On October 2, the Day of Remembrance of the Civilian Population of the Warsaw Uprising, the Warsaw Ghetto Museum took part in the opening ceremony of the exhibition "Sacramentines and Redemptorists in the Warsaw Uprising" at Plac Męczenników Warszawskiej Wola
SEPTEMBER 6, 2020
Forty thousand of them perished. The number is uncertain, and historians are still trying to determine it. We know the names of six thousand. Among them were 30 Redemptorists from the congregation on Karolkowa Street – victims of the Wola massacre. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Warsaw Uprising: on the night of August 5-6, 1944, German troops stormed the church of Klemens Hofbauer. All the monks and the local population seeking shelter were to leave the church. They were herded to St. Adalbert's Church. There, the Germans separated the monks from the rest and directed them to a nearby square. First, the Germans killed the brothers; last, the prior. The men trapped in the church piled their bodies in a pile. The Germans set fire to the bodies. Two years later, the crosses worn by the brothers and the keys to the monastery gate would be found in the ashes left after the cremation.
Less than three weeks after this massacre, 13 Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament from Nowe Miasto would die. They refused to leave the church and the civilians inside. They perished under the rubble of the collapsing roof.
On October 2nd, the Day of Remembrance of the Civilian Population of the Warsaw Uprising, the opening ceremony of the exhibition "Sacramentines and Redemptorists in the Warsaw Uprising" took place at Plac Męczenników Warszawska Wola, combined with the promotion of the book of the same title by Rev. Prof. Paweł Mazanka. The presentation of the book and film about the nuns and monks in the Warsaw Uprising took place in the Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Auditorium at the Warsaw Uprising Museum.
Father Professor Paweł Mazanka, head of the Department of Metaphysics at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, devotes his time and energy not only to the history of the order of which he is a member. For years, he has been cultivating the memory of the Jewish inhabitants of his birthplace, Szydłów. We hope to speak with him about these interests in the near future.
Dr. Halina Postek
Photo: MGW
