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[[File:Bydgoszcz 1939 Polish priests and civilians at the Old Market.jpg|300px|thumb|Public execution of Polish priests and civilians in [[Bydgoszcz]]'s Old Market Square on 9 September 1939]]
During the [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German Occupation of Poland]] (1939–1945), the [[Nazi]]s brutally suppressed the [[Catholic Church in Poland]], most severely in [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|German-occupied areas of Poland]]. Thousands of churches and monasteries were systematically closed, seized or destroyed. As a result, many works of religious art and objects were permanently lost.

Church leaders were especially targeted as part of an overall effort to destroy Polish culture. At least 1,811 members of the Polish clergy were murdered in [[Nazi concentration camps]]. An estimated 3,000 members of the clergy were killed. Hitler's plans for the [[Germanisation|Germanization]] of the East did not allow [[Catholicism]].<ref name="Ian Kershaw p.661">Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 Edn; WW Norton & Company; London p.661</ref>

The actions taken against Polish Catholicism were part of ''[[Generalplan Ost]]'' which, if carried out, would have eventually eradicated the existence of [[Polish people|the Poles]]. [[Adolf Hitler]] said in August 1939 that he wanted his [[Totenkopf#Third Reich|Death's Head]] forces "to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language".<ref>{{cite book|title=Values and Violence in Auschwitz: A Sociological Analysis|author=Anna Pawełczyńska|author-link=Anna Pawełczyńska|date=1980|pages=xvi-xvii}}</ref>

== Background ==
[[File:Execution of Polish priest in Kalisz 01.jpg|thumb|Public execution of Polish priest Roman Pawłowski in [[Kalisz]] on 18 October 1939]]

The [[Roman Catholic Church]] has had a presence in Poland for almost 1,000 years.<ref name="Jozef Garlinski p 60">Jozef Garlinski; ''Poland and the Second World War''; Macmillan Press, 1985;  p 60</ref> Historian [[Richard J. Evans]] wrote that the Catholic Church was the institution that "more than any other had sustained Polish national identity over the centuries".<ref>[[Richard J. Evans]]; ''The Third Reich at War''; Penguin Press New York; 2009; p.34</ref> By 1939, around 65% of Poles professed to be Catholic.<ref name="Jozef Garlinski p 60" />

The invasion of predominantly Catholic Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939 ignited the [[Second World War]]. The [[United Kingdom]] and [[France]] declared war on Germany as a result of the invasion while the [[Soviet Union]] invaded the Eastern half of Poland in accordance with the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] with Hitler.<ref name="Hitler's Pope?">[http://spectator.org/archives/2006/08/18/hitlers-pope/print ''Hitler's Pope?''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130211203429/http://spectator.org/archives/2006/08/18/hitlers-pope/print |date=2013-02-11 }}; by Sir [[Martin Gilbert]]; ''The American Spectator''; 18.8.06</ref>

[[File:MolotovRibbentropStalin.jpg|upright|thumb|Soviet Prime Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] signs the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]. Behind him stand (left) German Foreign Minister [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]] and (right) [[Joseph Stalin]]. The Pact created a Nazi-Soviet alliance and sealed the fate of Poland.]]

[[Nazi Germany]]’s invasion of Poland from the West took place on 1 September 1939, commencing a period of occupation. Nazi ideology targeted [[Polish Jews]] for extermination and categorized ethnic Poles, most of whom were Catholic, as an inferior race. The Jews were rounded up into [[List of Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland|Ghettos]] or sent to extermination camps while the ethnic Polish [[intelligentsia]], priests and politicians were targeted for elimination (''[[Intelligenzaktion]]'', ''[[German AB-Aktion in Poland|AB-Aktion]]''). [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|Forced labor]] was also employed as a technique of elimination.

The [[Red Army]] invaded Poland from the East on 17 September 1939.<ref name="ReferenceA">Encyclopedia Britannica: ''Poland – World War II''</ref> The Soviets also [[Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946)|repressed the Polish Catholics and clergy]], with an emphasis on fighting "class enemies". The Soviet occupation lasted nearly two years. [[Operation Barbarossa]], the German attack on the Soviet Union was launched in June 1941, shattering the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact and bringing all of Poland under Nazi control.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica Online: ''Poland – World War II''</ref> [[Norman Davies]] wrote:<ref>[[Norman Davies]]; ''Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw''; Viking; 2003</ref>

{{blockquote|Adolf Hitler hated Poland with a will. For Poland lay at the heart of the Nazis' ''[[Lebensraum]]'', the ideological "living space" into which Germany was raring to expand. It was inhabited moreover by a mixture of Slavs and Jews, both of which were classed in the Nazi handbooks as ''[[Untermensch]]en'', or subhumans...[-] Hitler specifically ordered his minions to act with great cruelty.|[[Norman Davies]]; ''Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw''}}

The Nazi plan for Poland included the destruction of the Polish nation, which required attacking the Polish Church, particularly in areas annexed to Germany.<ref name="ReferenceC">Jozef Garlinski; ''Poland and the Second World War''; Macmillan Press, 1985; p 60</ref> Biographer [[Ian Kershaw]] said in the scheme for the [[Germanisation|Germanization]] of Central and Eastern Europe, that Hitler had made it clear there would be "no place in this utopia for the Christian Churches".<ref name="Ian Kershaw p.661" />

