You Shall Be My Witnesses: Lessons Beyond Dachau - Softcover

Majdanski, Archbishop Kazimierz

 
9780757002236: You Shall Be My Witnesses: Lessons Beyond Dachau
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0757002234 ISBN 13: 9780757002236
Verlag: Square One, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, the Catholic Church had a powerful influence on the Polish people. Because this threatened their absolute control, the Nazis set out to destroy the clergy, who were arrested and thrown into concentration camps along with the Jews. Among them was a young seminarian, Kazimierz Majdański. In You Shall Be My Witnesses Majdański chronicles his prison experiences during the war. His words are a testament to the faith and courage of the many voices that were silenced in concentration camps.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Archbishop Kazimierz Jan Majdanskiwas among the thousands of Polish clergy imprisoned by the Nazis. After his release in 1945, he was ordained as a priest and dedicated himself to the “civilization of life.” In 1975, Majdanski established the Warsaw-based Institute for Studies on the Family; in 1992, he was appointed Archbishop.

Maria Klepacka-Srodon is a contributor for Square One Publishing Inc. titles, including You Shall Be My Witnesses.

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Introduction

It is right that lessons should be drawn from history. Let us draw, therefore, from the extraordinary events that unfolded during the past century: an extraordinary century in Polish history. Let these events teach us by their example.

The first two decades of the twentieth century represented a time of preparation. Poland was getting ready to regain its independence after a long period of foreign rule. Freedom did not come until after immense sacrifices had been made by Poland as a nation, though: attempts at insurrection; imprisonments and miserable deportations to Siberia; Kulturkampf (“cultural struggle”) and struggles to keep the Polish language alive; and battles to reclaim every inch of Polish land.

Poland’s independence had earlier been extinguished in the wake of the May 3, 1791 Constitution, which reawakened the envious hatred of our neighbors. Many years later, though, Poland was once again set to appear on the world’s maps as a consequence of the First World War (1914---1918). It was this war that opened our twentieth-century history. Poles, in line with the invocation, “For your freedom and ours,” took part in it on all fronts.

The aftermath of the First World War heralded the revival of Polish independence after decades of struggling and suffering. It was revived by the forces of spirit that were unfailingly nurtured by the work of the nation’s poets, the writings of great authors, and the genius of Chopin. There were uprisings, but ultimately, this revived independence derived from our cultural traditions faithfully preserved around the Polish family hearth.

Before the first two decades of the twentieth century drew to a close, however, the young, independent republic had to embark on a new and urgent war effort, because the Red Army onslaught was approaching from the East. The whole nation, inspired to bravery and selflessness, quickly formed tight ranks that even included scouts and other youth volunteers. Across the oceans and in Western Europe, the Polish émigré community also tightened ranks to form the Blue Army.

Things came to a head in August of 1920. In the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland saw one of its greatest victories--shattering a power that carried the banner of war against God and His Mother, the Virgin Mary and Queen of Poland. It came to be known as the Miracle at the Vistula. This great battle of 1920 saved Warsaw and Poland, and also rescued Europe--a feat accomplished by Poland for by no means the first time in history. Furthermore, Poland had once again managed to do it at the very dawn of its revived independence.

The following two decades proved to be a time of unbelievably rapid reconstruction and reorganization of the country. Gdynia and its modern sea harbor were built from scratch, which meant that Poland’s long-awaited access to the coast could be exploited without restraint. A Central Industrial Circuit was then developed in another poor region of the country, Stalowa Wola. The whole country saw the rapid development of a broad spectrum of building programs. Schools and education institutes of different types and levels were founded, and Spiritual and material culture both flourished.

Before these two decades ended, though, Germany and the heir of Russia, the Soviet Union, sealed an alliance. These two neighboring powers, this time under the rule of the two greatest tyrants of the twentieth century, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, engulfed Poland once again.

Thus, the Second World War, started by Hitler’s sudden attack on Poland on September 1, 1939, broke out. Stalin and his army quickly joined in. Once again, the Polish people embarked on a heroic struggle, fighting bravely in the Underground Army and on all European fronts, from Narvik to Monte Cassino, as well as in the extraordinary Warsaw Uprising. These struggles were accompanied by the inhuman suffering of the whole nation. As the regime of terror intensified, their extermination plans were systematically executed, but in such a way as to not lose too much slave labor too quickly. The extermination process of the Polish population was slower than that of the Jewish population, which was carried out with infernal haste.

Terror reigned to the East and West, and was the instrument of the Civilization of Death. Poles were most affected to the East--there the terror was incarnated in Katyń, where Soviet authorities ordered the mass execution of Polish military officers, policemen, and civilian prisoners.

Soviet gulags (“labor camps”), were another mark of extensive persecution, and were filled with innumerable Poles. The gulag network was akin to Hitler’s concentration camps, and the total number of both is difficult to count. Of these, Dachau, located in Bavaria not far from Munich, was the first to be built, and was the scene of the oppression of Polish clergy and faithful.

The inmates of gulags and concentration camps became somewhat of an army in their own right, and defended Poland alongside the Underground Army, the Polish Armed Forces, and the Warsaw Insurrectionists. They came into formation first in the West, and then also in the East. The prisoners defended Poland with as much bravery as those on the outside, just in a different way. It was of these brave prisoners that the then Cardinal Karol Wojtyła spoke of at Monte Cassino in 1970 (quoted in Chapter 17, page 000).It is not possible, before God and man, to evaluate or measure the total contribution toward freedom afforded by this innumerable host of prisoners: those who made for a free Poland through passion, terror, and death.

You Shall Be My Witnesses is a witness to my own prison experiences. It is meant as a representation of what was but a drop in the ocean of the suffering experienced by all Poles during the Second World War. Its story, however, is typical of twentieth-century Polish history, because evil is not creative, and implicit to it is the horrid mark of rebellion against God, and of disregard for man. Evil always tries to appear under the guise of law, but it does so dressed in the lies and cruelty of the Civilization of Death.

Freedom returned to Poland shortly before the middle of the century, but it was a very tenacious freedom, and excesses committed not long ago are still being chronicled.

The twentieth century finally ended with a chain of wars erupting throughout several continents--the last one in the Balkans, right on Poland’s doorstep. What happened to the solemn declarations for peace forged by the world international organizations? Has mankind in this century lost track of the right to peace--that is to say, the right to life?

We have just recently celebrated a series of anniversaries of great events: the Nuremberg trials, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Atlantic Pact. What have these distinguished events, all resulting from the experiences of the Second World War, contributed? Have we been able to forestall the return of additional atrocities? Where are we heading? These questions are just, but difficult. An address entitled, “An Attempted Conclusion--The Way Ahead,” that I delivered on December 1, 1998 at the closure of a symposium sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life, represented an attempt at some answers.

Which way are we heading--for or against life? That is a question on which man’s very existence depends. An eminent demographer who spoke at the twenty-eighth International Family Congress in Warsaw has published a well-documented paper carrying the eloquent title: “Europe Is Dying Out.” In it, the chances ahead for Europe and the European Union are evaluated in various ways. Is it known, however, that above and...

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Verlag
Square One
Erscheinungsdatum
2008
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0757002234
ISBN 13 
9780757002236
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
208
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV
info@simonandschuster.nl

Herculesplein 96
Utrecht
3584 AA
Niederlande