Włodzimierz Szembek

Włodzimierz Szembek SDB (born April 2, 1883 in Poręba Żegoty ; † September 22, 1942 in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp ) was a Polish religious priest and a victim of National Socialism, which is why the Roman Catholic Church honors him as a servant of God .

Life

The son of a count first studied agriculture at the Jagiellonian University and then worked on the family estate. His charity had brought him social prestige early on. On February 4, 1928, at the age of 45, he entered the apprenticeship at Auschwitz and a little later the novitiate of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Czerwińsk nad Wisłą . He made his first profession on August 8 the following year. After his pedagogical and pastoral internship, he began to study theology in Auschwitz and in the Salesian Student Council in Krakow. He was ordained a priest on June 8, 1934 in Cracow . He had then worked at a Salesian seminary as a provincial secretary, economist, teacher, and lecturer in agriculture.

After the outbreak of World War II, he worked in Skawa . On July 9, 1942, he was arrested by the Gestapo , tortured and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp on September 16; provided with the number 60019.

He is one of those 122 servants of God whose process of beatification as a martyr began on September 17, 2003.

Web links

• Entry on santiebeati.it (Italian)