Nazi ideology was hostile to [[Christianity]] and Hitler held the teachings of the Catholic Church in contempt. Hitler's chosen deputy and private secretary [[Martin Bormann]] and the official Nazi philosopher [[Alfred Rosenberg]] were firmly anti-Christian. In his 1930 book ''[[Myth of the Twentieth Century]]'', Rosenberg wrote that the main enemies of Germans were the "Russian Tartars" and "Semites"&nbsp;– including Christians, especially the Christians of the Catholic Church.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica Online: ''Alfred Rosenberg''</ref>

=== Division of Poland ===

The German military controlled Poland until 25 October 1939.<ref>[[Norman Davies]]; ''Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw''; Viking; 2003; p.83</ref> Following this, Germany annexed Polish territories into the eastern German provinces: [[Reichsgau Wartheland]], [[Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia]], [[Province of Silesia]], and [[East Prussia]]. The remainder of Nazi-occupied Poland came under the administration of the ''[[General Government]]'' <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005070|title=Invasion of Poland, Fall 1939}}</ref> – a "police run mini-state" under SS control and the rule of Nazi lawyer [[Hans Frank]]. Davies wrote that this area "became the lawless laboratory of Nazi racial ideology,” over time becoming the base of the main Nazi concentration camps.<ref>Norman Davies; Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw; Viking; 2003; p.86</ref> However, Nazi policy toward the Church was less severe than in the annexed regions.<ref>Norman Davies; Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw; Viking; 2003; p.92</ref>

== Persecutions ==
[[File:Toasting Polish Dachau.jpg|thumb|upright|Polish prisoners in Dachau toast their liberation from the camp. Poles constituted the largest ethnic group in the camp and the largest proportion of those imprisoned in the [[Priest Barracks of Dachau]].]]
[[File:Fr.Maximilian Kolbe 1939.jpg|thumb|upright|The Polish Franciscan St [[Maximillian Kolbe]] was murdered at Auschwitz.]]

=== Targeting of intelligentsia and clergy ===
According to [[Norman Davies]], the Nazi terror was "much more fierce and more protracted in Poland than anywhere in Europe."<ref name="ReferenceB" /> The Nazi ideology viewed ethnic "Poles"—the mainly Catholic ethnic majority of Poland—as "sub-humans". Following their 1939 invasion of West Poland, the Nazis instigated a policy of genocide against Poland's Jewish minority. They murdered or suppressed the ethnic Polish elites including religious leaders.<ref name="Poles">{{cite web|title=Poles |url=http://www.ushmm.org/education/resource/poles/poles.pdf|publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|accessdate=24 May 2013|url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011014249/http://www.ushmm.org/education/resource/poles/poles.pdf|archivedate=11 October 2012}}</ref> During the 1939 invasion, special death squads of SS and police were sent to arrest or execute anyone considered capable of resisting the occupation: professionals, clergymen, and government officials.<ref name="ReferenceB" />

The following summer, the A-B Aktion (''Extraordinary Pacification Operation'') rounded up several thousand Polish intelligentsia and the SS shot many of the priests in the General Government sector.<ref name="ReferenceB" /> During this operation, Poland was under military control. This period of military control lasted from 1 September 1939 to 25 October 1939. During this period, "according to one source, 714 mass executions were carried out, and 6,376 people, mainly Catholics, were shot. Others put the death toll in one town alone at 20,000. It was a taste of things to come."<ref>Norman Davies; ''Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw''; Viking; 2003; pp.85–86</ref>

In 1940, Hitler proclaimed: "Poles may have only one master – a German. Two masters cannot exist side by side, and this is why all members of the Polish intelligentsia must be killed."<ref name="Poles" /> According to Craughwell, between 1939 and 1945, an estimated 3,000 members (18%) of the Polish clergy, were murdered. Of these, 1,992 were murdered in concentration camps<ref name="Craughwell">Craughwell, Thomas J., [http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=472 The Gentile Holocaust] Catholic Culture, Accessed July 18, 2008</ref> (the [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] cites 1811 Polish priests murdered in Nazi concentration camps<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica Inc 2013">Encyclopædia Britannica Online – ''[[Stefan Wyszyński]]'';  Encyclopædia Britannica Inc; 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2013.</ref>).

On November 16 and 17 of 1940, [[Vatican Radio]] broadcast that the religious life of Polish Catholics continued to be brutally restricted. They claimed that at least 400 clerics had been deported to Germany in the preceding four months:<ref name="Catholic Church pp. 49">The Nazi War Against the Catholic Church; National Catholic Welfare Conference; Washington D.C.; 1942; pp. 49–50</ref>

{{blockquote|The Catholic Associations in the General Government also have been dissolved, the Catholic educational institutions have been closed down, and Catholic professors and teachers have been reduced to a state of extreme need or have been sent to concentration camps. The Catholic press has been rendered impotent. In the part incorporated into the Reich, and especially in Posnania, the representatives of the Catholic priests and orders have been shut up in concentration camps. In other dioceses the priests have been put in prison. Entire areas of the country have been deprived of all spiritual ministrations and the church seminaries have been dispersed.|Vatican Radio, November 1940}}
Around 150,000 to 180,000 civilians were killed in the suppression of an uprising, along with thousands of captured insurgents. Until the end of September 1944, Polish resistance fighters were not considered by Germany as combatants. Thus, when captured, they were executed. 165,000 surviving civilians were sent to labor camps; while 50,000 were shipped to concentration camps, and the city was systematically demolished.{{Citation needed|date=March 2020}}

=== Annexed Regions ===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-E05455, Arthur Greiser (2).jpg|upright|left|thumb|[[Arthur Greiser]], the [[Reichsstatthalter]] of [[Wartheland]], led a radical attack on the Catholic Church. By late 1941, the Polish Church had effectively been outlawed in Wartheland.]]

