As promised before I present a short history of my grandma's brother Czeslaw. In the meantime I received quite interesting letter from his order via facebook and found another letter, written in 1984 by his sister Krystyna to my mother, describing her memories of Czeslaw. The letter from his order gave me quite reach literature where I can find more info on him.
Below I present only facts which I am sure about, as there are some differences between both letters. I will try to find out more, mainly thanks to the literature given via FB.
Czeslaw was born in 1917 in Lublin. I have no info about his young years. Anyway in 1935 he graduated from Christian College of Saint Fidelin in Lomza. I have two new pictures from that years (the other one was presented in the post on sisters and bros of my grandma). First one might be probably the picture taken just after graduation as it is dated 1935. He is standing top left. Anyway he does not look 18 years old here, does he?
The same year, 1935, he moved to Warsaw and became an acolyte in the church belonging to Capuchin order, taking a habit in 1937 and the vows in 1938. His order name was Wieslaw. In the meantime, in 1936 he stood godfather to my mom.
Being in the order he studied philosophy in Zakroczym. As it was situated near to fortress Modlin, during WWII Capuchins were moved to Lubartow, a small town near Lublin. Thus he was again near to the family.
In the spring of 1940, when nazis arrested Capuchins in Lublin, Capuchin seminarists in Lubartow were sent home by the order. He came home with two other seminarists then and spent with his family last few months together. In the autumn the same year he moved to Warsaw to continue studies.
But in the night of 26/27 of June 1941 all brothers of his order were arrested by nazis and moved to Pawiak (well known nazi jail in Warsaw). There is his, most probably, last taken photo in this jail. Czeslaw is standing first from the left.
On 3rd of September 1941 he was moved to Auschwitz nazi camp (the date I found in the internet, together with his camp number 20352 - 20421).
Czeslaw died in Auschwitz on 5th of February 1942.
10 komentarzy:
It's tragic to hear stories of lives lost as a result of such events. However these stories must be told, people should not forget what took place.
Yes it is a tragic story. But the glorious thing about these old photographs is that they can take places and events which previously were just words and make them real.
What an amazing photograph that top one is! It's so interesting that so many of them have their arms crossed in a very self-protective manner.
I visited Dachau when I was 16 years old and it is something I will never forget. You are fortunate to have that last newspaper photo of your grand-uncle. It is wonderful that you are remembering him and sharing his story with us.
Kat
Thank you so much for sharing. I am fascinated and disgusted at the same time of this era of history. My heart aches for these families. I was just a young girl when all this was going on and entered high school in 1952 and begin my first education in the awful time. Maria Von Trapp visited our high school to tell her story.
QMM
Ther is a Polish Museum near where we live, in Winona Minnesotta; they have several exhibits about the Capuchins. Very interesting to me as always with my Polish heritage. Tragic outcome.
How sad. I was surprised to hear that the Nazis would imprison and kill Capuchins.
Nancy
I am sorry to hear of what happened to your grandmother's brother and the Capuchins. It's good that you have the photos and more of the history.
If only humanity could learn from our past, but sadly not, what a shame that is
A very tragic story indeed, but hopefully we learn through our pasts....and I have to say these are excellent photos....
So very sad, but nice his story has been told and he will now live on.
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