From the Eastern Front: Fr. Jan Swierc, Polish Salesian Martyr

Fr. Jan Swierc, Polish Salesian Martyr

(ANS – Krakow – May 22, 2026) – Fr. Jan Swierc was the son of Mateusz and Franciszka, née Rether. He was born on April 29, 1877, in Krolewska Huta, now Chorzow. He was baptized in the parish of St. Barbara. In 1894 he went to Valsalice in Turin to begin his secondary school studies.

His Salesian journey

Having completed his secondary education at Valdocco, Turin, in 1897, he entered the Salesian novitiate at Ivrea. He made his first religious profession on October 3, 1899. He subsequently studied philosophy and theology in Turin. He served as secretary to the rector major, Fr. Michael Rua, and collaborated with Fr. Victor Grabelski on the editing of the Salesian News in Polish. On June 6, 1903, he was ordained in Turin’s cathedral by Cardinal Agostino Richelmy.

On his return to Poland, he was entrusted with organizing the novitiate at the new Salesian house in Daszawa. After its opening, he became chaplain at the Lubomirski Institute in Krakow. In 1905, he was appointed director of the Oswiecim Institute, taking over the post from the first director of the work, Fr. Emmanuel Manassero. Thanks to his commitment and that of Fr. Manassero, the Oswiecim Institute was able to secure the creation of an image of Mary Help of Christians for the church dedicated to her.

In 1911, the rector major, Fr. Paul Albera, appointed him director of the house in Krakow, at the Lubomirski Institute on Rakowicka Street, now the site of the University School of Economics. In 1914, he provided care for wounded soldiers at that institute. In 1915, he organized assistance in Oswiecim, in the Zasole area, for war refugees from Eastern Galicia.

In 1918, he founded the first Salesian mission in the territories that had been part of the Russian Empire, in Kielce, becoming its first director and pastor. In 1923 he returned to Oswiecim, where he organized the 25th anniversary of Salesian activity in Poland and the first pilgrimage of the Salesian Cooperators to Rome. In 1924 he served as a missionary in America for 7 months. From November 1925 to October 1934 he was director and pastor in Przemysl. On August 15, 1934, he was appointed director of the house in Lviv, at the church of Our Lady of Ostra Brama. A serious illness interrupted his work, but by July 1938 he had resumed his pastoral ministry as pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish in Krakow and director of the local Salesian community, where soon Karol Wojtyla arrived for university studies.

The arrest

On the eve of the feast of Mary Help of Christians, May 23, 1941, he was arrested in Krakow along with other confreres. From the house on Konfederacka Street they were all transferred to the city’s Montelupich Prison. Subsequently, in a convoy together with Krakow’s intelligentsia and Jews, the prisoners were led on June 26, 1941, chained in pairs, from Montelupich prison to the Auschwitz extermination camp. There were 12 Salesians: 11 priests and 1 brother. In the roll-call square, their handcuffs were removed and they were assigned to the punishment company in the death block.

The commander of the punishment company, a grim-looking SS officer, asked each new arrival his profession. When he received the reply “Catholic priest,” he became particularly enraged: he would kick them in the stomach, beat their faces and heads with his whip until blood streamed down their necks and backs. He would shout: “Priest, thief, hypocrite!”; then he would deliver a “welcome speech,” concluding with the invective: “You’ll all die here, you dogs and pigs! Your only hope is the crematorium.”

Martyrdom

The following day, the prisoners set off for work. The penal company worked in the gravel pits. The priests and Jews were separated and placed under the special supervision of the SS and sadistic kapos. Each received an iron wheelbarrow, a shovel, and a pickaxe. The work consisted of breaking up stones and gravel with the pickaxe, loading them onto the wheelbarrows, and transporting them to a pit 25 feet deep. The work had to be carried out “at a run,” under the supervision of special foremen armed with sticks. They beat the prisoners mercilessly and were particularly vicious toward the priests. Before long, their hands were covered in bleeding sores and exhaustion took hold of their aching bones.

The first to collapse was Fr. Swierc, who heard the cruel kapo say: “You don’t want to work! I’ll help you now!” and with the heavy handle he struck him on the head and back. Fr. Swierc grabbed a wheelbarrow laden with heavy stones and slowly made his way toward the pit, while the kapo walked behind him, pressing him on and striking him with terrible blows. Every time the poor man fell to the ground, he forced him to get up again with kicks. Fr. Swierc felt that the final moments of his life were drawing near. With every blow he sighed, “O Jesus, Jesus,” which infuriated the kapo even further. “Now I’ll show you Jesus!” he shouted. “There’s no God here! He won’t snatch you from my hands!”

At one point he struck him with all his might across the face with a stiff whip, so violently that his eye popped out of its socket. It hung limply from his cheek, held in place by a single tendon, whilst a trickle of blood flowed from the dark eye socket. His mangled face was covered in congealed blood, presenting a horrific sight.

Fr. Swierc was still alive and praying. Muffled moans escaped his lips: “O Jesus, have mercy on me!” The blood-stained kapo decided to deliver the fatal blow to his victim. He lifted him off the ground and, with all his strength, hurled him onto the wheelbarrow full of stones, breaking his spine; then, he crushed his dangling head with a stone.

Fr. Swierc was dead. His body was carried on a wheelbarrow to the crematorium. He was the first victim of that memorable day. He died in the infamous gravel pit, on the 2d day of his stay in the camp. He passed to the Lord to receive the reward for his fidelity to his Salesian and priestly vocation.

Fr. Jan Swierc died on June 27, 1941, aged 64, after 42 years of religious vows and 38 years of priesthood. He bore the camp registration number 17352.