Nazi policy towards the Church was at its most severe in the [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|territories it annexed to Greater Germany]], where the Nazis set about systematically dismantling the Church – arresting its leaders, exiling its clergymen, closing its churches, monasteries and convents. Many clergymen were murdered.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite web|url=https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/2000926-Poles.pdf|title=Poles: Victims of the Nazi Era|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|archive-url=|archive-date=|accessdate=22 February 2020}}</ref><ref name=Libionka2004>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Libionka |first=Dariusz |authorlink=Dariusz Libionka |title=The Catholic Church in Poland and the Holocaust, 1939–1945 |url=http://www.yadvashem.org/download/about_holocaust/christian_world/libionka.pdf |encyclopedia=The Holocaust And The Christian World: Reflections On The Past Challenges For The Future |editor1=Carol Rittner |editor2=Stephen D. Smith |editor3=Irena Steinfeldt | publisher=New Leaf Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-89221-591-1 |pages=74–78}}</ref> The annexed areas included the Catholic archdiocese of [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Poznań|Gniezno-Poznań]] and the dioceses of [[Chełmno]], [[Katowice]] and [[Włocławek]], and parts of the dioceses of [[Częstochowa]], [[Kielce]], [[Kraków]], [[Łomża]], [[Łódź]], [[Płock]] and [[Warsaw]], which were all to be "Germanized". In these areas, the Polish Church was to be thoroughly eradicated, though German Catholics could remain or settle there.<ref name="ReferenceC" />

Hitler intended to use Poland as a colony for settlement by Germans. The indigenous Poles were to be cleared out to make room for German settlers. Following the defeat of Poland, [[Heinrich Himmler]] was appointed Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of the German Race. Germanization of the annexed regions began in December 1939 with deportations of men, women, and children.<ref>Richard J. Evans; The Third Reich at War; Penguin Press New York; 2009; pp.28-29</ref> In the [[Reichsgau Wartheland|Wartheland]], regional leader [[Arthur Greiser]], with the encouragement of [[Reinhard Heydrich]] and [[Martin Bormann]], launched an attack on the Catholic Church. Its properties and funds were confiscated, and lay organisations shut down. Evans wrote that "numerous clergy, monks, diocesan administrators and officials of the Church were arrested, deported to the General Government, taken off to a concentration camp in the Reich, or simply shot. Altogether some 1700 Polish priests ended up at Dachau: half of them did not survive their imprisonment." Greiser's administrative chief [[August Jager]] had earlier led the effort at Nazification of the Evangelical Church in Prussia.<ref>Richard J. Evans; The Third Reich at War; Penguin Press New York; 2009; p.33-34</ref> In Poland, he earned the nickname "''Kirchen-Jager''" (Church-Hunter) for the vehemence of his hostility to the Church.<ref>[[Mark Mazower]]; ''Hitler's Empire – Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe''; Penguin; 2008; {{ISBN|978-0-7139-9681-4}}; p.92.</ref> "By the end of 1941", wrote Evans, "the Polish Catholic Church had been effectively outlawed in the Wartheland. It was more or less Germanized in the other occupied territories, despite an encyclical issued by the Pope as early as 27 October 1939 protesting against this persecution."<ref>Richard J. Evans; The Third Reich at War; Penguin Press New York; 2009; p.34</ref>

In West Prussia, 460 of the existing 690 Polish priests were arrested; the survivors simply fled; only 20 were still serving in 1940. Of those arrested, 214 were executed; the rest were deported to General Government.<ref name=catholicculture /> Fatalities were numerous: in Wrocław, 49.2% of the clergy were dead; in Chełmno, 47.8%; in Łódź, 36.8%; in Poznań, 31.1%.<ref name=catholicculture /> In the Warsaw diocese, 212 clergy were murdered; in Wilno, 92; in Lwów, 81; in Kraków, 30; in Kielce, 13.<ref name=catholicculture />  Nuns shared a similar fate; about 400 nuns were imprisoned at Bojanowo concentration camp.<ref name=catholicculture />  Many seminary students and nuns were conscripted as forced laborers.<ref name=catholicculture /> In Poznań, only two churches were not closed or re-purposed; in Łódź, only four remained open.<ref name=catholicculture />

Poland's higher clergy was not exempt from repression; some were forced to retire, whereas others were arrested, imprisoned, or executed. Among those, Bishops Marian Leon Fulman, Władysław Goral, [[Michał Kozal]], [[Antoni Julian Nowowiejski]] and [[Leon Wetmański]] were sent to concentration camps, with Goral, Nowowiejski, Kozal and Wetmański being murdered in Sachsenhausen, Dachau, Soldau and Auschwitz, respectively.<ref name=catholicculture>{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=472|title = Library : The Gentile Holocaust}}</ref><ref name="Blet1999">{{cite book|author=Pierre Blet|title=Pius XII and the Second World War: According to the Archives of the Vatican|url=https://archive.org/details/piusxiisecondwor0000blet|url-access=registration|year=1999|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=978-0-8091-0503-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/piusxiisecondwor0000blet/page/71 71]}}</ref><ref name="Jerusalem2006">{{cite book|author=Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry The Hebrew University Eli Lederhendler Stephen S. Wise Professor of American Jewish History and Institutions, Jerusalem|title=Jews, Catholics, and the Burden of History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tIR0lfxAzzcC&pg=PA32|date=2 February 2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-534571-1|page=32}}</ref>

=== Cardinal Hlond's Report ===
[[File:Hlond.jpg|thumb|upright|The Primate of Poland, Cardinal [[August Hlond]], advised the Pope that "Hitlerism aims at the systematic and total destruction of the Catholic Church" in territories of Poland annexed by Germany.]]

