Polish Clergymen as Victims of KL Gusen

Abstract

The concentration camp of KLGusen was one of the main extermination sites for the Polish clergy, and especially that of the Roman Catholic denomination. Out of approximately 34,000 Poles detained in this camp, some 300 were clergymen (according to partial data). Many were imprisoned both as representatives of the Polish national elite – intended for extermination in accordance with the genocidal policy of the German National Socialist regime – and for religious reasons. In the camp, religious practices were forbidden and punishable by death. According to survivors’ accounts, the camp personnel subjected priests to especially brutal treatment. The martyrdom of the victims of KLGusen has been commemorated by means of three special rosaries containing the ashes of the murdered, which were deposited in the Jasna Góra sanctuary in Częstochowa, in St. Anne’s Church in Warsaw, and in Wrocław Cathedral. Former prisoners of KLGusen also made votive offerings during the second visit of Pope John Paul IIto Poland in 1983.