Bronisław Komorowski (priest)
Bronisław Komorowski (born May 25, 1889 in Barłożno near Starogard , † March 22, 1940 in the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig ) was a priest, politician and blessed of the Catholic Church .
Life
Bronisław Komorowski was the child of a long-established Polish farming family. He had eight step-siblings from his parents' first marriages. His younger brother died in the first year of life, sister Anna was born in 1892. The father died in 1892 and his mother was married for the third time. Bronisław grew up with his stepfather, the wealthy landowner Jan Fankidejski. In 1924 he became mayor of Barłożno. Of three other step-siblings, only the youngest brother survived
Two close relatives of the stepfather, the patriotic priest Jakub Fankidejski and the pastor and politician Feliks Bolt (1864–1940) became great role models . The latter became a member of the Sejm in 1919 and a Senator of the Second Republic in 1922 and 1930 .
After graduating from high school, he entered the seminary in Pelplin in 1910 . In 1914 he was ordained a priest and became vicar of the parish of Langenau near Praust .
He then came to Danzig ( Gdańsk ) to the St. Nicholas parish. The young pastor campaigned for the Polish minority from the start. Since 1919 he has preached in Polish. After the creation of the Free City of Danzig , there were repeated smaller and larger tensions between Germans and Poles. The church tried to balance and to be there for all Catholics indiscriminately. In 1924, pastor Komorowski was given the task of looking after the Polish Catholics in particular. The following year he inaugurated an independent Polish station mission. The St. Stanislaus Church in Danzig-Langfuhr (today: Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz ) was consecrated in May 1925 . Located not far from the Polenhof , it became one of the centers of Polish culture in the Free State. He was also the first pastor of the Polish students at the Technical University in Langfuhr .
In 1933/34 Komorowski became a city councilor in Gdansk, where there was only one representative of the Polish minority. He ran twice in vain for the People's Day , but in 1935 he came to the Free State Parliament for a few weeks as a representative. For a short time he was Vice President of the Polish Community of the Free State. The result of his efforts was the unification within the Polish community.
Together with Franciszek Rogaczewski he wanted to reach Polish personal parishes in Danzig. But when he and Rogaczewski were appointed pastors on October 10, 1937, the bishop had to withdraw the previously given oral appointment in writing on October 13. This happened under pressure from the German speakers, who were increasingly influenced by National Socialism . As a result of this affair, Bishop O'Rourke submitted his resignation.
The 25th anniversary of his priestly work on April 2, 1939 in the St. Stanislaus Church turned into a great patriotic demonstration in the presence of the Polish Commissioner General Marian Chodacki .
Early in the morning on the first day of World War I , September 1, 1939, pastors Komorowski, Rogaszewski, Bernhard von Wiecki , and clergymen Władysław Szymanski and Marian Górecki were arrested by SS men and imprisoned in the Victoria School and later in the Gestapo building in Gdansk -Neugarten transferred. Bishop Splett took great care of his priests and was even able to visit them briefly.
A few weeks later he was deported to Stutthof to set up the concentration camp . He and other priests were treated particularly badly. In March 1940 he was assigned to a penal unit. On Good Friday , March 22, 1940, Komorowski was shot together with the clergyman Marian Górecki and 66 other people. Before they were shot, the executioners scornfully drew attention to the day of Jesus' crucifixion.
In 1947 his body was exhumed and buried in the honorary cemetery in Zaspa ( Gdańsk-Zaspa , Saspe ).
Beatification and Remembrance
On June 13, 1999, Pope John Paul II beatified 108 Polish martyrs of German National Socialist persecution on Piłsudski Square in Warsaw . Among them were the three Gdańsk clergymen Marian Górecki , Bronisław Komorowski and Franciszek Rogaczewski .
In Wrzeszcz ( Langfuhr ) a memorial commemorates the Polish pastor. An elementary school is also named after him there. A plaque on the Marienkapelle in Söder near Hildesheim gives his name.
His great role model, the priest and politician Feliks Bolt , was arrested by the Gestapo in October 1939 . First in the priestly prison in Dembowalonka , he came to Stutthof on March 21, 1940 , where he died a few days later on April 7, 1940. He was later also buried in Gdańsk-Zaspa.
The Catholic Church accepted Bronislaus Komorowski as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .
See also
literature
- Martin Reichenbach: Florilegium Martyrologii Romani. 2001, o. O.
- Martin Schumacher (Ed.): MdL, the end of parliaments in 1933 and the members of the state parliaments and citizenships of the Weimar Republic during the National Socialist era: political persecution, emigration and expatriation 1933–1945; a biographical index / [Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties], 1995, ISBN 3770051890 , p. 85, item 670
- Helmut Moll (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. The German Martyrology of the 20th Century , 6th, expanded and restructured edition. Paderborn u. a. 2015, ISBN 978-3-506-78080-5 , Volume I, pp. 766-767.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Komorowski, Bronislaw |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Roman Catholic clergyman and Nazi victim, Blessed |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 25, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Barloschno , German Empire |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 22, 1940 |
| Place of death | Stutthof concentration camp , German Empire |