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4/30/2018 0 Comments April 30th, 2018  Execution of Polish Roman Catholic priest, in Kalisz, in the Autumn of 1939, after the German Socialists invaded Poland, on September 1, 1939, and occupied an area that would be known as the Reichsgau Wartheland, from where Catholics and racial Poles would be cleansed.
VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król!
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4/29/2018 0 Comments April 29th, 2018  4/28/2018 0 Comments April 28th, 2018  "Divine Will," was all Father Edward Grzymała had time to say when he was arrested by the Gestapo, the German secret state police, on August 26, 1940.
Shipped to Sachsenhausen camp, he was then transferred to Dachau extermination camp, where he received number 22664, and where guards gave the following speech: "You are prisoners. Society has given up on you, removed you from life. You are in Dachau, and here is a concentration camp from where no one leaves." After suffering from starvation, slave labor, cold weather, sickness, exhaustion, he was moved to the Invalid Block 29. On August 10, 1942, Father Edward Grzymała was last seen walking toward the Dachau railway ramp, in the Transport of Invalids, headed for Austria, where prisoners were loaded into transport vans that drove toward the Hartheim Castle, which had been changed into the Hartheim Euthanasia Center. However, the van was not a delivery van, but a sealed gas chamber, into which German guards directed the exhaust pipes and gas inside the van. The gassing took 5 to 7 minutes, and the bodies were burned in the crematorium and the ashes of Father Edward Grzymała were scattered on nearby Austrian fields. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/26/2018 0 Comments April 26th, 2018   Father Eduard Detkens was transported from Dachau extermination camp to Hartheim Euthanasia Center, where the German Socialists executed their plan of Vernichtung von lebensunwertem Leben, which translates to Destruction of a Life Unworthy of Life.
Leaving the camp in the transport van, Father Detkens, Prisoner Number 27831, sang, "Nunc dimittis servum Tuum." Along the way, with the other doomed prisoners in the van, he sang loudly and repeatedly, "I will follow You, Christ, the Way of the Cross, because the Cross is the best Way to you. Give me Christ, through Your Holy Passion wins over the anguish of gas torment." At the end, those traveling in the Invalid Transport van were gassed to death by the German Socialists, who directed the exhaust pipes into the vans, August 10, 1942. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/25/2018 0 Comments April 25th, 2018  "If a priest gets out of the camp, please have him go to Gosławice and tell my parishioners that I will give my life for them," were the dying words of Father Dominik Jędrzejewski, on August 29, 1942, in Dachau extermination camp.
Hitler's death troops invaded Poland, on September 1, 1939, and immediately, the German Soclialists began their programs of rounding up, imprisoning and liquidating the intellectuals of those determined to be of Polish race, almost 90% of the population. Gestapo, the Socialists' thugs, arrested Father Dominik Jędrzejewski, on August 26, 1940, and then transferred him to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he received Number 29935. With 525 priests, Father Jędrzejewski was shipped to Dachau extermination camp, on December 14, 1940, where he received Number 22813, and lived in Block 28. For prisoners, each day was a day of pain and sorrow, with starvation, beatings, torture, endless roll calls, slave labor, vindictive kapos and sadistic guards. In Dachau, it was announced in February 1942, that the elderly and near-death prisoners were to be transferred via the Invalid Transports to Hartheim Castle. But it was not a resort. It had been converted to Hartheim Euthanasia Center, where the German Socialists executed their plan of Vernichtung von lebensunwertem Leben, which translates to Destruction of a Life Unworthy of Life. Prisoners in the camp knew that those who left on the Invalid Transports never returned, so as Father Jędrzejewski's health declined, his fellow priest prisoners literally helped him up and helped him walk, to prevent him from being shipped off to the Hartheim Euthanasia Center, where those traveling in the Invalid Transport vans were gassed to deathy by the German Socialists who directed the exhaust pipes into the vans. Father Jędrzejewski perished from starvation and exhaustion, on August 29, 1942. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/24/2018 0 Comments April 24th, 2018  Father Franciszek Borgiasz Kilian was arrested, on May 16, 1941, by the Socialist Germans during a massive sweep of Catholics, including those in the Higher Theological seminary in Ołtarzew, where he was a professor of biblical studies, Hebrew language, speculative philosophy and ethics.
