Today is the Day of Martyrdom of the Polish clergy.
Every 5th Polish diocesan priest was murdered by Germans in occupied Poland. 4 bishops died in the camps – apart from the diocesan bishop Antoni Julian Nowowiejski – 3 auxiliary bishops: Władysław Goral from Lublin in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Leon Wetmanski of Płock in an extermination camp in Dziadów and Michał Kozal from Włocławek in a concentration camp in Dachau.
About 10,000 diocesan priests Germans murdered about 2,000 priests, or about 20 percent. About 8,000 monks were murdered 370. With about 17,000 nuns, the Germans murdered about 280. To add, about 4,000 priests and monks and about 1,100 spiritual sisters were sent to camps. In the 21st Roman Catholic Diocese in Poland, 9 were without bishops of the Ordinaries who were interned or forced to emigrate. On the emigration there was the Polish primate cardinal. August Hlond and Bishop of Włocławski Karol Radonski. The Germans besides interned Bishop of Lublin Marian Fulman, Bishop of Lodz Vladimir Jasiński and Bishop of Lodz Stanisław Adamski.
The symbol of martyrdom of the Polish clergy in 1939–1945 is KL Dachau close Munich, to which a full of 2794 monks, deacons, priests and Catholic bishops were sent. 1773 clergymen came from Poland. Among the prisoners was a wise patriot Archbishop Kazimierz Majdański.
It is besides worth to quote these data in the context of the “harassment” of the Church in Poland after 1956. due to the fact that today's historical communicative forgets the real Holocaust of the Polish clergy.
Lye
