Fr Jan Świerc and his fellow martyrs were nine Salesian priests who placed their fidelity to God above their own lives: their story begins where human logic ends and holiness begins. Eight of them died at Auschwitz, one at Dachau.
Fr Jan Świerc, Fr Ignacy Antonowicz, Fr Karol Golda, Fr Włodzimierz Szembek, Fr Franciszek Harazim, Fr Ludwik Mroczek, Fr Ignacy Dobiasz, Fr Kazimierz Wojciechowski and Fr Franciszek Miśka: nine Salesians, educators and pastors who dedicated their entire lives to Polish youth and sealed their witness with their blood in the Nazi extermination camps.
In the presentation, Fr Prof. Sylwester Jędrzejewski, a Salesian of Don Bosco, Professor Emeritus at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków and currently archivist of the Salesian Province of St Hyacinth in Kraków Poland (PLS), outlines their biographies, the historical context of the Nazi regime’s persecution of the Church, and the extraordinary legacy of Don Bosco’s educational system, which survived even the terror of war.
The young Karol Wojtyła – the future John Paul II – witnessed the arrest of some of these priests in the church of Dębniki in Krakow, and one cannot help but wonder how that encounter with martyrdom shaped his spirituality and his vocation.
The story told is a timeless testimony to the fact that love for God and for humanity is stronger than any system of violence.
The video of the conference is available on the YouTube channel and on the Institute’s Facebook page.
Krzysztof Sadło,
Programme Director of IDMJP2
Photo: Institute Archive