In the aftermath of invasion, the Primate of Poland, Cardinal [[August Hlond]], submitted an official account of the persecutions of the Polish Church to the Vatican. He reported seizures of church property and abuse of clergy and nuns in the Archdiocese of Gniezno:<ref name="Catholic Church pp. 34-51">The Nazi War Against the Catholic Church; National Catholic Welfare Conference; Washington D.C.; 1942; pp. 34-51</ref>

{{blockquote|Many priests are imprisoned, suffering humiliations, blows, maltreatment. A certain number were deported to Germany... Others have been detained in concentration camps... It is not rare to see a priest in the midst of labour gangs working in the fields... Some of them have even been shut up for the night in pigsties, barbarously beaten and subjected to other tortures... The Canon Casimir Stepczynski... was forced in company with a Jew to carry away the human excrement... the curate who wished to take the place of the venerable priest was brutally beaten with a rifle butt|Excerpts from Cardinal Hlond's report to the Vatican.}}

Opening hours for churches (that still had their priests) had been restricted to Sundays from 9 am to 11 am. Sermons could only be preached in German. Polish hymns were proscribed. Crucifixes were removed from schools and religious instructions were forbidden. [[Catholic Action]] had been banned and Catholic charities such as [[St Vincent de Paul Society|St Vincent de Paul]] dissolved and their funds confiscated. Religious shrines and statues in public places were "battered to the ground".<ref name="Catholic Church pp. 34-51" />

In the Archdiocese of Poznań, Hlond reported that clergy were being subjected to the same mistreatment as in Gniezno and a number had been shot, deported, imprisoned or were missing. In Poznań, which had served as the centre for organisation of Church activities in Poland, the Nazis suppressed the National Institute for Catholic Action, the Pontifical Association for the Propagation of the Faith, the Association of Catholic Women, and Catholic youth groups. Other Catholic media and educational organisations were likewise suppressed. The leaders of Catholic Action were imprisoned and Edward Potworowski, the president of the Catholic Youth Association was publicly shot in Gostyn Square, while the president of the Catholic Girls Association was expelled to Central Poland. The Curia and the Metropolitan court were taken over by the Gestapo and their records seized. The archiepiscopal palace was invaded and taken over by soldiers and its archives were handed over to the Gestapo. The [[Cathedral of Poznań]] was closed and the theological seminary converted into a police school. Polish youth were arrested after [[Mass (liturgy)|mass]] and deported to Germany.<ref name="Catholic Church pp. 34-51" />

In the Diocese of Chełmno, which had been incorporated into the Reich, Hlond reported that religious life had been almost entirely suppressed, and the ancient cathedral had been closed and turned into a garage. Its noted statue of Mary had been overturned, and the bishop's residence ransacked. Clergy and laymen had been tortured and church properties seized. Only 20 of 650 priests remained – the rest imprisoned, deported or forced into labour – sometimes resulting in death from fatigue:<ref name="Catholic Church pp. 34-51" />

{{blockquote|[In the Diocese of Chełmno] It is stated that a large number of priests have been shot, but neither the number nor the details are as yet known, as the occupation authorities maintain an obstinate silence on the subject... The Churches have almost all been closed and confiscated by the Gestapo... all the crosses and sacred emblems by the roadside have been destroyed... 95% of the priests have been imprisoned, expelled, or humiliated before the eyes of the faithful... and the most eminent Catholics executed.|Excerpts from Cardinal [[August Hlond]]'s report to the Vatican.}}

Hlond reported similar outrages and terror in the Dioceses of Katowice, Łódź and Włocławek which had also been incorporated into the Reich. In his final observations for Pope Pius XII, Hllond wrote:<ref name="Catholic Church pp. 34-51" />

{{blockquote|Hitlerism aims at the systematic and total destruction of the Catholic Church in the rich and fertile territories of Poland which have been incorporated into the Reich... It is known for certain that 35 priests have been shot, but the real number of victims... undoubtedly amounts to more than a hundred... In many districts the life of the Church has been completely crushed, the clergy have been almost all expelled; the Catholic churches and cemeteries are in the hands of the invaders... Catholic worship hardly exists any more... Monasteries and convents have been methodically suppressed... [Church properties] all have been pillaged by the invaders.|Excerpts from Cardinal Hlond's report to the Vatican}}

== Polish Clergy during occupation ==
Eighty percent of the Catholic clergy and five bishops of Warthegau were sent to concentration camps in 1939; [[108 Martyrs of World War II|108 of them]] are regarded as blessed martyrs.<ref name="Craughwell" /> Around 1.5 million Poles were transported to work as forced labor in Germany. Treated as racially inferior, they had to wear purple P's sewn into their clothing – sexual relations with Germans were punishable by death. Beyond the genocide of the Polish Jews, it is estimated that 1.8 to 1.9 million Polish civilians were murdered during the German Occupation and the war.<ref name="ReferenceB" /> Hundreds of priests and nuns are among the 5000 Polish Catholics honored by Israel for their role in saving Jews.<ref name="Hitler's Pope?" />

The university professor, and post-war [[Primate of Poland]], Fr. [[Stefan Wyszynski]], was ordered to leave Włocławek by his bishop, [[Michal Kozal]] and thus escaped the fate of Kozal and nearly 2000 other priests who were murdered in Nazi Concentration camps.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica Inc 2013" />

=== Priests at Dachau Concentration Camp ===
[[File:ZawistowskiAntoni.jpg|thumb|upright|The Blessed [[Antoni Zawistowski]] was tortured and murdered at Dachau in 1942. 1780 Polish clergy were sent to Dachau, and many are remembered among the [[108 Martyrs of World War II|108 Polish Martyrs of World War II]].]]