First imprisoned in Pawiak, in Warsaw, he was shipped to Auschwitz extermination camp, on May 28, 1941, where he received the number 16711. Beaten, tortured and kicked in the abdomen by a kapo, he was sentenced to death by starvation in Barrack 13, the Death Barrack, where he died November 10, 1941. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/23/2018 0 Comments April 23rd, 2018   Gestapo arrested Father Bolesław Strzelecki, on January 7, 1941, while he distributed bread to the poor after Mass.
Locked up in Radom Prison, the Gestapo headquarters, he was interrogated and tortured until shipped to Auschwitz extermination camp, on April 5, 1941, where he received number 13002. He died on May 2, 1941, after brutally beaten with an oak stick by worker prisoner. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/22/2018 0 Comments April 22nd, 2018  On September 1, 1939, Hitler's death troops invaded Poland.
On September 7, 1939, Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Main Security Office, ordered, "The leading layers of the Polish population should be disposed of as much as possible." The German Socialists soon began targeting the intellectual elites, in an action of repression, retaliation and execution called the Intelligenzaktion. Subsequently, 50,000 teachers, priests, landowners, social and political activists were executed. Another 50,000 were shipped to extermination camps, where most were killed. Father Antoni Zawistowski, along with bishops and about 100 other priests from Lublin, Chełm and other towns, were arrested on November 17, 1939. On November 23, the Jesuits were arrested. Transported to Sachsenhausen, during the solemnity of Pentecost 1940, Father Zawistowski secretly celebrated Mass for the Polish priests, his fellow prisoners. "We are here for faith, the Church and the Fatherland; for this matter we consciously give life," he said. On December 14, 1940, he was shipped to Dachau extermination camp, where he received the number 22553 and was beaten, starved, tortured and forced to labor. After he was, again, beaten and tortured by one of the guards, Father Zawistowski died, on June 4, 1942. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/21/2018 0 Comments April 21st, 2018     The death troops of Hitler, a Socialist, stormed into Poland, on September 1, 1939, and began its planned program to "Germanize" the area and to exterminate racial Poles, almost 90% Catholic.
"We have to eliminate the lice-ridden Poles, starting with those in the cradle. In your hands I give the fate of the Poles; you can do with them what you want," declared Socialist Albert Forster, the head of the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. The crowd of ethnic Germans before him chanted, "Kill the Polish dogs!" and "Death to the Poles!" Father Antoni Świadek, a Polish priest from Bydgoszcz -- a city in the district under Albert Forster -- avoided arrest until the summer of 1942, when it was reported to authorities that he had heard a confession in Polish. Imprisoned in a Bydgoszcz prison, he was treated brutally. And then on October 7, 1942, Father Świadek was shipped to Dachau, where he received Number 37193, painted on a triangular patch worn on camp clothing. Placed in the Priest Block, he endured beatings, starvation, exhaustion and disease. He contracted typhus, transmited from fleas and lice. Only months before the surrender of the German Socialists, Father Świadek died, on January 26, 1945. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/20/2018 0 Comments April 20th, 2018   Under the direction of Hitler, the German Socialists set about the tactical extermination of the Polish race (almost 90% Catholic), after invading Poland.
