ADSS 3.2.413: Notes of Bishop Adamski on Poland

These notes were written by the Bishop of Katowice and represented a summary of the situation that confronted the Polish Church under German occupation.  The terse language belied the suffering of Polish Catholics.  

Stanislaw Adamski

ADSS 3.2.413 Notes of Stanislaw Adamski (Katowice)

Reference: AES 7239/42

Location and date: Warsaw, September 1942.  Arrived in Rome 18.09.1942.

Summary statement: Information on the situation in the Polish dioceses.

Language: Latin

Text:

The Archbishop of Vilnius (1) is imprisoned in Marimopol (2), in the convent of the Marian Brothers (3) in the diocese of Kaunas, (4) (Lithuania).  He is in good health and in contact with his Vicar General, Bishop Reinys, a Lithuanian national.(5)   

The bishop of Pinsk, Bukraba (6) and his auxiliary Niemira (7) are both in Warsaw.  Permission to return to their diocese is refused.

Auxiliary bishop of Wloclavek, Mons. Kozal, has recently died in a concentration camp.(8)

Bishop of Lodz, Jasinski,(9) and his auxiliary Tomczak,(10) are being held in a reformed [Franciscan] convent in Biecz near Krosno in the diocese of Tarnow.

Bishop of Lublin (11) is currently in Nowy Sacz and is refused permission to return to his diocese.  His auxiliary is in a concentration camp.(12)

Bishop of Katowice (13) is in Warsaw; his auxiliary (14) is in Krakow, a long way from the diocese.  The bishop recently named a new vicar general.

The auxiliary of the diocese of Lomza, bishop Takuwski (?) (15), now resides in Ostrow Mazoviecka as Apostolic Administrator of a small part of the diocese.  He has been refused permission to return to Lomza.  Bishop Lukomski is living in his own house. (16)

Clerics of the Latin Rite … [obscured] between three to four thousand priests have been killed or imprisoned.  Many died in the camps through exhaustion and various diseases.  Perhaps about 100-1500 remain alive.  Lately in the camps, the priests only receive a third of a ration of bread.

Priests who ministered as army chaplains have been taken from prisoner of war camps and sent to concentration camps.

Some bishops and auxiliaries are resident in their dioceses and continue to minister there.

A Polish sect who call themselves “Polski konioc narodnj” has united with the German sect of the “Old Catholics” in Utrecht – and given recognition by the General government on 22.04.1941. (See the attachment). (17)

The Vicar General of Katowice (20) has received from the Eminent Cardinal Secretary of State, the letter which has confirmed his nomination.  Thank you.

Cross references: 

(1) Romuald Jalbrzykowski (1876-1955), Archbishop of Vilnius 1926-1955.

(2) Should read Marijampole

(3) The Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded in Poland by Stanislaus Papczyński in 1673.

(4) Should read Vilkaviskis

(5) Mečislovas Reinys (1884-1953), auxiliary bishop of Vilnius, 1940-1953.

(6) Kasimiriz Bukraba (1885-1946), Bishop of Pinsk, 1932-1946.

(7) Karol Niemira (1883-1965), auxiliary bishop of Pinsk, 1933-1946.

(8) Michael Lozal (1893-1943), auxiliary bishop of Wloclawek, 1939-1943.  The report of his death was premature.  Kozal died in KL Dachau on 25.01.1943.  He was beatified as a martyr in 1987.

(9) Włodzimierz Bronisław Jasiński (1873-1965), bishop of Lodz, 1934-1946.

(10) Kazimierz Tomczak (1883-1967), auxiliary bishop of Lodz, 1927-1967.

(11) Marian Fulman (1866-1945), bishop of Lublin, 1918-1945. Fulman was held in Nowy Sacz from 1940 until liberation in January 1945.

(12) Vladislaw Goral (1898-1944), auxiliary bishop of Lublin, 1938-1944. Died in KL Sachsenhausen.

(13) Stanislaw Adamski (1875-1967), bishop of Katowice, 1930-1967.

(14) Juliusz Bieniek (1895-1978), auxiliary bishop of Katowice, 1937-1978.

(15) Tadeusz Zakrzewski (1883-1961), auxiliary bishop of Lomza, 1938-1946.

(16) Stanislaw Lukomski (1874-1948), bishop of Lomza, 1926-1948.

(17) Not published in ADSS.  The organisation referred to were a small break-away group that rejected papal authority because of the alleged silence of the pope.  They sought recognition and union with the Old Catholics, a group of Catholics who rejected the definition of Papal Infallibility of Vatican I (1869-1871).

(18) Franciszek Woznica, (1902-1979), Vicar General of Katowice diocese 1941-1946.