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]
Gniezno and Poznań archdiocese (aeque principaliter)more on
www.archpoznan.pl
[access: 2012.11.23]
Vilnius diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
RC Military Ordinariate of Polandmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.12.20]

honorary titles

War Order of Virtuti Militari — Silver (5th Class)more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.10.13]
(1923)
Silver „Cross of Merit”more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.04.16]
(16.07.1925)
Commemorative Medal for War of 1918–21more on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.10.13]
Ten Years of Independence Medalmore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2019.10.13]
„For Long Service” medal — bronzemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.05.25]

date and place
of death

01.11.1939

Fordontoday: district of Bydgoszcz, Bydgoszcz city pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.02]

alt. dates and places
of death

09.09.1939

Gdański foresttoday: part of Bydgoszzcz, Bydgoszcz city pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.06.20]

details of death

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

FordonClick to display the description, Gdański forestClick to display the description, IL BrombergClick to display the description, «Intelligenzaktion»Click to display the description, Reichsgau Danzig‐WestpreußenClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description, Polish‐Russian war of 1919‐1921Click to display the description

date and place
of birth

01.10.1881

Zabłudówtoday: Zabłudów gm., Białystok pov., Podlaskie voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.07.18]

alt. dates and places
of birth

18.09.1881

parents

SZYŁKIEWICZ Joseph
🞲 ?, ? — 🕆 ?, ?

WASILEWSKA Victoria
🞲 ?, ? — 🕆 ?, ?

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

16.06.1906

positions held

others related
in death

KUKUŁKAClick to display biography Lucyn, RASZKOWSKIClick to display biography Hubert, ROŻEKClick to display biography Alexander, SZUMANClick to display biography Anthony Henry

sites and events
descriptions

Fordon: In the „Valley of Death” in Fordon, where from 10.10.1939 till 11.11.1939 Germans murdered — as a part of «Intelligenzaktion» aimed at extermination of Polish intelligentsia and ruling classes in Pomerania — 1,200‐3,000 Poles from Bydgoszcz, mainly from intelligentsia. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23])

Gdański forest: Location, near Bydgoszcz, where Germans, during «Intelligenzaktion» — extermination of Polish intelligentsia program — murdered a score of Poles. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23])

IL Bromberg: Germ. „Internierungslager” (Eng. „Internment camp”) set up on 05.09.1939 — the day Germans took over Bydgoszcz — in 15 Greater Poland Light Artillery Regiment military barracks at 147 Gdańska Str. in Bydgoszcz. In 09.1939 only c. 3,500 Poles were jailed there. Prisoners were held in f. stables or f. armory building. They were maltreated and tortured. Some were shot on the spot (c. 28 victims in 09.1939). Next they were sent to concentration camps throughout Germany. Some were taken to mass execution sites in nearby forests and murdered. On 01.11.1939 the camp was moved to f. ammunition warehouses in Jachcice town district. The camp was closed in 12.1939. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30])

«Intelligenzaktion»: German: «Intelligenzaktion» (English: „Intelligence Action”) — a German program of extermination of the Polish elite, mainly the intelligentsia and leadership layers, carried out from the beginning of the occupation in w 09.1939 to 04.1940, mainly in territories directly annexed to Germany, but also in the so‐called Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), where it was called «AB‐aktion». In the first phase, immediately after the beginning of the German occupation, during military operations carried out by the Germ. Wehrmacht (Eng. Armed Forces) and the genocidal units of the Germ. Einsatzgruppen (Eng. Operational Groups) of the Germ. Sicherheitspolizei (Eng. Security Police), i.e. SiPo, and Germ. Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers SS (Eng. Security Service of the Reichsführer SS), i.e. SD, organized by the Germ. Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Eng. Reich Main Security Office), i.e. RSHA, which followed the troops, carried out under the Germ. Unternehmen „Tannenberg” (Eng. Operation „Tannenberg”) — based on the so‐called Germ. Sonderfahndungsliste (Eng. Special Wanted Lists), i.e. proscription lists of Poles considered particularly dangerous to the Third Reich, prepared by the Zentralstelle II/P (Polen) unit of the German RSHA. Later, implemented by the German civilian occupation authorities and the genocidal unit of the Germ. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz (Eng. Ethnic Germans Self‐Defense), whose members were Germ. Volksdeutsche (Eng. Ethnic Germans), i.e. representatives of the German minority in Poland. According to various sources, these lists, at the beginning of 09.1939, could have contained the details of 61,000—88,000 „dangerous” Poles — although these figures cannot be confirmed. In total, during this genocide, c. 50,000 teachers, Catholic priests, representatives of the landed gentry, freelancers, social and political activists, and retired military personnel were systematically and methodically murdered. Another 50,000 were sent to concentration camps, where only a negligible percentage survived. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.10.04])