[[Dachau Concentration Camp|Dachau]] was established in March 1933 as the first [[Nazi Concentration Camp]]. Dachau was chiefly a political camp and an estimated 2,720 (mainly Catholic) clergy were imprisoned at the camp; the Nazis established dedicated [[Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp|Clergy Barracks]].<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica: ''Dachau'', by Michael Berenbaum.</ref><ref name="Paul Berben pp. 276-277">Paul Berben; ''Dachau: The Official History 1933–1945''; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; {{ISBN|0-85211-009-X}}; pp. 276-277</ref><ref>[http://www.catholicity.com/commentary/rychlak/00934.html ''The Priests of Dachau''] by [[Ronald Rychlak]]; InsideCatholic.com; 8 October 2007.</ref> From this number recorded as being imprisoned at Dachau, some 2,579 (or 94.88%) were Catholic. A total of 1,034 clergy were recorded overall as dying in the camp, with 132 "transferred or liquidated" during that time. There are slightly different numbers in ''Dachau: The Official History 1933–1945.'' Author Paul Berben noted that R. Schnabel's 1966 investigation, ''Die Frommen in der Holle'' found an alternative total of 2,771 clergy. This also included the fate all the clergy listed, with 692 noted as having been murdered at the camp and 336 sent out on "invalid trainloads" and therefore presumed murdered.<ref name="Paul Berben pp. 276-277" />

Total numbers are unknown{{Contradict-inline|reason=Contradicts assertion about numbers above|date=February 2020}}, as some clergy were not recognized as such by the camp authorities, and some – particularly Poles – did not wish to be identified as such, fearing they would be mistreated.<ref>Paul Berben; ''Dachau: The Official History 1933–1945''; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; {{ISBN|0-85211-009-X}}; p.157</ref> The greatest number of clerical prisoners came from Poland. In all some 1,748 Polish Catholic clerics, of whom some 868 were murdered in the camp.<ref name="Paul Berben pp. 276-277" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/stop10.html|title = Virtual Tour}}</ref> From 1940, Dachau became the concentration point for clerical prisoners.<ref>Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933–1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; {{ISBN|0-85211-009-X}}; p. 143</ref> Priests were gathered in Blocks 26, 28 and 30, though only temporarily. 26 became the international block and 28 was reserved for Poles – the most numerous group.<ref>Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933–1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; {{ISBN|0-85211-009-X}}; p.145-6.</ref>

The Nazis introduced a racial hierarchy – keeping Poles in harsh conditions while favoring German priests.<ref>Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933–1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; {{ISBN|0-85211-009-X}}; p.148.</ref> 697 Poles arrived in December 1941, and a further 500 of mainly elderly clergy were brought in October 1942. Inadequately clothed for the bitter cold, only 82 of this latter group survived. A large number of Polish priests were chosen for Nazi medical experiments. In November 1942, 20 were given phlegmons. 120 were used by Dr. Schilling for malaria experiments between July 1942 and May 1944. Several Poles died on "invalid trains" sent out from the camp, others were murdered in the camp and given fake death certificates. Some died of punishment for misdemeanors{{snd}}beaten to death or run to exhaustion.<ref>Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933–1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; {{ISBN|0-85211-009-X}}; p.148-9.</ref>

Polish priests were not permitted to undertake the religious activity. Anti-religious prisoners were planted in the Polish block to ensure that the rule was not broken, but some found ways to circumvent the prohibition: secretly celebrating the mass during their work. By 1944, with Germany's hopes of victory in the war fading, conditions had been relaxed and Poles could hold a weekly service. Eventually, they were allowed to attend chapel.<ref>Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933–1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; {{ISBN|0-85211-009-X}}; p.150.</ref> Religious activity outside the chapel was totally forbidden.<ref>Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933–1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; {{ISBN|0-85211-009-X}}; p.156.</ref> Non-clergy were forbidden from the chapel, and, Berben wrote, the German clergy feared that breaking this rule would lose them their chapel: "the clergy in Block 26 observed this rule in a heartless way which naturally raised a storm of protest. With the Poles in Block 28 it was different: all Christians of whatever nationality were welcomed as brothers and invited to attend the clandestine Sunday masses, celebrated before dawn in conditions reminiscent of the catacombs".<ref>Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933–1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; {{ISBN|0-85211-009-X}}; p.153-4.</ref>

== Resistance ==
[[File:Adam Stefan Sapieha (1867-1951).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Adam Stefan Sapieha|Adam Sapieha]], Archbishop of Kraków, became the de facto head of the Polish church following the invasion and was a principal figure in the Polish resistance.]]
[[File:Park Jordana w Krakowie - JPII.JPG|thumb|upright|Memorial to [[Pope John Paul II]], in [[Kraków]]. As a young man, John Paul II had participated in the Polish cultural resistance to the [[Nazi occupation of Poland]].]]

