April 03rd, 2018

When Hitler's death troops marched into Poland, Father Adalbert "Krystyn" Gondek, in the Order of Friars Minor, was the vicar of the monastery, confessor and preacher in Włocławek.

But the Socialist Germans had plans for the land that they had grabbed, and that included Włocławek: the Germanization of the Reichsgau Wartheland, introduced on January 29, 1940.

The German Socialists forcibly removed the Polish people from Wartheland, which included those in Włocławek.

One of those, Father Adalbert "Krystyn" Gondek, was arrested by the Gestapo on August 26, 1940, on the solemnity of Our Lady of Częstochowa.

First shipped to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the priest was then transferred to Dachau extermination camp, on December 12, 1940, where he was renamed Prisoner Number 32779.

Of delicate health, he suffered from a chronic pulmonary disease, as well as torture by the guards, but he remained faithful to God.

As death approached, he was removed from his barracks and told his fellow prisoners:

"I will not come back again, because the Lord is waiting for me. I'm going to the Lord. See you in heaven."

Father Adalbert "Krystyn" Gondek died, on July 23, 1942, and his body was burned in the camp's crematorium.

VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król!