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    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
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Roman Catholic
St Sigismund parish
05-507 Słomczyn
85 Wiślana Str.
Konstancin deanery
Warsaw archdiocese, Poland

  • St SIGISMUND: St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland; source: own collectionSt SIGISMUND
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
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    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
  • St SIGISMUND: XIX c., feretory, St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland; source: own collectionSt SIGISMUND
    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
  • St SIGISMUND: XIX c., feretory, St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland; source: own collectionSt SIGISMUND
    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
  • St SIGISMUND: XIX c., feretory, St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland; source: own collectionSt SIGISMUND
    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
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Martyrology of the clergy — Poland

XX century (1914 – 1989)

personal data

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surname

SZYMAK

forename(s)

Joseph (pl. Józef)

function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Włocławek diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]

Włocławek ie. Kalisz diocese

date and place
of death

25.02.1942

KL Dachauconcentration camp
today: Dachau, Upper Bavaria reg., Bavaria state, Germany

more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2016.05.30]

alt. dates and places
of death

26.02.1942

details of death

After German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and start of the World War II, after start of German occupation, arrested by the Germans on 07.11.1939 together with 9 professors and 22 students of Theological Seminary in Włocławek.

Jailed in Włocławek prison, and next from 16.01.1940 in Ląd transit camp.

On 26.08.1940 transported to KL Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Finally on 14.12.1940 transported to KL Dachau concentration camp where perished: fell apart on the news that the Germans demolished the walls of the church he was raising, with the greatest sacrifices, for his small parish.

cause of death

extermination: exhaustion and starvation

perpetrators

Germans

date and place
of birth

01.06.1893

Dłutówtoday: Dłutów gm., Pabianice pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.01]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

09.06.1918

positions held

1935 – 1939

parish priest — Rózinowotoday: neighborhood in Włocławek, Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.02]
⋄ Christ the King RC parish ⋄ Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
RC deanery

1934

Bishop's delegate — Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
⋄ for organizing the affairs of the Fraternity of St Martha

1932 – 1935

resident — Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
⋄ St Stanislav the Bishop and Martyr RC parish ⋄ Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
RC deanery — also: prefect of elementary schools, prison chaplain and patron of the St Zita Association of Catholic Servants

1930 – 1932

vicar — Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
⋄ St Stanislav the Bishop and Martyr RC parish ⋄ Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
RC deanery — also: prefect of elementary schools and patron of the St Zita Association of Catholic Servants

1928 – 1930

vicar — Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
⋄ Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC cathedral church — also: prefect of elementary schools in Krzywa Góra (1928) and Włocławek; and patron of the St Zita Association of Catholic Servants

1926 – 1928

resident — Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
⋄ St John the Baptist RC parish (main parish)Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
RC deanery

1926 – 1928

director — printing house and bookstore (diocesan)

1926 – 1928

editor — „Kujawy Word” — following Fr Stephen Wyszyński, later the Primate of Poland

1922 – 1926

vicar — Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
⋄ St John the Baptist RC parish (main parish)Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
RC deanery — also: prefect of the supplementary school (from 1924) and chaplain–vice–patron of the Christian Workers' Association

1920 – 1922

prefect — Ruda Pabianickatoday: neighborhood in Łódź, Łódź city pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18]
⋄ primary schools ⋄ St Joseph Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC parish ⋄ Pabianicetoday: Pabianice urban gm., Pabianice pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
RC deanery

1919 – 1920

vicar — Rząśniatoday: Rząśnia gm., Pajęczno pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.12.11]
⋄ St Matthias the Apostle RC church ⋄ St Rock the Confessor RC parish ⋄ Brzeźnicatoday: Nowa Brzeźnica, Nowa Brzeźnica gm., Pajęczno pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
RC deanery

1918 – 1919

vicar — Łasktoday: Łask gm., Łask pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.01]
⋄ Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Michael the Archangel RC collegiate parish ⋄ Łasktoday: Łask gm., Łask pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.01]
RC deanery

1911 – 1918

student — Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia–Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
⋄ philosophy and theology, Theological Seminary

comments

The urn containing the ashes of the victim — the body was prob. cremated at Germ. Ostfriedhof (Eng. Eastern cemetery) in Munich — is being kept in Am Perlacher Forst cemetery, at place known as Germ. Ehrenhain I (Eng. „Remembrance Grove nr 1”), in Munich (marked as urn no K2451)

murder sites
camp 
(+ prisoner no)

KL Dachau (prisoner no: 22730Click to display biography): 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]
)

KL Sachsenhausen (prisoner no: 29952): In Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL Sachsenhausen, set up in the former Olympic village in 07.1936, hundreds of Polish priests were held in 1940, before being transported to KL Dachau. Some of them perished in KL Sachsenhausen. Murderous medical experiments on prisoners were carried out in the camp. In 1942‑1944 c. 140 prisoners slaved at manufacturing false British pounds, passports, visas, stamps and other documents. Other prisoners also had to do slave work, for Heinkel aircraft manufacturer, AEG and Siemens among others. On average c. 50,000 prisoners were held at any time. Altogether more than 200,000 inmates were in jailed in KL Sachsenhausen and its branched, out of which tens of thousands perished. Prior to Russian arrival mass evacuation was ordered by the Germans and c. 80,000 prisoners were marched west in so‑called „death marches” to other camps, i.e. KL Mauthausen‑Gusen and KL Bergen‑Belsen. The camp got liberated on 22.04.1945. After end of armed hostilities Germans set up there secret camp for German prisoners and „suspicious” Russian soldiers. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.11.18]
)

Ląd: In 1940‑1941, in a formerly cistercian priory and monastery (today Salesian Institute) in Ląd on Warta river Germans set‑up a transit camp for Polish priests and religious, from Włocławek, Gniezno, Warszawa, Poznań, Płock and Częstochowa dioceses and religious and monks from a number of congregations. Approx. 152 religious (70 till 03.04.1941 and 82 in 06‑28.10.1941) were held there prior to being sent to KL Dachau concentration camp. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10]
, yadda.icm.edu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.03.14]
)

Włocławek: Police detention centre at Karnkowski Str. in downtown Włocławek run by Germans. In 1939‑40 Germans held there hundreds of Poles, including dozens of Polish priests, that were subsequently transported to German concentration camps. (more on: www.sztetl.org.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2017.01.21]
)

«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 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:
michaelstanislaus.salon24.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.06.01]
, arolsen-archives.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.10.13]
, www.ipgs.usClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23]

bibliographical:
Victims of German crime among Włocławek diocese clergy”, Fr Stanislav Librowski, „Włocławek Diocese Chronicle”, 07‑08.1947
Register list of the Polish prisoners' transport to KL Sachsenhausen on 29.08.1940”, thanks to Ms Catherine Maciejak kindness, private correspondence, 03.01.2019
Urns kept at the Am Perlacher Forst cemetery — analysis”, Mr Gregory Wróbel, curator of the Museum of Independence Traditions in Łódź, private correspondence, 25.05.2020

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