Salesian Martyrs of the Nazis

The Salesian Martyrs of the Nazis

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed on January 27.  This international event commemorate the victims of the Holocaust (1933-1945). Among the millions of victims of the Shoah there are also thousands of Catholic priests and numerous Salesians.

Among the Salesians, we remember:

Blessed Joseph Kowalski, arrested in Krakow with 11 other confreres on May 23, 1941. He became serial number 17,350 of Auschwitz. In 1942, when Fr. Joseph refused to step on a rosary, he was subjected to grueling work and subsequently tortured and killed.

Servants of God of the Salesian Congregation, Fr. John Swierc and 7 companions (from Karol Wojtyla’s parish of St. Stanislaus Kostkain Krakow) who belonged to the Krakow Province and were martyred at different time in Auschwitz. The eight who died in Auschwitz are: Fr. Swierc, Fr. Ignatius Antonowicz, Fr. Ignatius Dobiasz, Fr. Charles Golda, Fr. Francis Harazim, Fr. Louis Mroczek, Fr. Wlodzimierz Szembek and Fr. Casimir Wojciechowski.

Fr. Francis Miska from the Salesian Province of Pila, catechist in a vocational school, director, military chaplain. Interned in the Dachau concentration camp, he died of ill-treatment and torture on May 30, 1942.

Blessed Francis Keşy, layman, and 4 youthful companions, martyrs. They were animators of the Salesian youth center in Poznan, passionate about music, theater, and sports and were engaged in catechesis and united by an intense spiritual life. In September 1940 they were arrested, accused of belonging to an illegal organization. Sentenced without a regular trial and without the possibility of defense, they gave a heroic example of faith and Christian life. They forgave their executioners according to the most genuine spirit of the Gospel.

Among the Salesians there are also some identified as Righteous among the Nations, a term used to indicate non-Jews who acted heroically to save even a single Jew. One of these is the Venerable Joseph August Arribat, who during the German occupation of France did not hesitate to host families and young Jews.

Editor's note:  I heard or read somewhere that Fr. Ricaldone, rector major (1932-1951), put the word out that the SDBs should work to save Jews, partisans, and other threatened by the Germans.  I don't know the details, and of course there wouldn't be a paper trail for such an instruction.  It is well known that past pupil Blessed Albert Marvelli liberated Jews in Rimini from boxcars destined for the death camps.