), beyond the Arctic circle. Founded on 10.05.1938. Prisoners slaved at the construction of mines and coal mining (including processing plants, construction and renovation of access railway lines), preparation for industrial purposes and development of molybdenum deposits (including construction of the Vorkuta‐Kharbey power line, experimental enrichment plant, access roads), construction of barges on the Pechora River, construction of a thermal power plant, in various factories (production of bricks, building materials, wood processing, cement, furs, consumer goods), workshops (repair, mechanical), auxiliary agricultural work, etc. At its peak — till the death on 05.03.1953 of Russian socialist leader, Joseph Stalin — c. 73,000 prisoners were held there: e.g. 52,195 (01.01.1946); 62,525 (01.01.1948); 62,676 (01.01.1950); 72,940 (01.01.1951); 41,677 (01.01.1952); 52,453 (01.01.1955); 50,515 (01.01.1956); 49,646 (01.01.1957). In the most tragic year in the history of the camp, 1943, 15.5% of prisoners died. The total number of victims is unknown. Ceased to exist in 1960. (more on: old.memo.ruClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.04.08])

Gulag: The acronym Gulag comes from the Rus. Главное управление исправительно‐трудовых лагерей и колоний (Eng. Main Board of Correctional Labor Camps). The network of Russian concentration camps for slave labor was formally established by the decision of the highest Russian authorities on 27.06.1929. Control was taken over by the OGPU, the predecessor of the genocidal NKVD (from 1934) and the MGB (from 1946). Individual gulags (camps) were often established in remote, sparsely populated areas, where industrial or transport facilities important for the Russian state were built. They were modeled on the first „great construction of communism”, the White Sea‐Baltic Canal (1931‐1932), and Naftali Frenkel, of Jewish origin, is considered the creator of the system of using forced slave labor within the Gulag. He went down in history as the author of the principle „We have to squeeze everything out of the prisoner in the first three months — then nothing is there for us”. He was to be the creator, according to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, of the so‐called „Boiler system”, i.e. the dependence of food rations on working out a certain percentage of the norm. The term ZEK — prisoner — i.e. Rus. заключенный‐каналоармец (Eng. canal soldier) — was coined in the ITL BelBaltLag managed by him, and was adopted to mean a prisoner in Russian slave labor camps. Up to 12 mln prisoners were held in Gulag camps at one time, i.e. c. 5% of Russia's population. In his book „The Gulag Archipelago”, Solzhenitsyn estimated that c. 60 mln people were killed in the Gulag until 1956. Formally dissolved on 20.01.1960. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.04.08])

Vilnius (Lukiškės): Vilnius prison used both by Russians and Germans. Thousands of Poles were kept there. From 2,000 to 16,000 prisoners were jailed at any time there. In 06.1941, after German invasion, Russians murdered most of the prisoners. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.07.04])

Help to the Jews: During World War II on the Polish occupied territories Germans forbid to give any support to the Jews under penalty of death. Hundreds of Polish priests and religious helped the Jews despite this official sanction. Many of them were caught and murdered.

ZAL Prawienischkien: Harsh Germ. Zwangsarbeitslager (Eng. forced labor camp) — also a transit camp prior to transfer to other concentration camps — mainly for Poles and Jews, organised by Germans in Pravieniškės in Lithuania — in the place of a detention camp for opponents of the Lithuanian regime of Smetona that existed till 1940, and from 1940 of a Russian camp, whose prisoners were murdered by the Russians in 06.1941, before the arrival of the Germans — and run by Lithuanians (from 11.1943 subcamp of KL Kauen concentration camp). In 06.1941 when escaping from approaching Germans Russians murdered most of its prisoners. Numer of professors of Stephen Batory University in Vilnius (including members of its Theological Department) were held there, as well as clerics and priests from Catholic theological seminaries. On 15.09.1943 more then 100 Polish hostages were brought there — part of reprisals after execution of Polish independence Home Army AK unit (part of Polish Clandestine State) on German agent. It operated as a correctional camp after the end of World War II hostilies and start of Russian occupation of Lithuania as well. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.12.10])

Liškiava: In Liškiava, a village on the right bank of the Nemunas, which was the border between Poland and Lithuania until 1939, on the Lithuanian side, prob. in the former Dominican monastery — in which in the XIX century the occupying Russian authorities (after partitions of Poland) organized a place of internment for the so‐called „wicked priests” from all of the then Russian‐run Kingdom of Poland — Lithuanians organized an internment camp for Polish priests. It functioned until 04.1940, when the Russian occupation of Lithuania began.

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.bialystok.opoka.org.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06], www.katolicy.euClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19]
bibliographical:
„Vilnius archdiocese clergy martyrology 1939‐1945”, Fr Thaddeus Krahel, Białystok, 2017
original images:
www.bialystok.opoka.org.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06], www.katedrapolowa.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.16], ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.02.02]