By Marty Denzer
Catholic Key Reporter
A bronze plaque hangs on a courtyard wall outside the Finucane Jesuit Center at Rockhurst University bearing the names of 152 Jesuit victims of the Nazis during World War II. The plaque was dedicated at a multi-faith prayer service in the center on April 12, during a day-long commemoration of Yom Ha’Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
From 1939 to 1945, the era of Adolph Hitler’s campaign to eradicate both the Jewish population of Eastern Europe and the non-Jewish people who opposed his assault on the Jews, an estimated 9 to 11 million people perished.
Hundreds of the non-Jewish victims of the Nazis were Catholic religious sisters and priests, religious priests and monks, as well as non-Catholic ministers who were targeted because of their influence. Among those victims were 152 Jesuits of many different nationalities who were executed, died in concentration camps or as a result of captivity. Jesuit Father Vincent A. Lapomarda, associate professor of history at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass., researched and compiled lists of all the Jesuits who died at the hands of the Nazis.
On April 12, 1951, while the world was still reeling from the discoveries of the concentration camps in Germany and Eastern Europe, and the young nation of Israel was struggling to establish itself, the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) proclaimed Yom Ha’ Shoah to be commemorated annually on the 27th of Nisan, which fell on April 15 this year.
In predominately Catholic Poland, a bronze plaque hangs in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Krakow, inscribed with the names of the 65 Polish Jesuits who were victims of the Nazis.
The 55- by 28-inch plaque at Rockhurst is the gift of Rockhurst Regent Eliot Berkeley and his wife Marcia. The engraved names of the 152 Jesuits are taken from the book, “The Jesuits and the Third Reich,” by Father Lapomarda, and are divided into three categories: those who were executed, those who died in captivity of or as a result of it, and those who died in concentration camps. The first two lists include the nationalities of the Jesuits and the third denotes the camp where each died.
Berkeley, who is Jewish, told The Catholic Key, “I can’t remember how far back it was when I started thinking about it (the plaque). It was over a period of several years. I wanted to do something to appropriately recognize the Jesuits who died at the hands of the Nazis.”
Berkeley, a Rockhurst University regent since 1991, served in the American Army of the Occupation in Germany in 1945-1946, and had family members who fled to America to escape the Nazis. His doctoral dissertation at Princeton University was on Germany and the reestablishment of formal relations with the Germans following the war.
Salesian Father Thomas Curran, president of Rockhurst University, offered a reflection during the prayer service urging those present to “re-enter and recall that which happened, in solidarity with those who have gone before us. Never forget what happened and work with each other to make sure such a horror never happens again.”
Father Curran and Rabbi Jacques Cuikerkorn of The New Reform Temple in Kansas City, where Berkeley and his wife are members, both blessed the plaque.
The Jewish Community Relations Bureau and the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education collaborated with Rockhurst University to sponsor the Yom Ha’ Shoah Day of Recollection. This was the second year of the observance at Rockhurst. The event was first proposed 2006 by then-freshman Andy Julo, who approached campus minister Bill Kreige with the idea that a service of remembrance would be a good way to bring together the Catholic and Jewish communities in Kansas City.
Berkeley said that having the plaque at a Jesuit university might inspire a student’s investigation of how the 152 Jesuits came to be executed or imprisoned for their opposition to Hitler.
“What was the background of the Jesuit opposition to the Nazis? I think it would be very helpful” in fostering understanding of the Shoah in future generations,” he said.