Following the surrender of the Polish government at the end of September 1939, the [[Polish Underground]] and the [[Armia Krajowa]] (Home Army), loyal to the Polish Government in exile, resisted the Nazi occupation. The position of the Polish resistance was complicated greatly following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Stalin, who intended to install a post-war Communist regime, allowed the [[Warsaw Uprising]] to be put down by the Nazis which resulted in 200,000 civilians dead and the Western Allies eventually recognised the Moscow-backed government over the London-based legal government of Poland. At the end of the war, the Sovietisation of Poland ensued.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

The [[Polish Home Army]] was conscious of the link between morale and religious practice and the Catholic religion was integral to much Polish resistance, particularly during the [[Warsaw Uprising]] of 1944.<ref>Norman Davies; Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw; Viking; 2003; p.402</ref> Despite persecution, Catholic priests preached national spirit and encouraged resistance across Poland, and the Resistance was full of clergy.<ref>Jozef Garlinski; Poland and the Second World War; Macmillan Press, 1985; p. 74</ref> Thousands of Poles have been honoured as ''Righteous Among the Nations'' for helping Jews – constituting the largest national contingent <ref>Norman Davies; Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw; Viking; 2003; p594</ref> and hundreds of clergymen and nuns were involved in aiding Jews during the war.<ref>http://www.yadvashem.org/download/about_holocaust/christian_world/libionka.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref>

[[Adam Stefan Sapieha|Adam Sapieha]], Archbishop of Kraków, became the ''de facto'' head of the Polish church following the invasion. He openly criticized Nazi terror.<ref name=Libionka2004 /> Sapieha became a symbol of  [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish Resistance]] and played an important role in the rescue of Jews.<ref>Jozef Garlinski; Poland and the Second World War; Macmillan Press, 1985; pp. 74-5</ref> He opened a clandestine seminary in an act of cultural resistance. Among the seminarians was [[Karol Wojtyla]], the future Pope [[John Paul II]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2005-04-03/leader/john-pauls-heritage-without-frontiers-73821/|title = John Paul's Heritage without frontiers - the Malta Independent}}</ref> Wojtyla had been a member of the Rhapsodic Theatre, an underground resistance group, which sought to sustain Polish culture through forbidden readings of poetry and drama performances.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica: ''Blessed John Paul II''</ref> [[Wladyslaw Bartoszewski]], a co-founder of [[Żegota|Zegota]], had worked with the Catholic underground movement, the [[Front for the Rebirth of Poland]], and was arrested in a 1940 Nazi purge of the intelligentsia, and sent to Auschwitz. Freed seven months later following pressure from the international [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|Red Cross]], Bartoszewski and Zegota saved thousands of Jews.<ref>[http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/25th-february-2005/7/i-just-did-what-the-bible-said ''‘I just did what the Bible said’''], Catholic Herald, 25 February 2005.</ref>

Poland had a large Jewish population, and according to Davies, the number of Jews murdered and the number of Jews rescued was higher than in any other nation: the rescue figure usually being put at between 100,000 and 150,000.<ref name="Norman Davies p.200">Norman Davies; ''Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw''; Viking; 2003; p.200</ref> Poland had its own tradition of antisemitism. According to Davies, as part of its efforts to repress potential opponents of the regime, the Communist state which established itself in Poland following the war exaggerated the presence of antisemitism in Poland, and systematically besmirched and repressed dedicated Catholics who had opposed the Holocaust, as in the 1948-9 "Zegota Case".<ref>Norman Davies; Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw; Viking; 2003; pp.566 & 568-9</ref> Hundreds of clergymen and nuns were involved in aiding Poland's Jews during the war, though precise numbers are difficult to confirm.<ref name=Libionka2004 /> The monasteries played an important role in the protection of Jews.<ref>Jozef Garlinski; Poland and the Second World War; Macmillan Press, 1985; p.74</ref> [[Matylda Getter]], mother superior of the [[Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary]], hid many children in her Pludy convent. In Kolonia Wilenska, Sister [[Anna Borkowska (Sister Bertranda)|Anna Borkowska]] hid men from the Jewish underground from the Vilna ghetto.<ref>[http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/A-litany-of-World-War-Two-saints A litany of World War II saints]; [[Jerusalem Post]]; 11 April 2008.</ref> From 1941, such aid carried the death penalty. A number of Bishops provided aid to Polish Jews, notably [[Karol Niemira]], the Bishop of Pinsk, who co-operated with the underground organization maintaining ties with the Jewish ghetto and sheltered Jews in the Archbishop's residence.<ref name=Libionka2004 />

When [[Armia Krajowa|AK]] Home Army Intelligence discovered the true fate of transports leaving the Jewish Ghetto, the Council to Aid Jews – ''Rada Pomocy Żydom'' (codename ''[[Zegota]]'') was established in late 1942, in co-operation with church groups. The organisation saved thousands. Emphasis was placed on protecting children, as it was near impossible to intervene directly against the heavily guarded transports. False papers were prepared, and children were distributed among safe houses and church networks.<ref name="Norman Davies p.200"/> Jewish children were often placed in church orphanages and convents.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Zegota.html|title=The Żegota}}</ref>

Catholic religious fervour was a feature of the 1944 [[Warsaw Uprising]]. General [[Antoni Chruściel]] issued instructions on how front-line troops could continue to pray, recite the rosary, offer confession and religious celebrations. Churches were destroyed, but congregations were not deterred. The religious orders, particularly nuns, devoted themselves to praying for the Uprising. Clergy were involved on many levels – as chaplains to military units, or tending to the ever-increasing wounded and dying. "Nuns of various orders", wrote Davies, "acted as universal sisters of mercy and won widespread praise. Mortality among them higher than among most categories of civilians. When captured by the SS, they aroused a special fury, which frequently ended in rape or butchery".<ref>Norman Davies; Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw; Viking; 2003; pp. 403-405</ref> According to Davies, the Catholic religion was integral to the struggle:<ref>Norman Davies; Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw; Viking; 2003; p402</ref>

