Blessed Martyrs from Münchner Platz Dresden
In the memorial of the Roman Catholic Church, six Polish Nazi victims who were executed in the Dresden execution site on Münchner Platz in 1942 and 1943 are summarized as the group of the blessed martyrs from Münchner Platz Dresden . They are among the victims of the extremely harsh Germanization policy pursued by National Socialist Germany in the so-called Warthegau , which not infrequently turned against church groups and individuals. In Poland you are counted among the Polish martyrs of the German occupation regime in World War II .
Fates
The group of the six blessed martyrs consists of five adolescents from the oratory of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Poznań , who were executed in August 1942, and a Divine Word missionary from Górna Grupa who died eight months later in the same place.
Five boys from the oratorio († 1942)
The five boys Czesław Jóźwiak , Edward Kaźmierski , Franciszek Kęsy , Edward Klinik and Jarogniew Wojciechowski knew each other from the Salesian Oratory, a church youth recreational facility in Poznań, and continued to meet after it was closed by the German military after the attack on Poland . War experiences and the experiences of the occupation challenged their patriotic spirit of resistance. It is possible that the group had contacts with the Polish student and high school student scene, which agreed to go underground for actions against the Germans, including the so-called "Military Organization of the Western Territories" ( Wojskowa Organizacja Ziem Zachodnich , WOZZ). They were arrested on September 21 and 24, 1940, respectively, and initially held in the notorious Fort VII in Poznan . On November 16, 1940, they were transferred to a prison in Wronki . In April 1941 they came to Berlin and in May 1942 they were transferred to the Zwickau prison, where they were sentenced to death on July 31, 1942 for allegedly preparing to commit high treason . The young men, along with other convicts from the Polish resistance, were accused of being members of the Polish national party SN . The judgment of the Higher Regional Court in Poznan , for which the Catholic convictions of the defendants played no role, was issued with retroactive application of the so-called Polish Criminal Law Ordinance of December 4, 1941, which allowed particularly draconian punishments. The death sentence was carried out on August 24, 1942 in the Dresden execution site on Münchner Platz. The prison chaplain, Father Franz Bänsch OMI, accompanied the group of convicts, consisting of eight young Poles, with pastoral care to the scaffold . They were buried by a Franciscan priest on August 28, 1942 in a mass grave in the Outer Catholic Cemetery in Dresden . The five friends from the oratory in Poznan were beatified on June 13, 1999 in Warsaw by the Polish Pope John Paul II .
A Christian missionary brother († 1943)
The Steyler missionary brother Grzegorz Frąckowiak worked in a printing works in Jarocin , where prohibited leaflets were printed. Although he had not been involved in their production and distribution for a long time and initially escaped arrest during a raid by the Gestapo in autumn 1942, he then turned himself in to the Germans and took the blame for the action on himself, for the rest Rescuing prisoners. In fact, other suspects were released. He himself was first taken to the Nazi prison in Środa and then to Fort VII in Poznan, where he had to endure cruel interrogations and severe torture . He was finally brought to Dresden and executed by guillotine on May 5, 1943 . Frąckowiak was also beatified on June 13, 1999 together with the three Steyler missionaries Stanisław Kubista (1898–1940), Alojzy Liguda and Ludwik Mzyk (1905–1940) by Pope John Paul II.
Commemoration
The day of remembrance for the six blessed martyrs from Münchner Platz is June 12th . A tombstone in the New Catholic Cemetery in Dresden commemorates the five young men from Posen.
On June 1, 2020, the parish Blessed Märtyrer vom Münchner Platz Dresden was re-established , consisting of the previous parishes St. Petrus Dresden-Strehlen , St. Paulus Dresden-Plauen , Heilig Geist / St. Antonius Dresden-Löbtau and St. Marien Dresden-Cotta was formed.
literature
- Johannes Wielgoß SDS : Blessed Franciscek Kęsy and Blessed Edward Clinic. In: Helmut Moll (ed.): Witnesses for Christ. The German martyrology of the 20th century. Volume I. 7th, revised and updated edition, Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , pp. 221-224.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ St. Paulus Dresden - The Blessed Martyrs from Münchner Platz (accessed on May 27, 2020).
- ^ German-Polish Society of Saxony - The Blessed Martyrs from Münchner Platz (accessed on May 27, 2020).
- ↑ Founding a parish in the south-west of Dresden (accessed on May 27, 2020)