Father Antoni Beszta-Borowski was warned that the Germans had moved into the Białystok region and were beginning to liquidate Poles, in what would be a mass execution of 2,000 over a two-day period that would be remembered as Black July 1943. But he refused to leave his parishioners. At 4 in the morning, the Gestapo forced their way into the rectory, pulled the priest out of his bed, and arrested him. Gathered with others who had also been arrested, Father Beszta-Borowski began hearing confessions. Furious, the Germans smashed him in the face and loaded him onto a truck, which drove to Pilicki Forest, where a pit was dug. In his hands, Father Beszta-Borowski held a rosary and a breviary and listened to the confessions of his fellow condemned Catholics, praying with them and preparing them for death, as the Germans ordered them to remove their coats and shoes and walk over to the pit. There, in the forest, in the morning of July 15, 1943, Father Antoni Beszta-Borowski, the Catholic pastor was executed by gunfire along with his sheep, whom he refused to abandon. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/19/2018 0 Comments April 19th, 2018      The Gestapo, the German Secret Police, arrested Father Antoni Rewera, on March 16, 1942. Locked up with many other priests in the royal castle in Sandomierz, he underwent numerous interrogations.
On March 28, 1942, he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he became Number 27458. On May 5, 1942, he was shipped to Dacau, where the Germans held thousands of Polish priests. He became Number 30304. Before long, because of the horrendous conditions, his health began to fade, and he was transferred, on June 27, 1942, to the Invalid Barracks, Block 27, where he died from starvation and exhaustion, on October 1, 1942. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/18/2018 0 Comments April 18th, 2018  Hitler's death troops stormed into Poland, on September 1, 1939, igniting World War II and stealing land from the Poles to make room for German occupiers.
Father Anastazy Jakub Pankiewicz, Roman Catholic Franciscan priest-monk, was in the monastery in Łódź when the German Socialist Gestapo forced their way into the monastery, on January 2, 1940, and forced all the monks out. The Germans took over the monastery and used it as a stable and garage. "On 13.09.1941 Gaulaiter of German‑occupied Wartheland, Artur Greiser, implementing "Ohne Gott, ohne Religion, ohne Priesters und Sakramenten"— "without God, without religion, without priest and sacrament"— policy issued a decree formally dissolving Catholic Church and forming in its place a Roman Catholic German National Church in Wartheland, an organization subject to a German private law. All the contacts with Vatican were forbidden. All the religion congregations were also dissolved. On 06‑07.10.1941 mass arrests of Polish Catholic priests took place. All were herded into Konstantynów or Ląd on Warta river transit camps or KL Posen concentration camp. On 30.10.1941 most of them were transported to KL Dachau concentration camp." -- FROM: http://www.swzygmunt.knc.pl.Father Anastazy Jakub Pankiewicz was arrested on October 6, 1941,the day that the Germans conducted a mass arrest of almost all the priests in Wartheland, in an attempt to liquidate the Catholic Church. He was taken to a transit camp in Konstantynów Łódzki, and from there, on October 30, 1941, he was shipped to Dachau extermination camp, where he was Prisoner 28176. Forced to work all day, in all weather conditions and little food, beatings, exhaustion, many priests died, and in front of the camp crematorium was a stack of bodies of Polish priests, waiting to be burned. On May 20, 1942, Father Anastazy Jakub Pankiewicz was selected to go with the Transport of Invalids, to Hartheim Euthanasia Center. After he climbed inside the train and tried to help the last aboard, a German guard slammed the door shut, and the sharp metal edges of the door sliced off both hands of Father Anastazy Jakub Pankiewicz. From the train station, the prisoners were transported with vans to Hartheim castle, but the vans were soon used as a sealed gas chamber with exhaust pipes delivering lethal poison to those inside. The poisoning of the prisoners took only 5 to 7 minutes. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/17/2018 0 Comments April 17th, 2018    Father Paweł Alojzy Liguda was appointed rector of the Society of the Divine Word Missionaries, in Górna Grupa, months before Hitler's death troops stormed into Poland, on September 1, 1939, igniting World War II.