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Appendix: Name list of the 152 Jesuit Martyrs (Source: Holy Cross College)
(1) Those who died during the Holocaust
Albrecht, Robert Johannes,(1907-1943), German
Andrieux, Adolphe (1907-1943), French
Aragnieu, Jacques (1908-1940), French
Bajak, Feliks (1884-1944), Polish
Bieganski, Antoni M. (1900-1944), Polish
Bielen, Antoni (1880-1939), Polish
Blajer, Blaizej (1885-1939), Polish
Bobritzki, Klemens (1911-1944), Polish
Bohm, Fredrich (1900-1940), German
Bojolka, Bronislaw (1895-1939), Polish
Bok, Franciszek (1882-1939), Polish
Borysiak, Jan (1914-1939), Polish
Brodowski, Jan (1910-1939), Polish
Catry, Etienne (1914-1940), French
Charvet, Claude (1917-1940), French
Dejemeppe, Joseph (1914-1940), Belgian
Delcourt, Ignace (1899-1940), French
Delp, Alfred (1907-1945), German
Descampe, Albert (1915-1944), Belgian
Fallon, Henri (1867-1940), Belgian
Fevre, Jean Baptiste (1920-1945), French
Fleury, Charles (1897-1940), French
Fus, Jozef (1906-1944), Polish
Glaudan, Adam (1863-1944), Polish
Glowa, Czeslaw (1909-1939), Polish
Golebiowski, Jozef (1883-1939), Polish
Grabowski, Zbignew (1916-1944), Polish
Grehan, Bernard (1917-1940), French
Grimm, Alois (1886-1944), German
Grussenmeyer, Emile (1914-1940), French
Guinoiseau, Jean (1912-1940), French
Heck, Bartolomew (1913-1940), Belgian
Hrynaszkiewicz, Leonard (1913-1944), Polish
Hulin, Joseph (1913-1940), French
Klein, Jean (1897-1944), French
Klimkiewicz, Feliks (1893-1944), Polish
Konewecki, Jozef (1893-1939), Polish
Kosibowicz, Edward (1895-1944), Polish
La Baume, Francois Xavier de (1915-1940), French
Lange, Rene (1895-1944), Belgian
Latour, Pierre (1910-1940), French
LeClec’h, Jean-Marie (1916-1940), French
Ledant, Augustin (1887-1940), Belgian
Lefebvre, Bruno (1857-1940), Belgian
Lerolle, Jacques (1910-1940), French
Libinski, Herman (1867-1944), Polish
Ludwikowski, Piotr (1905-1939), Polish
Madalinski, Jan (1911-1944), Polish
Maillard, Paul (1909-1940), French
van Malderen, Leonard (1896-1940), Belgian
Merveille, Gerard (1910-1940), French
Mojkowski, Julian (1863-1939), Polish
Montcheuil, Yves de (1900-1944), French
Montigny, Louis de (1902-1940), French
Mroczka, Henryk (1901-1944), Polish
Munk, Thomas (1924-1945), Hungarian
Orzechowski, Stanislaw (1904-1944), Polish
Pawleski, Jan (1868-1944), Polish
Pienkosz, Aleksander (1915-1944), Polish
Pontcharra, Jean de (1908-1940), French
Rigot, Paul (1902-1940), Belgian
Rodle, Josef (1902-1940), German
Rogez, Charles (1900-1940), French
Roszak, Edmund (1900-1943), Polish
Salaun, Pierre (1913-1940), Belgian
Servais, Joseph (1881-1940), Belgian
Steinmayr, Johann (1890-1944), Austrian
Sudy, Karol (1908-1939), Polish
Swiatopelk-Mirski, Antoni (1907-1942), Polish
Swiecicki, Czeslaw (1912-1944), Polish
SZTARK, Adam (1907-1942), Polish
Szymaniak, Franciszek (1916-1944), Polish
Tomaszewski, Stanislaw (1919-1944), Polish
Tortat, Pierre (1907-1940), French
Toulouse, Pierre (1917-1940), French
Tresca, Louis (1911-1941), French
Watrobski, Wojciech (1917-1939), Polish
