“To God and the Homeland” – Martyrdom of Polish Clergy Memorial Day

“In our century martyrs came back. And often, they are unknown martyrs, as if they were “unknown soldiers” of God’s great cause… Their testimonies should not be forgotten in the Church” (John Paul II, Tertio Millenio Adveniente, 37)  

On April 29, 1945 American troops liberated Nazi concentration camp KL Dachau – place in heart of Germany where Adolf Hitler planned to concentrate most of arrested and captivated clergymen from all conquered countries as well as from Germany and allied Italy. Day by day priests were transfered from other concentration camps and jails in Poland and other places. Finally 2,794 clergy members including 1,773 Polish priests and religious brothers were held in KL Dachau.  Most of them were masacred. They were forced to deadly hard labor, used for quasi-medical experiments, tortured, punished in very sophisticated way for every act of worship.

 According to historical resources there were 10,017 diocesan priests in Poland before WWII. During Nazi occupation almost 20 per cent of them where killed in arrests and executed in concentration camps. 30 per cent of them were persecuted in various ways. Generally almost half the clergy were taken out ministry. Victims from religious congregations should be added to this account. Priests in KL Dachau prayed fro liberation and end o their suffering. They promised to take a pilgrimage to St. Joseph Sanctuary in Kalisz, presently in the center of Poland. Those who survived Nazi persecution and tortures filled their vows and every year, on April 29 they turn into pilgrims to St. Joseph in Kalisz.  In 2002, Conference of Bishops of Poland declared this day – an anniversary of liberation of KL Dachau – a Martyrdom of Polish Clergy Memorial Day. Province of Poland of the Congregation of the Mission was heavily struck by WWII because of two assaults and occupations, one from Nazi Germany and another one from Stalin’s Soviet Union. Many religious members men and women, priests, brothers, seminarians and nuns were persecuted, captured, arrested, tortured and massacred because of one reason – their priesthood, religious habits, and worship. Their only fault was, that they were servants of God not servants of totalitarian regimes.

Houses in Bydgoszcz, Holy Cross in Warsaw and Kleparz in Krakow were the most experienced by occupants. Eleven of slaughtered confreres are proclaimed Servants of God and their cases are subject of beatification inquest.

Here is the list of Polish Vincentian priests and brothers killed and executed and died of various circumstances between 1939 and 1945: In Nazi concentration camps martyred were:

Venerable Fr. Józef FLORKO (1945 Bergen-Belsen),  Venerable Fr. Michał JACHIMCZAK (1941 Dachau), Venerable Fr. Jan JĘDRYCHOWSKI (1942 Dachau), Venerable Fr. Norbert KOMPALLA (1942 Dachau), Venerable Fr. Adam MAŁUSZYŃSKI (1945 Mittelbau), Venerable Fr. Józef SŁUPINA (1940 Auschwitz), Venerable Fr. Leon WIĘCKIEWICZ (1944 Gross-Rosen), Fr. Karol BRODA (1944 Mauthausen), Fr. Stanisław SZADKO (1943 Dachau), bro. Franciszek DRYGAS (1944 Gross-Rosen), bro. Jan DRYGAS (1944 Gross-Rosen), deacon Antoni ŻUREK (1945 Bergen-Belsen), Fr. Kazimierz CAŁKA (1942 Dachau), Fr. Józef KRAUZE (1940 Auschwitz), Fr. Józef LEŃKO (1944 Gross-Rosen), bro. Wojciech BOGACZ (1944 Gross-Rosen), bro. Ludwik MUZALEWSKI (1944 Gross-Rosen), bro. Aleksander CAP (1944 Gross-Rosen), bro. Józef STOPIŃSKI (1944 Gross-Rosen)

At the beginning of the war these priests were massacred and shot dead in the forests outside Bydgoszcz:

Venerable Fr.  Hieronim GINTROWSKI , Venerable Fr.  Piotr SZAREK , Venerable Fr.  Jan WAGNER ,Venerable Fr. Stanisława WIOREK  

Number of others died after repressions, persecutions and arrests, due to malnutrition and illnesses:

Bro. Józef Olszak (1943 Tarnów), Fr.. Jan Cepurski (1941 Milatyn), Fr.. Sylwester Graczyk (1940 Warszawa),Fr. Jan Weissmann (1942 Kraków), Fr. Cezary Kamiński (944 Wilno), Fr. Franciszek Śmidoda (1944 Kraków), Fr. Jan Kominek (1943 Lwów), Fr. Jan Kisiel (1940 Lwów), Fr. Edmund Krauze (1943 Warszawa), Fr. Franciszek Ździebło (1945 Koronowo), Fr. Stanisław Kalla (1943 Warszawa), Fr. Kazimierz Musiał (1940 Kraków), bro. Józef Fedzin (1943 Kraków), bro. Józef Sasak (1942 Lwow), bro. Jan Kwiatkowski (1941 Wilno), Fr. Antoni Weiss (1944 Kraków), seminarian Emanuel Kabiesz (1943 Kraków), Fr. Józef Rzychoń (1944 Warszawa), bro. Władysław Uruski (1944 Warszawa), Fr. Stanislaw Ciszowski (1943 WIlno), bro. Michał Węgrzyn (1943 Kraków), Fr. Wawrzyniec Strzelczyk (1942 Kraków), Fr. Jan Gancarz (1940 Kraków), Fr. Wilhelm Michalski (1943 Warszwa), bro. Franciszek Grześko (1943 Warszawa), Fr. Franciszek Komander (1939 Pabianice),  seminarian Wiktor Andrusiewicz (1939 Wilno), bro. Kazmierz Zniszczyński (1940 Lwów), bro. Michał Wolak (1944 Sandomierz), seminarian Włodzimierz Tymec (1941 Kraków), bro. Marcin Kudlek (1942 Kraków).

Let us all pray for their souls, for the sacrifice they gave on the altar of freedom and independence. May the rest in peace!