The German Socialists quickly took over the monastery, on October 29, 1939, and used it as a temporary internment camp for the Catholic monks, as well as 80 other priests and seminarians from other dioceses. On November 11, 15 priests and 2 others were executed in the Mniszka Forest. Father Liguda and the remaining others were shipped to a German prison camp in Gdańsk, in July 1940, then to the Stutthof concentration camp, and then, finally, to Dachau extermination camp, on November 16, 1940, where he received the number 22604 tattooed on his forearm. At Dachau, he suffered torture, beatings, starvation, scabies, the freezing cold and fell ill with tuberculosis. Toward the end of 1942, he was transferred to the Disabled People's Barracks. Those in the camp knew from experience the next move was the Invalids Transports, headed for the Hartheim Euthanasia Institute, where the enemies of the German Socialists were gassed. But it was not to be. Instead, on December 8, 1942, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Father Paweł Alojzy Liguda was murdered during one of the Socialists' brutal medical experiments, in which the "scientists" observed the human skin in icy water. Of those who survived, their skin was peeled off. Before he was submerged, Father Paweł Alojzy Liguda was tortured even more when the German Socialists ripped strips of flesh from his body. Father Paweł Alojzy Liguda did not survive the experiments, but remained faithful to Christ and Pope to the end. His body was burned in the camp crematorium four days later, and a few days later, his mother received a clay urn with ashes and the number 22604. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/16/2018 0 Comments April 16th, 2018   Father Alfons Maria of Holy Ghost (birth name Józef Mazurek) was the rector in the monastery of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, in Czerna, Poland, when the Socialist Germans stormed into Poland.
On August 28, 1944, the Germans pushed their way into the monastery, searched the premises and forced the monks out. Father Alfons remained calm and briefly knelt before the Blessed Sacrament before joining his conferes. The Nazi soldiers rounded up the monks, intending to use them to dig trenches for the German troops. Ordered into a vehicle, Father Alfons was later pushed from the wagon with visible signs of a brutal beating. The soldiers then ordered the priest to cross the meadow. With rosary in hand, Father Alfons walked calmly away until one of the soldiers ordered him to turn around. When he did, the soldier shot him in the face. Father Alfons fell, tried to rise, but fell again, as a soldier ran toward him, kicked him and shoved dirt into his mouth. Father Alfons died, with the rosary still clutched in his hand, on August 28, 1944, in Nawojowa Góra, Małopolskie, Poland. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/15/2018 0 Comments April 15th, 2018 Hitler's death troops stormed into Poland, on September 1, 1939, igniting World War II and the persecution of Catholics, who made up nearly 90% of Poland's population.
In an attempt to eliminate Catholics, the political enemies of the German Socialists, Hitler's Gestapo targeted Catholic priests, the intellectual elite, who were morally and ethically opposed to Socialism and who had influential sway over their parishioners. Father Aleksy Sobaszek was celebrating a funeral Mass on November 6, 1941, when the Gestapo stood at the entrance of the church doors. Even though some fled from the church, Father Sobaszek continued with the Mass until the Gestaop stopped him. "So much the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross, we must also suffer a little," Father Sobaszek said to those gathered, as the Gestapo handcuffed and shackled him. Locked up in Poznań concentration camp, he was soon shipped to Dachau extermination camp, where he received the number 28086 and was placed in the Priest Block with other political enemies of the German Socialists. Father Sobaszek died November 1, 1942, All Saints' Day. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/14/2018 0 Comments April 14th, 2018 After the Gestapo arrested one of the priests in Myszyniec parish, the vicar, Father Adam Bargielski, presented himself, on April 9, 1940, at the Gestapo police station and offered himself in exchange for the release of the parish priest.
The parish priest was released, and Father Bargielski was arrested and transported to Solldau concentration camp. On April 25, 1940, he was transferred to Dachau extermination camp, where he was registered as prisoner number 4860. On May 25, 1940, he was shipped to Gusen labor camp, where he slaved in the quarries. When he could physically no longer work, he was returned to Dachau, where he was beat to death by a German guard, on September 8, 1942. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/13/2018 0 Comments April 13th, 2018     After Hitler's death troops stormed into Poland, on September 1, 1939, sparking World War II, it wasn't long before the German Socialists put into action their plans of eliminating non-German Poles (nearly 90% were Catholic) to make room for the Germans to take over land and possessions.