Among the hundreds of chaplains attached to the Home Army was [[Stefan Wyszyński]], who later served as Cardinal Primate of Poland in the Communist era. The religious communities, in general, remained during the Uprising, converting their crypts and cellars to bomb shelters and hospitals, and throwing themselves into social work. The enclosed Convent of the Benedictine Sisters of Eternal Adoration lifted a centuries-old ban on male visitors to serve as a strategic base for the Home Army and threw open its doors to refugees, who were nursed and fed by the sisters. The prioress received an ultimatum from the Germans but refused to leave for fear of the impact on morale. Davies wrote that the sisters began their evening prayers gathered around the tabernacle, surrounded by a thousand people, as German aircraft flew overhead and "the church collapsed in one thunderous explosion... rescue teams dug to save the living... a much diminished convent choir was singing to encourage them. At dawn a handful of nuns... filed out. Lines of insurgents saluted. And the German guns reopened fire."<ref>Norman Davies; Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw; Viking; 2003; p405-6</ref>

== Martyrs ==
The Polish Church honours  [[108 Martyrs of World War II]], including the 11 [[Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth]] murdered by the Gestapo in 1943 and known as the [[Blessed Martyrs of Nowogródek]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.phila-csfn.org/sister.htm |title=Sister Stella and Companions |accessdate=2011-11-04 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208120111/http://www.phila-csfn.org/sister.htm |archivedate=2012-02-08 }}</ref> The Polish church opened the cause of  [[Józef and Wiktoria Ulma]] to the process of beatification in 2003. The couple and their family were murdered for sheltering Jews.<ref name=Caldwell2013>{{cite news|last=Caldwell|first=Simon|title=Ten Catholic heroes of the Holocaust|url=http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/2011/01/19/ten-catholic-heroes-of-the-holocaust/|accessdate=25 May 2013|newspaper=Catholic Herald|date=19 January 2011|archive-date=2 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702102043/http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/2011/01/19/ten-catholic-heroes-of-the-holocaust/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Among the most revered Polish martyrs was the Franciscan, Saint [[Maximillian Kolbe]], who was murdered at [[Auschwitz-Birkenau]], having offered his own life to save a fellow prisoner who had been condemned to death by the camp authorities. The cell in which he died is now a shrine.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/maximilian-kolbe|title = St Maximilian Kolbe}}</ref> During the War, he provided shelter to refugees, including 2,000 Jews whom he hid in his friary in [[Niepokalanów]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Kolbe.html|title = Maximilian Kolbe}}</ref>

== Pope Pius XII ==
Poland's allegiance to the papacy gave its plight an international dimension, of which both the Nazi and Soviet occupying powers were aware. In Poland, the Church was well organised, and the clergy were respected. Garlinski wrote that the Polish Church's "thousand year link with Rome afforded it some protection. The German Reich contained 30 million Catholics, who recognised the Pope's authority... and [each German ruler], however strongly opposed to Rome, had to take account of this..."<ref>Jozef Garlinski; Poland and the Second World War; Macmillan Press, 1985; p 60-61</ref> Pope [[Pius XII]] succeeded [[Pius XI]] in March 1939, on the eve of World War II. The new Pope faced the aggressive foreign policy of Nazism, and perceived a threat to Europe and the Church from Soviet Communism, which preached atheism – "each system attacked religion, both denied freedom and the victory of either would be a defeat for the Church", wrote Garlinski. Pius XII lobbied world leaders to avoid war and then sought to negotiate a peace, but was ignored by the belligerents, as Germany and Russia began to treat Catholic Poland as their colony.<ref>Jozef Garlinski; Poland and the Second World War; Macmillan Press, 1985; p 69-71</ref> In his first encyclical, ''[[Summi Pontificatus]]'' of 20 October 1939, Pius responded to the invasion of Poland. The encyclical attacked Hitler's war as "unchristian" and offered these words for Poland:<ref>Jozef Garlinski; Poland and the Second World War; Macmillan Press, 1985; p 72</ref><ref>[https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html ''SUMMI PONTIFICATUS'' – Section 106]</ref>

{{blockquote|[This is an] "Hour of Darkness"... in which the spirit of violence and of discord brings indescribable suffering on mankind... The nations swept into the tragic whirlpool of war are perhaps as yet only at the "beginnings of sorrows"... but even now there reigns in thousands of families death and desolation, lamentation and misery. The blood of countless human beings, even noncombatants, raises a piteous dirge over a nation such as Our dear Poland, which, for its fidelity to the Church, for its services in the defense of Christian civilization, written in indelible characters in the annals of history, has a right to the generous and brotherly sympathy of the whole world, while it awaits, relying on the powerful intercession of Mary, Help of Christians, the hour of a resurrection in harmony with the principles of justice and true peace.|''[[Summi Pontificatus]]'' – [[Pope Pius XII]], Oct. 1939}}

The Papal [[Nuncio]] to Poland, Fillippo Cortesi had abandoned Warsaw along with the diplomatic corps, after the invasion and the [[Nuncio|Papal Nuncio]] to Germany, [[Cesare Orsenigo]], assumed the role of communicating the situation of the territories annexed to Germany – but his role of protecting the Church in Poland was in conflict with his role of facilitating better relations with the German government, and his own fascistic sympathies. Other channels existed for communications, including via the Polish primate [[Cardinal Hlond]]. The [[Holy See]] refused German requests to fill the bishoprics of the annexed territories with German bishops, claiming that it would not recognise the new boundaries until a peace treaty was signed.<ref>Jozef Garlinski; Poland and the Second World War; Macmillan Press, 1985; pp. 71-72. But these diplomatic actions were not considered sufficient on the ground in Poland, where more forthright statements were expected.</ref>

