Grzegorz Frąckowiak

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Grzegorz Frąckowiak SVD (* 18 July 1911 as Boleslaw Frackowiak in Lowencice at Jaratschewo in county Jarotschin , Prussia ; † 5. May 1943 in Dresden ) was a Roman Catholic religious order , who during the German occupation of Poland in World War II by the Nazi - Justice as a resistance fighter was sentenced to death and executed. He is recognized as a martyr in the Catholic Church and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1999 .

Life

Origin and career

Boleslaus ( Polish Bolesław) was born in 1911 in the village of Lowencice ( Łowęcice ) as the eighth of nine surviving children of Andreas Frackowiak (Andrzej Frąckowiak) and his wife Sophia. Plontzek (Zofia Płończak) was born. The family belonged to the Polish part of the population and lived in the southeast of what was then the Prussian province of Posen , which after the First World War largely fell to Poland as a result of the Poznan uprising with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 .

Bolek, as his siblings called him, attended the elementary school in Wojciechowo . When the Steyler missionaries took over the parish pastoral care in Bruczków in 1927 , his parents registered him at the boys' seminar of the community, where he could attend high school. However, he was unable to follow the material, which was too demanding in view of his previous education. Thereupon Bolesław entered on the advice of his tutors on November 16, 1929 as a missionary brother in the order . The brothers training took place in the provincial house instead of the Order, the Divine Word Mission St. Joseph house in Gorna Grupa where he first a ten-month postulate graduated with his investiture to the September 8, 1930 religious name Grzegorz ( Gregory received). During the subsequent novitiate of the brothers , which he also spent in Górna Grupa, he worked in the printing shop and learned the bookbinding trade . Afterwards he was porter and sacristan in the mission house and also trained apprentice bookbinders himself . On September 8, 1938, he made his perpetual vows .

Chaplain in the underground

After the German invasion of Poland , the mission house in Górna Grupa was occupied by the Wehrmacht and in November 1939 the Gestapo converted it into a collection camp for Polish clergy. The mission brothers who were not priests were allowed to leave the crowded home. Brother Grzegorz stayed on the spot and tried to help the interned clergy. In February 1941 all prisoners were forced to leave the camp and the remaining Steyler missionaries were also expelled from their provincial home. Frąckowiak first moved to a brother in the vicinity of Poznan and worked as a sexton in a parish. Since he was not allowed to register here , he returned to his parents' house and, with the consent of his confrere P. Giczel SVD, who was the pastor of the nearby parish church, worked as a pastoral worker in the vicinity of Łowęcice. He gave religion and communion lessons and visited elderly parishioners. After the arrest of the pastor, who was taken to a concentration camp, from October 1941 all pastoral responsibility lay with Br. Grzegorz, who now also carried out baptisms and distributed sacraments .

Arrest and death

Because of his profession, he got a job in a printing company in Jarocin in early 1942 . At this time he began to distribute a secret patriotic newspaper which he called Dla Ciebie, Polsko ("For you, my Poland"). After these and other forbidden pamphlets repeatedly appeared in the city and Frąckowiak was denounced as one of the authors, the Gestapo raided the print shop in autumn 1942. Many print shop employees were arrested, but Frąckowiak escaped access and went into hiding. At this point he had already withdrawn from the newspaper project for a few months because it seemed too dangerous to his superiors . Although he still had opportunities to flee, he decided on his own initiative, according to the testimony of confreres with whom he consulted, to face the Germans and take responsibility for the leaflet campaigns. He wanted to save the lives of other prisoners, many of whom were family fathers. In fact, after Frąckowiak's arrest, other suspects were released because the Gestapo were convinced that they had found the person responsible in him. Jarocin first took him to the Nazi prison in Schroda and then to the infamous Fort VII in Posen , where he suffered cruel interrogations and severe torture . He revealed two names, but knew that they had already given themselves up. Eventually he was brought to Dresden, where he was sentenced to death in the district court building and executed by guillotine on May 5, 1943 .

Commemoration

Grzegorz Frąckowiak was beatified on June 13, 1999 in Warsaw together with the three Steyler missionaries Stanisław Kubista (1898–1940), Alojzy Liguda and Ludwik Mzyk (1905–1940) by Pope John Paul II, who himself came from Poland. His feast day is May 5th. Together with five Poles who were also executed in Dresden, he is one of the blessed martyrs from Münchner Platz in Dresden , whose joint day of remembrance is celebrated on June 12th. A Roman Catholic parish which was newly established in the Dresden-Meißen diocese on June 1, 2020 was named after them. All of the above are counted among the Polish martyrs of the German occupation regime in World War II.

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personal data
SURNAME Frąckowiak, Grzegorz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frąckowiak, Gregor (religious name); Frackowiak, Boleslaus (maiden name); Frąckowiak, Bolesław (real name); Frackowiak, Grzegorz Boleslaw (other name); Frackowiak, Gregor Boleslaw (other name); Frąckowiak, Bolek (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catholic friar, beatified in 1999
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Lowencice (Łowęcice) near Jaratschewo in the Jarotschin district , Prussia , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH May 5, 1943
Place of death Dresden