Peter Klimek

Peter Klimek , Polish Piotr Klimek (born November 12, 1881 in Wengern , Opole district ; † October 31, 1940 in Gusen I concentration camp near Mauthausen ) was a German-Polish Catholic clergyman and victim of the Nazi regime . A street in Żory has been named after him.

Life

Peter Klimek was born in 1881 in the Upper Silesian village of Wengern as the son of Ignatz Klimek and Maria, née Kowol, and grew up bilingual. From 1893 he attended the Matthias Gymnasium in Breslau , where he passed his matriculation examination on February 6, 1902, and studied Catholic theology at the University of Breslau . At the same time he attended lectures on Polish literature as a guest auditor . He received the sacrament of ordination on June 23, 1906 in Breslau. During the summer holidays he helped out as a clergyman at the parish in Groß Kottorz and was transferred as parish vicar to the Sebastian Church in Berlin-Gesundbrunnen from September 5, 1906 . On October 22nd, 1911 he came to Königsberg in the Neumark as a curate and worked as the builder of the local church and the rectory . On September 27, 1919 he was appointed provost in Züllichau in the Lebus district.

After the First World War and the cession of Eastern Upper Silesia to Poland in 1922, Klimek was incardinated in the newly created Apostolic Administration of Katowice in 1923 . He taught as a catechist at the high school in Pszczyna . On June 30, 1924, Klimek was appointed administrator and provost to Żory . From October 21, 1933 he worked as dean in the dean's office Żory.

After the attack on Poland , Żory was occupied by the Wehrmacht at the end of October 1939 and renamed Sohrau again. Since Piotr Klimek, despite the ban, celebrated services in the Polish language, he was arrested by the Gestapo on April 12, 1940 and imprisoned in Rybnik prison. At the beginning of May 1940 he was deported to the pastors' block of the Dachau concentration camp , then on to the Gusen I concentration camp near Mauthausen , where he died on October 31, 1940. The body was then cremated in the Mauthausen concentration camp crematorium .

In Żory, the pastor's Piotr-Klimek Street (ulica Księdza Piotra Klimka) was named after him.

Klimek, Piotr . In: Andreas Lawaty (ed.): German-Polish relations in the past and present. Bibliography . Volume 2 (religion). Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 978-3-447-04243-7 , p. 278. (online)

personal data
SURNAME	Klimek, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Klimek, Piotr
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German-Polish Catholic clergyman and Nazi victim
DATE OF BIRTH	November 12, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH	Wengern , Opole district
DATE OF DEATH	October 31, 1940
Place of death	Gusen I concentration camp near Mauthausen