In one of their sweeps, the Gestapo arrested Bishop Władysław Goral, at noon on November 17, 1939, in Lublin, as part of the Sonderaktion Lublin, the program to eliminate from Lublin the intellectual elite, those who influenced society, especially Catholics, considered political enemies who were morally and ethically opposed to Socialism. Shipped to Sachsenhausen extermination camp on December 4, 1940, Bishop Goral was placed in solitary confinement in cell number 11, in a concrete bunker in the Zellenbau sub-camp. First he received prisoner number 5605, and then in 1943, he received the number 13981. His body was never found, and the date of his death is uncertain, but it is believed that he was executed by gunshot. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/12/2018 0 Comments April 12th, 2018   Days after Hitler's death troops stormed into Poland, on September 1, 1939, the German Socialists took control of Płock, on September 9 , 1939, and incorporated the city into the Third Reich in the section named East Prussia.
After the invasion of Poland, Hitler planned to exterminate "racial" Poles (nearly 90% were Catholic) for two reasons: 1. Catholicism was (and still is) morally and ethically opposed to Socialism; and 2. To make room for those Germans whom Hitler planned to move in and take over the land, to fulfill his Lebensraum plan. Bishop Leon Wetmański, auxiliary bishop of Płock, was swept up by the Gestapo and internned in Słupno, on February 28, 1940. On August 7, 1941, the bishop was arrested and transported to a prison in Płock and then, to his final destination, shipped to Soldau extermination camp in Działdowo, where he was placed in cell number 12, along with other priests. In addition to starvation rations, limited access to the latrines and countless humiliations, Bishop Leon Wetmański suffered constant beatings and sophisticated torture. One day, taken to a basement, when he refused to trample on and desecrate a cross, he was severely beaten. Although his body was never found, camp records reveal that his death occurred on October 10, 1941, cause unknown, but it is believed that he was taken to the the forest in Białuty and executed, still loyal to Christ and to Pope. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/11/2018 0 Comments April 11th, 2018   After Hitler's death troops stormed into Poland, on September 1, 1939, then began the persecution and extermination of Catholic Poles, who made up nearly 90% of the population.
Hitler, a Socialist, ordered the extermination of "racial" Poles for two reasons: 1. Catholicism was (and still is) morally and ethically opposed to Socialism; and 2. To make room for those Germans whom Hitler planned to move in and take over the land, to fulfill his Lebensraum plan. Bishop Antoni Julian Nowowiejski, the bishop of Płock (renamed Schröttersburg during the occupation), was arrested on February 28, 1940. Given the opportunity to escape, he refused, reasoning, "How can a pastor abandon his sheep?" When guards ordered him to stomp on his pectoral cross, the bishop refused and was subsequently tortured. First in Słuck prison and then in Działdowo extermination camp, for three months, he endured torture at the hands of the sadistic Socialist guards. On May 28, 1941, he died, at the age of 83, in Działdowo, from torture and from hunger, but still loyal to Christ and to Pope. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/10/2018 0 Comments April 10th, 2018 Execution of Poles in Kórnik, Warthegau, October 20, 1939. Countless Polish Catholics were killed by the German Socialist Nazis.
"The term 'Gau' refers to a geographic district of the National Socialist German Workers Party. After German occupation of Polish territory in 1939, the Nazi government, in an attempt to streamline party and administrative control, established the Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen and the Reichsgau Posen (later renamed Reichsgau Wartheland) in which the office of the Nazi Party leader (Gauleiter) and government administrator or Reich Lieutenant (Reichsstatthalter) were combined. Hence, Arthur Greiser simultaneously held the posts of Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter in the Reichsgau Wartheland. The region was also frequently referred to simply as the 'Warthegau,' and its capital was Posen, or present-day Poznan. The Warthegau had an area of approximately 44,000 square kilometers and a population, overwhelmingly Polish and Roman Catholic, of more than 4.5 million." -- Jonathan Huener, from "Nazi Kirchenpolitik and Polish Catholicism in the Reichsgau Wartheland, 1939–1941." 4/9/2018 0 Comments April 09th, 2018 PHOTO ABOVE: Public execution of Polish Catholic priests and civilians in Bydgoszcz Old Market Square, on September 9, 1939, in Poland. Excerpt from Jonathan Huener's "Nazi Kirchenpolitik and Polish Catholicism in the Reichsgau Wartheland, 1939-1941."
