108 MARTYRS OF WORLD WAR II - 12 JUNE

 

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108 MARTYRS OF WORLD WAR II

No country suffered as much in the 20th century as Poland, with six million deaths during the Second World War alone, the vast majority of them civilians. Among those murdered by the Nazis were several thousand priests, who were not only members of the Polish intellectual elite, and therefore targeted for elimination, but also proponents of a creed that stood for everything opposed to Nazism. The liberation from those six years of darkness, followed by 40 years of an ideology only marginally less inhumane, made it a century between good and evil seemed as its most intense.

THE BATTLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL SEEMED AT ITS MOST INTENSE

But good triumphed, in the form of Karol Wojtyla, the Polish pope who helped to slay Communism before century’s end and who in 1999 beatified the 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs of the Second World War. On this roll of honour were three bishops, 52 priests, eight female religious, 26 male religious, three seminarians and nine laymen. Most died in the Nazi concentration and death camps of Dachau and Auschwitz, although some were shot outright or even burned to death.

MASS MURDERS DURING THE WAR

Among them were Marianna Biernacka, a farmer’s wife who offered to take the place of her pregnant daughter-in-law when Poles were rounded up to be murdered in retribution for German deaths. Alicja Jadwiga Kotowska, a 39-year-old nun, was killed at Piasnica in November 1939, the first mass murder of civilians by the Nazis, in which between 12,000 and 16,000 were shot (it is hardly surprising that the Germans were wrongly blamed for Katyn).

F. GRZEGORZ FRACKOWIAK

Grzegorz Frackowiack, a young friar, was beheaded for running and underground magazine (the rest of his novitiate had all been sent to concentration camps).

FR JOZEF KOWALSKI

Fr Jozef Kowalski died at just 31 having been sent to Auschwitz, where he secretly administered Communion to other prisoner (at this stage the inmates were still mostly Poles). Ordered to trample on his rosary, he refused and was taken outside, beaten, tortured and most likely drowned. His body was burned with others.

FR BRONISLAW KOMOROWSKI

Perhaps the most well-known of the 108 is Fr Bronislaw Komorowski, who was a prominent figure in the disputed city of Danzig before the war and the only Polish member of its ruling council. When the Nazis invaded he was arrested and taken off to Stutthof concentration camp, where he was repeatedly beaten and tortured. On Good Friday 1940 he was murdered in the woods along with several other Poles. After the war his body was exhumed and buried, and today a square and a school in the city, now called Gdansk, honour him.

This article entitled “The 108 Martyrs of World War II” was published in “The Catholic Herald”, paper edition, issue June 6 2014

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The 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs of World War II, liturgical feast: June 12, were beatified on June 13, 1999 by Pope John Paul II in Poland:

(Some links are yet to be added. For the time being, please paste the holy martyr's name into this blog's search facility. Thank you.)