WIACEK, Wladyslaw (1910-1944), Polish
Wilczynski, Henryk (1915-1944), Polish
Wnek, Stanislaw (1859-1944), Polish
Wroblewski, Mieczyslaw (1912-1944), Polish
Zabek, Edmund (1899-1939), Polish
(2) Those who died in Concentration Camps
Barkholt, Werner (1902-1942), Dachau
BEDNARSKI, Stanislaw (1896-1942), Dachau
BENNINGHAUS, Augustin (1880-1942), Dachau
Binkowski, Jan (1867-1941), Dachau
Biot, Fernand (1910-1945), Neuengamme
Bukowy, Stanislaw (1910-1942), Dachau
Collart, Gerard (1905-1945), Gross-Rosen
CYREK, Jozef (1904-1940), Auschwitz
Czudek, Jozef (1883-1941), Dachau
Czyzycki, Julian (1911-1942), Dachau
DEMBROWSKI, Kazimierz (1912-1942), Dachau
Dillard, Victor (1897-1945), Dachau
FELCZAK, Stanislaw (1906-1942), Dachau
Frossard, Jean (1896-1945), Neuengamme
Gladysz, Bronislaw (1913-1942), Dachau
Jabrun, Louis de (1883-1943), Buchenwald *
KALUZA, Franciszek (1877-1941), Dachau
KOMAR, Stanislaw (1882-1942), Dachau
Letkowski, Julian (1907-1941), Auschwitz
Magnee, Jacques (1903-1942), Dachau
MALINOWSKI, Michal (1887-1942), Dachau
Maring, Albert (1883-1943), Dachau
Mayet, Joseph (1895-1945), Bergen-Belsen
MORAWSKI, Marian J. W. (1881-1940), Auschwitz
MUSIAL, Jerzy (1919-1945), Dachau
Nierowisz, Bernard (1888-1942), Auschwitz
Oostayen, Henri van (1906-1945), Bergen-Belsen
PODOLENSKI, Stanislaw (1887-1945), Dachau
Przystas, Roman (1908-1942), Dachau
Racinski, Wladyslaw (1914-1941), Mauthausen
Regout, Robert H. W. (1896-1942), Dachau
SEJBUK, Czeslaw (1906-1943), Dachau **
SEWILLO, Stanislaw (1917-1943), Dachau
Szakola, Stefan (1912-1942), Dachau
Szopinski, Boleslaw (1880-1941), Dachau
Szulc, Wladyslaw (1910-1941), Dachau
Trela, Henryk (1889-1942), Mauthausen
Waszkielis, Leon (1909-1942), Dachau
Weglinski, Gabriel (1906-1940), Mauthausen
WIELGOSZ, Bronislaw (1916-1942), Dachau
Zajac, Jan (1911-1945), Dachau
Zelezniak, Eugeniusz (1900-1942), Dachau
Zwaans, Henrik (1898-1942), Dachau
(3) Those who died in Captivity or its Result
Cag, Jozef (1912-1945), Polish
Ceillier, Patrick (1913-1942), French
Christophe, Georges (!912-1944), French
Deparis, Rene (1910-1945), French
Fierk, Eustachy (1902-1943), Polish
Grudzien, Henryk (1912-1940), Polish
Jablonski, Blazej (1871-1942), Polish
Kiwinski, Jozef (1918-1943), Polish
Konopinski, Jozef (1880-1940), Polish
Konopka, Jozef (1879-1941), Polish
Kuznowicz, Mierczyslaw J. (1874-1945), Polish
Malimanek, Antonin (1916-1945), Czech
MAYER, Blessed Rupert (1876-1945), German
Niemancewicz, Antoni (1893-1943), Polish
Piechucki, Wladyslaw (1893-1946), Polish
Podbienski, Tadeusz (1898-1939), Polish
Ritter, Joseph (1872-1941), French
Rosemann, Feliks (1904-1940), Polish
Roth, Jan (1870-1944), Polish
Sachsen, Georg von (1893-1943)
Schwingshackl, Johann N. (1887-1945), Austrian
Sopuch, Stanislaw (1869-1941), Polish
Sowa, Stanislaw (1886-1944), Polish
Vlk, Frantisek !1904-1945), Czech
Wawrzyniak, Franciszek (1866-1939), Polish
Willme, Francois X. (1894-1941), French
Zuzek, Aloysius (1865-1941), Yugoslavian
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