In April 1940, the Holy See advised the US government of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] that all its efforts to deliver humanitarian aid had been blocked by the Germans and that it was therefore seeking to channel assistance through indirect routes like the American "Commission for Polish Relief".<ref>[http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/psf/box51/t464o10.html FDR Library]; Diplomatic Correspondence: Vatican Secretary of State to [[Myron C Taylor]], 26 April 1940</ref> In 1942, the American [[National Catholic Welfare Conference]] reported that "as Cardinal Hlond's reports poured into the Vatican, Pope Pius XII protested against the enormities they recounted with unrelenting vigor". The Conference noted the Pope's [[Summi Pontificatus|28 October Encyclical]] and reported that Pius addressed Polish clergy on 30 September 1939,  speaking of "a vision of mad horror and gloomy despair" and saying that he hoped that despite the work of the "enemies of God", Catholic life would survive in Poland. In a Christmas Eve address to the College of Cardinals, Pius condemned the atrocities "even against non-combatants, refugees, old persons, women and children, and the disregard of human dignity, liberty and human life" that had taken place in the Polish war as "acts that cry for the vengeance of God".<ref>The Nazi War Against the Catholic Church; National Catholic Welfare Conference; Washington D.C.; 1942; p. 49</ref>

The Vatican used its [[Osservatore Romano|press]] and [[Vatican Radio|radio]] to tell the world in January 1940 of terrorization of the Polish people. On 16 and 17 November 1940, [[Vatican Radio]] said that religious life for Catholics in Poland continued to be brutally restricted and that at least 400 clergy had been deported to Germany in the preceding four months:<ref name="Catholic Church pp. 49" />

{{blockquote|The Catholic Associations in the General Government also have been dissolved, the Catholic educational institutions have been closed down, and Catholic professors and teachers have been reduced to a state of extreme need or have been sent to concentration camps. The Catholic press has been rendered impotent. In the part incorporated into the Reich, and especially in Posnania, the representatives of the Catholic priests and orders have been shut up in concentration camps. In other dioceses the priests have been put in prison. Entire areas of the country have been deprived of all spiritual ministrations and the church seminaries have been dispersed.|Vatican Radio, November 1940}}

In Pomerania, the Nazi [[Gauleiter]] [[Albert Forster]] permitted German priests and believed that Poles themselves could be Germanized. However, under the exceptionally aggressive policies of [[Arthur Greiser]], the Nazi [[Gauleiter]] of the Wartheland region, German Catholics and the Protestant Church suffered a campaign to eradicate the Polish Church, prompting the head of the German Bishops Conference to ask the Pope for assistance, but Pius offered a cautious response.<ref>Jozef Garlinski; Poland and the Second World War; Macmillan Press, 1985; p.63.</ref> Though Pius had assisted with the drafting of the anti-Nazi encyclical ''[[Mit brennender Sorge]]'', which remained binding through the war, he did not repeat it during the war, and, wrote Garlinski, he was conscious that Hitler's expansion brought 150 million Catholics under the control of the Third Reich, and that conditions for Catholics outside of Poland could be adversely affected by his pronouncements.<ref>Jozef Garlinski; Poland and the Second World War; Macmillan Press, 1985; pp.71-74.</ref> This "restrained and reasoned stance", wrote Garlinski, though justified in the long term, "did not suit the Poles" who expected more forthright language against the Nazis, Yet, wrote Garlinski:<ref>Jozef Garlinski; Poland and the Second World War; Macmillan Press, 1985; pp.74.</ref>

{{blockquote|[T]he centuries old ties which bound [Poland] to Rome weakened the force of the occupation. The Church's role in the nation's struggle for survival and for its soul was very great and was evident in almost every area of national life. Despite losses and setbacks, the network of parishes covered the whole country and in its ministry brought comfort faith and hope. Despite personal risk, priests used their pulpits for maintaining national spirit and encouraged resistance, the bishoprics were a visible sign of the existence of an organisation, although not governmental and the resistance movement was full of clergy in all sorts of positions...[-]... the Catholic Church emerged from the war victorious, spiritually strengthened, inwardly toughened by its losses, surrounded by universal respect and ready for new and difficult days ahead.|Extract from ''Poland and the Second World War'' by Jozef Garlinski; 1985.}}

== See also ==
*[[Catholic Church and Nazi Germany]]
*[[Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles]]
*[[Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany]]
*[[Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946)]]
* [[Holocaust in Poland]]
* [[Holocaust victims]]
* [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany]]
* [[Polish resistance movement in World War II]]
* [[Polish Underground State]]
* [[Massacre in the Jesuit monastery on Rakowiecka Street in Warsaw (1944)]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.chroniclesofterror.pl/dlibra/collpubs?startstr=_all&dirids=12&action=SimpleSearchAction&type=-6&p=0&q=* Testimonies concerning repressions against the Church in occupied Poland in 'Chronicles of Terror' database]

[[Category:Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church| ]]
[[Category:Pope Pius XII and World War II]]
[[Category:History of Catholicism in Poland]]
[[Category:Polish Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Germany–Poland relations]]
[[Category:The Holocaust in Poland]]
[[Category:Nazi war crimes in Poland| ]]
[[Category:Anti-Catholicism in Germany]]
[[Category:Anti-Catholicism in Poland]]
[[Category:Cultural history of Poland during World War II]]