Antoni Julian Nowowiejski, bishop (1858-1941, Soldau), Leon Wetmański, bishop (1886-1941, Soldau), Władysław Goral, bishop (1898-1945, Sachsenhausen), Adam Bargielski, priest (1903-1942, Dachau), Aleksy Sobaszek, priest (1895-1942, Dachau), Alfons Maria Mazurek, priest (1891-1944, shot), Alojzy Liguda, priest (1898-1942, Dachau), Anastazy Jakub Pankiewicz, priest (1882-1942, Dachau), Anicet Kopliński, priest, (1875-1941, Warsaw), Antoni Beszta-Borowski, priest, (1880-1943, shot), Antoni Leszczewicz, priest (1890-1943, Belarus), Antoni Rewera, priest, (1869-1942, Dachau), Antoni Świadek, priest (1909-1945, Dachau), Antoni Zawistowski, priest, (1882-1942,  Dachau), Bolesław Strzelecki, priest, (1896-1941, Auschwitz), Bronisław Komorowski, priest, (1889-1940, Stutthof), Dominik Jędrzejewski, priest, (1886-1942, Dachau), Edward Detkens, priest, (1885-1942, Dachau), Edward Grzymała, priest, (1906-1942, Dachau), Emil Szramek, priest, (1887-1942, Dachau), Fidelis Chojnacki, priest, (1906-1942, Dachau), Florian Stępniak, priest, (1912-1942, Dachau), Franciszek Dachtera, priest, (1910-1942, Dachau), Franciszek Drzewiecki, priest, (1908-1942, Dachau); Franciszek Rogaczewski, priest, (1892-1940, shot), Franciszek Rosłaniec, priest (1889-1942, Dachau), Henryk Hlebowicz, priest, (1904-1941, shot), Henryk Kaczorowski, priest,(1888-1942), Henryk Krzysztofik, priest, (1908-1942 Dachau), Hilarius Paweł Januszewski, priest, (1907-1945, Dachau), Jan Antonin Bajewski, priest, (1915-1941, Auschwitz), Jan Franciszek Czartoryski, priest (1897-1944), Jan Nepomucen Chrzan, priest, (1885-1942, Dachau), Jerzy Kaszyra, priest, (1910-1943, Rosica, Belarus), Józef Achilles Puchała, priest, (1911-1943, Iwieniec, Belarus), Józef Cebula, priest (1902-1941, Mauthausen), Józef Czempiel, priest (1883-1942, Mauthausen), Józef Innocenty Guz, priest, (1890-1940, Sachsenhausen), Józef Jankowski, priest, (1910-1941, Auschwitz), Józef Kowalski, priest, (1911-1942), Józef Kurzawa, priest, (1910-1940), Józef Kut, priest, (1905-1942, Dachau), Józef Pawłowski, priest, (1890-1942, Dachau), Józef Stanek priest, (1916-1944, Warsaw), Józef Straszewski, priest, (1885-1942, Dachau), Karol Herman Stępień, priest, (1910-1943, Iwieniec, Belarus), Kazimierz Gostyński, priest, (1884-1942, Dachau), Kazimierz Grelewski, priest, (1907-1942, Dachau), Kazimierz Sykulski, priest, (1882-1942, Auschwitz), Krystyn Gondek, priest, (1909-1942, Dachau), Leon Nowakowski, priest, (1913-1939), Ludwik Myzk, priest, (1905-1940), Ludwik Pius Bartosik, priest, (1909-1941, Auschwitz), Ludwik Roch Gietyngier, priest, (1904-1941, Dachau), Maksymilian Binkiewicz, priest, +1913-1942 Dachau), Marian Gorecki, priest, (1903-1940, Stutthof), Marian Konopiński, priest, (1907-1943, Dachau), Marian Skrzypczak, priest, (1909-1939, Plonkowo), Michał Oziębłowski, priest, (1900-1942, Dachau), Michał Piaszczyński, priest, (1885-1940, Sachsenhausen), Michał Woźniak, priest, (1875-1942, Dachau), Mieczysław Bohatkiewicz, priest, (1904-1942, Berezwecz), Narcyz Putz, priest, (1877-1942, Dachau), Narcyz Turchan, priest, (1879-1942, Dachau), Piotr Edward Dankowski, priest, (1908-1942, Auschwitz), Roman Archutowski, priest, (1882-1943, Majdanek), Roman Sitko, priest, (1880-1942, Auschwitz), Stanisław Kubista, priest, (1898-1940, Sachsenhausen), Stanisław Kubski, priest, (1876-1942, Hartheim), Stanisław Mysakowski, priest, (1896-1942, Dachau), Stanisław Pyrtek, priest, (1913-1942, Berezwecz), Stefan Grelewski, priest, (1899-1941, Dachau), Wincenty Matuszewski, priest, (1869-1940), Władysław Błądziński, priest, (1908-1944, Groß-Rosen), Władysław Demski, priest, (1884-1940, Sachsenhausen), Władysław Maćkowiak, priest,(1910-1942, Berezwecz), Władysław Mączkowski, priest, (1911-1942, Dachau), Władysław Miegoń, priest, (1892-1942, Dachau), Włodzimierz Laskowski, priest, (1886-1940, Gusen), Wojciech Nierychlewski, priest, (1903-1942, Auschwitz), Zygmunt Pisarski, priest, (1902-1943), Zygmunt Sajna, priest, (1897-1940, Warsaw), Bruno Zembol, friar, (1905-1942, Dachau), Grzegorz Bolesław Frąckowiak, friar, (1911-1943, Dresden), Józef Zaplata, friar, (1904-1945, Dachau), Jan Martin Oprzadek, friar, (1884-1942, Hartheim), Piotr Boniface Zukowski, friar, (1913-1942, Auschwitz), Stanislaw Tymoteusz Trojanowski, friar, (1908-1942, Auschwitz), Symforian Ducki, friar, (1888-1942, Auschwitz), Alicja Maria Jadwiga Kotowska, sister, (1899-1939, Piaśnica), Ewa Noiszewska, sister, (1885-1942, Góra Pietrelewicka, Belarus), Julia Rodzińska, sister, (1899-1945, Stutthof), Katarzyna Celestyna Faron, sister, (1913-1944, Auschwitz), Maria Antonina Kratochwil, sister, (1881-1942), Maria Klemensa Staszewska, sister, (1890-1943, Auschwitz), Maria Teresa Kowalska, sister, (1902-1941), Marta Wołowska, sister, (1879-1942, Góra Pietrelewicka, Belarus), Mieczysława Kowalska, sister, (1902-1941, Dzialdowo), Bronisław Kostkowski, (1915-1942, Dachau), Czesław Jóźwiak, (1919-1942, Dresden), Edward Kaźmierski, (1919-1942, Dresden), Edward Klinik, (1919-1942, Dresden),  Franciszek Kęsy, (1920-1942, Dresden), Franciszek Stryjas, (1882-1944, Kalisz), Jarogniew Wojciechowski, (1922-1942, Dresden), Marianna Biernacka, (1888-1943), Natalia Tulasiewicz (1906-1945, Ravensbrück), Stanisław Starowieyski, (1895-1941, Dachau), Tadeusz Dulny,  (1914-1942, Dachau)