More than 50 Polish CM’s were martyred during the Holocaust. They were among the 2,794 clergy members including 1,773 Polish priests and religious brothers were held in KL They are all celebrated in Martyrdom of Polish Clergy Memorial Day celebrated on April 29, the anniversary of liberation of KL Dachau by US Army.
Today many of them have been proclaimed “Venerable”.
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)
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. Jozef FLORKO (1945 Bergen-Belsen), Venerable Fr. Michal‚ JACHIMCZAK (1941 Dachau), Venerable Fr. Jan JEDRYCHOWSKI (1942 Dachau), Venerable Fr. Norbert KOMPALLA (1942 Dachau), Venerable Fr. Adam MALUSZYNSKI (1945 Mittelbau), Venerable Fr. Jozef SLUPINA (1940 Auschwitz), Venerable Fr. Leon WIACKIEWICZ (1944 Gross-Rosen), Fr. Karol BRODA (1944 Mauthausen), Fr. Stanislaw SZADKO (1943 Dachau), bro. Franciszek DRYGAS (1944 Gross-Rosen), bro. Jan DRYGAS (1944 Gross-Rosen), deacon Antoni ZUREK (1945 Bergen-Belsen), Fr. Kazimierz CALKA (1942 Dachau), Fr. Jozef KRAUZE (1940 Auschwitz), Fr. Jozef LENKO (1944 Gross-Rosen), bro. Wojciech BOGACZ (1944 Gross-Rosen), bro. Ludwik MUZALEWSKI (1944 Gross-Rosen), bro. Aleksander CAP (1944 Gross-Rosen), bro. Jozef STOPINSKI (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. Stanislaw WIOREK
Number of others died after repressions, persecutions and arrests, due to malnutrition and illnesses:
Bro. Jozef Olszak (1943 Tarnow), Fr.. Jan Cepurski (1941 Milatyn, Ukraine), Fr.. Sylwester Graczyk (1940 Warsaw), Fr. Jan Weissmann (1942 Krakow), Fr. Cezary Kaminski (1944 Vilnius, Lithuania), Fr. Franciszek Smidoda (1944 Krakow), Fr. Jan Kominek (1943 Lwow), Fr. Jan Kisiel (1940 Lviv, Ukraine), Fr. Edmund Krauze (1943 Warsaw), Fr. Franciszek Zdzieblo (1945 Koronowo), Fr. Stanislaw Kalla (1943 Warsaw), Fr. Kazimierz Musial‚ (1940 Krakow), bro. Jozef Fedzin (1943 Krakow), bro. Jozef Sasak (1942 Lviv, Ukraine), bro. Jan Kwiatkowski (1941 Vilnius, Lithuania), Fr. Antoni Weiss (1944 Krakow), seminarian Emanuel Kabiesz (1943 Krakow), Fr. Jozef Rzychon (1944 Warsaw), bro. Wladyslaw Uruski (1944 Warsaw), Fr. Stanislaw Ciszowski (1943 Vilnius), bro. Michal‚ Wegrzyn (1943 Krakow), Fr. Wawrzyniec Strzelczyk (1942 Krakow), Fr. Jan Gancarz (1940 Krakow), Fr. Wilhelm Michalski (1943 Warsaw), bro. Franciszek Grzesko (1943 Warsaw), Fr. Franciszek Komander (1939 Pabianice), seminarian Wiktor Andrusiewicz (1939 Vilnius, Lithuania), bro. Kazimierz Zniszczynski (1940 Lviv, Ukraine), bro. Michal‚ Wolak (1944 Sandomierz), seminarian Wlodzimierz Tymec (1941 Krakow), bro. Marcin Kudlek (1942 Krakow)
Tags: CM, Congregation of the Mission, dachau, martyrs, Poland, Polish Province, WWII