"With the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, National Socialist Germany aimed to destroy the Polish nation and Polish national consciousness. The Nazi regime attempted to accomplish this in a variety of ways, including the destruction of Polish cultural institutions, forced resettlement, forced labor, incarceration in prisons and camps, random and systematic roundups of prisoners, and mass murder. To the German authorities in occupied Poland and to many Poles, it was obvious that the occupation would target the Polish Catholic Church with vigor and brutality. Catholicism was the religion of approximately 65 percent of interwar Poland's population: it dominated religious life, held tremendous wealth and political power, and its clergy were widely respected as members of the intelligentsia. More importantly for the Germans, the Catholic Church was a locus and symbol of Polish national identity. "The Nazi regime's hostility to the Polish Catholic Church was revealed in discrimination and brutality, but German policy, contrary to what many would assume, was not uniform. The Church suffered less in the General Government -- the German colony established in central Poland -- than in those regions annexed to the Reich, which included eastern Pomerania and the subsequent Reichsgau of Danzig-Westpreussen in the north, Upper Silesia in the south, and the Reichsgau Wartheland or 'Warthegau' in the west. The Nazi agenda of economic, cultural, and racial germanization was pursued most vigorously in these regions, and especially in the Warthegau, where persecution of the Church was most aggressive." VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/9/2018 0 Comments April 09th, 2018 Father Albertus Wei remained in custody and continued to be tortured by the Chinese Communist guards.
One time, he was suspended for six consecutive days and nights by the wrists, which had been tied behind his back. He weakened, sickened. Then, on November 27, 1951, Father Albertus’ body, covered in open, oozing wounds, was given to the monks. Not wanting another martyr to die in their prison, the Communists contacted the monks and tossed out Father Albertus. Tall, several inches over 6 feet, his discolored, skeletal body lay crumbled on a black board. His face was a pale gray and full of pus and blood. He was nearly dead, so nearly dead, but he clung on, until he breathed his last, 20 days later. VIVA CRISTO REY! 萬歲耶穌基督國王! 4/8/2018 0 Comments April 08th, 2018 Imprisoned for refusing to join the Communist Chinese national catholic church, Father Vincentius Shih was tied up with his wrists roped to his ankles. He could neither stand nor lie down, only sit. For 12 days he remained tied, until finally freed by a guard who couldn’t resist a verbal jab.
“See, the Master of the Sky cannot untie you, but I have the power,” one of the guards said to the priest. “You would not have done so, if the Master of the Sky had not given you the right inspiration,” Father Vincentius answered. Furious, the guard clenched his fists and pounded Father Vincentius, all over his head and his body. With the harsh treatment, Father Vincentius’ tuberculosis soon reactivated. Inside his cell, he was exposed to the dank air, prompting his health to deteriorate rapidly. His feet and legs swelled until the skin cracked open. The raw flesh became inflamed and infected, oozing pus and blood. Boils popped up and erupted on his wrists. But he never complained. And he never asked for medicine. “It is not a serious matter. Never mind,” he said when others requested treatment for him. Then in the beginning of August 1951, Father Vincentius could no longer walk out of the cell on his own. When he had to relieve himself in the cellblock’s latrine or attend a political study (brainwashing) session outside his cell, he had to be carried out. Then, on the evening of August 5, a Sunday, he could no longer stand. To eat, unthinkable. Control over his bowels, impossible. Everything emptied onto his cot. Guards transferred him to a smaller cell, and ordered Father Albertus Wei to assist him. The next morning, August 6, the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, after much coaxing from Father Albertus, Father Vincentius sipped down a bowl of broth. In the afternoon, he nibbled at two spoonfuls of boiled rice and refused