Reichsgau Danzig‐Westpreußen: After the Polish defeat in the 09.1939 campaign, which was the result of the Ribbentrop‐Molotov Pact and constituted the first stage of World War II, and the beginning of German occupation in part of Poland (in the other, eastern part of Poland, the Russian occupation began), the Germans divided the occupied Polish territory into five main regions (and a few smaller). The largest one was transformed into Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), intended exclusively for Poles and Jews and constituting part of the so‐called Germ. Großdeutschland (Eng. Greater Germany). Two were added to existing German provinces. From two other separate new provinces were created. Vistula Pomerania region was one of them, incorporated into Germany on 08.10.1939, by decree of the German leader Adolf Hitler (formally came into force on 26.10.1939), and on 02.11.1939 transformed into the Germ. Reichsgau Danzig‐Westpreußen (Eng. Reich District of Gdańsk‐West Prussia) province, in which the law of the German state was to apply. The main axis of the policy of the new province, the territory of which the Germans recognized as the Germ. „Ursprünglich Deutsche” (Eng. „natively German”), despite the fact that 85% of its inhabitants were Poles, was Germ. „Entpolonisierung” (Eng. „Depolonisation”), i.e. forced Germanization. C. 60,000 Poles were murdered in 1939‐1940, as part of the Germ. „Intelligenzaktion”, i.e. extermination of Polish intelligentsia and ruling classes, in c. 432 places of mass executions — including c. 220 Polish Catholic priests. The same number were sent to German concentration camps, from where few returned (over 300 priests were arrested, of whom c. 130 died in concentration camps). C. 124,000‐170,000 were displaced, including c. 90,000 to the Germ. Generalgouvernement. Poles were forced en masse to sign the German nationality list, the Germ. Deutsche Volksliste DVL. Polish children could only learn in German. It was forbidden to use the Polish language during Catholic Holy Masses and during confession. Polish landed estates were confiscated..To further reduce the number of the Polish population, Poles were sent to forced labor deep inside Germany. The remaining Poles were treated as low‐skilled labor, isolated from the Germans and strictly controlled — legally, three or three of them could only meet together, even in their own apartments. Many were conscripted into the German Wehrmacht army. After the end of hostilities of World War II, the overseer of this province, the Germ. Reichsstatthalter (Eng. Reich Governor) and the Germ. Gauleiter (Eng. district head) of the German National Socialist Party, Albert Maria Forster, was executed. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.06.24])

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])

Polish‐Russian war of 1919‐1921: War for independence of Poland and its borders. Poland regained independence in 1918 but had to fight for its borders with former imperial powers, in particular Russia. Russia planned to incite Bolshevik‐like revolutions in the Western Europe and thus invaded Poland. Russian invaders were defeated in 08.1920 in a battle called Warsaw battle („Vistula river miracle”, one of the 10 most important battles in history, according to some historians). Thanks to this victory Poland recaptured part of the lands lost during partitions of Poland in XVIII century, and Europe was saved from the genocidal Communism. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20])

sources

personal:
www.archibial.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06], www.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10], archiwum-ordynariat.wp.mil.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2025.08.19], pbc.biaman.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.01.13]
bibliographical:
„Vilnius archdiocese clergy martyrology 1939‐1945”, Fr Thaddeus Krahel, Białystok, 2017
original images:
onebid.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2025.08.19], wojskowagdynia.parafia.info.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2022.01.06], onebid.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2025.08.19], archiwum.allegro.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2025.08.19], www.archibial.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06], www.pomorska.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.05.09], grant.zse.bydgoszcz.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.16], pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.16], www.katedrapolowa.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.16], www.ciekawepodlasie.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.07.31]