Bydgoscy świadkowie sprawiedliwości (1939–1956)

Abstract

During World War II, the city of Bydgoszcz saw numerous Nazi atrocities. The suppressed sabotage attempts of the local German minority, an incident that has come down in history as the Bloody Sunday in Bydgoszcz (03.09.1939), were later exploited by Nazi propaganda spreading rumours worldwide of alleged harm to ethnic Germans in the city. Naturally, the truth was entirely different. It was actually the Poles who suffered German violence; these included the local clergy, who paid a tribute of blood and were subjected to a sea of suffering. The Nazis blamed the clergy along with the nobility and intelligentsia for the Polonization of the Pomorze area and therefore it was specifically those social groups that were destined for extermination. Unfortunately, the demise of the Nazi totalitarianism in 1945 meant the beginning of the Stalin totalitarianism, which regarded the Church and its community as enemies. Bydgoszcz again bore witness to the oppression of numerous priests and friars. All those incidents were mentioned by John Paul II during his papal visit to the city in 1999, who made many references to wartime and postwar martyrdom. While describing the situation of the clergy in 1939–1956, the author presents a panorama of martyrs and oppressed victims. The Nazi terror affected 35 priests and friars. Two of them, Fathers F. Dachtera and A. Świadek, were beatified by John Paul II in 1999. During the Stalin period, the clergy from the entire province were subjected to repression since Bydgoszcz housed a Provincial Security Police Headquarters and a Regional Military Court, both of which sentenced numerous members of the clergy to many years in prison.