any more. He grew aggravated. Known as one of the most patient and loving monks of Our Lady of Joy, never before had he displayed any aggravation. He began to babble. Around midnight, in a feverish delirium, he banged his feet on the floor without stopping. A guard stormed down the hallway from the prison block’s control center to the priests’ cell door. “Why don’t you be quiet and go to sleep at such time! Stop fooling around!” he hollered. “Shih is going to die,” Father Albertus said. The guard ran down the hall to notify his supervisor, Officer Pai. He rushed to Father Vincentius’ cell with a doctor, who gave the priest an injection, then left briefly, but soon returned carrying a bowl of water, with grass floating in it. He held it up to Father Vincentius’ lips, slowly poured the liquid into his mouth, and the priest soon calmed down. When Father Albertus saw that Father Vincentius had drifted to sleep, he curled up in a corner away from the dying priest, in order to get some sleep himself. Dawn, August 7. It was a Tuesday. Rain poured outside. Father Albertus awoke, rose and touched Father Vincentius. Dead cold. Father Albertus gave him absolution, then burst into tears, furious at himself for being selfish and falling asleep, furious at himself for missing Father Vincentius’ last words, his last breath. He wept as he washed the body of Father Vincentius, and clothed the dead man in his cleanest dirty rags. “I would die for this monastery,” Father Vincentius had repeatedly told his fellow monks before his arrest. And he did -- faithful to Christ and to Pope. VIVA CRISTO REY! 萬歲耶穌基督國王! 4/7/2018 0 Comments April 07th, 2018 When Hitler and his death troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Father Johann Baczek resided in Łódź, a city that would be taken over by the Socialist Germans, on September 8, 1939, and renamed Litzmannstadt.
The city was in a larger section of Poland that was occupied by the German Socialists and named Reichsgua Wartheland. Father Baczek, a professor of moral theology and canon law in Łódź Theological Seminary, was a Catholic, a scholar and a true intellectual, which caused him to earn the label of a political enemy of the German Socialists. Father Baczek was arrested, on October 6, 1941, swept up in the mass arrests of Polish Catholic priests on the 6th and 7th of October 1941, in Reichsgua Wartheland. The arrests followed the September 13, 1941 Socialist German's implentation of the decree of "Without God, Without Religion, Without Priest and Sacrament," in the German-occupied Warthegau. That policy of German Socialist Arthur Greiser (the governor of Wartheland) dissolved the Roman Catholic Church and replaced it with the Catholic German National Church, separate from the Vatican and subject to German law. After the arrest of Father Baczek, he was temporarily imprisoned in Konstantynów and then transported to Dachau extermination camp, on October 30, 1941, where he received the number 28362. To his final destination, he was shipped to Hartheim Euthanasia Center, where he was exterminated, gassed to death in a gas chamber, on May 4, 1942, the same day as Father Jan Bak, from the Gniezno-Poznań archdiocese in Poland. VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król! 4/7/2018 0 Comments April 07th, 2018 Most of the Trappist monks forced on the Death March had already died along the way, tortured by their captors, Communist soldiers.
Father Theodorus Yuan (b. 1916) was one of the last to die, but he died from tuberculosis in April 1947, alone, in a dark cell, a prisoner till death. At the end, when ordered to walk, he resembled a living corpse without a grave. Father Theodorus was not the first martyr in his family. The first had been butchered in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. He had been born in Chih Fang Kou, Chahar province, about 12 miles from Yang Kia Ping. He had a photographic memory and could recite complete passages from a book after reading it only once. At the Trappist abbey, Father Theodorus had been the very first oblate in the very first class, when, at the age of 11, he entered Pei Kou school on August 13, 1929. VIVA CRISTO REY! 萬歲耶穌基督國王! |
AuthorTHERESA MARIE MOREAU is an award-winning reporter who covers Catholicism and Communism. Archives
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