“What I write is simple, frank and truthful…” Father Konrad Szweda’s Camp Egodocuments

Introduction

The history of Upper Silesia during the uprisings and plebiscite was closely connected with the activity of notable priests. The same can be said about the interwar period, when dedicated priests and social activists were in greater demand than ever before. In response to that demand, Silesia boasted many priests dedicated to and involved in the life of both the Church and the Silesian community. Among them was Konrad Szweda, whose exceptional sensitivity to social issues and keen sense of responsibility did not allow him to remain indifferent or inactive. Concerned about the future of his homeland, the Church, and his parishioners in the difficult times before the outbreak of World War II, Szweda became a beacon for patriotism, the national language, and native culture - all rooted in Catholicism. Despite the repression and threats to which all public activists at that time (1937–1939) were exposed, he eagerly participated in patriotic and social actions, always mindful of his calling as a shepherd of souls. In the very first year of his priesthood (1939), he was arrested and deported to a concentration camp, where he had to endure humiliation on account of merely being a Catholic priest and a patriot. After the Second World War, he was sent to a prison in Katowice for criticizing the post-war Polish authorities. He later recalled humiliating scenes when, under the watchful gaze of a hostile female warden, he cleaned toilets. The life of Szweda makes for an interesting case study, showing through the prism of the fate of one person the trajectories and consequences of historical events, chiefly of course those related to the domination in Central Europe of two totalitarian systems, German Nazism and Soviet communism. Both regarded Szweda as an enemy, due to his origins, his intellectual and spiritual identity, and his courage and integrity. Szweda’s letters, especially those written in concealment while a prisoner, and his other egodocuments¹ concerned with the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp are part of an anthology of important source texts which gives us pictures of and insights into the human spirit in “inhuman times,” a period in which moral values were disregarded and trampled upon. However, among the extant documents of this type, Szweda’s writings stand out due to the distinct context of priesthood, thanks to which these moving historical texts constitute a significant chapter in the history of the Polish clergy.

Konrad Szweda² is the narrator, sender, and protagonist of these documents. He was born on December 31, 1912, in Rybnicka Kuźnia (now a district of Rybnik) as the fifteenth of sixteen children of Paweł Szweda (a bricklayer by trade) and Ludwina née Szweda. He attended elementary school in the nearby town of Orzepowice (the school was German in the years 1919–1922, and subsequently Polish). In 1926, he began his education at the state gymnasium in Rybnik. He was active as a prefect of the Marian Sodality and president of the junior secondary school Polish Students’ Association. In 1934, after finishing secondary school, he entered the Silesian Seminary in Kraków, although he had also been considering the option of joining the Franciscan Order. After graduation, he received a master’s degree in theology from the Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. On June 25, 1939, he was ordained a priest by the Bishop of Katowice, Stanisław Adamski. He briefly served as a vicar in his home parish of Our Lady of Sorrows in Rybnik, and then became a temporary vicar in the parish of St. Joseph in Świętochłowice-Zgoda, where he taught religion to children and teenagers³. He ran afoul of the German authorities for using Polish to deliver religious instruction to his pupils. Besides, as a moderator of the meetings, Szweda’s lessons encouraged religious self-education. Yet even though the meetings were Polish and conducted “in Polish,” they were devoid of any political agenda or activism and mostly involved reading and discussing papers on philosophical or theological topics. German Catholics, unfavorable to such activities, referred to this group as “die Kirchbande.” At the end of February 1940, the German police, most likely as a result of someone’s denunciation, appeared at one of the “Kirchbande” meetings, where one of the students, Tadeusz Paczuła, was giving a talk on “Cosmological Evidence for the Existence of God.” All the participants were arrested and Szweda was detained by the Gestapo. However, he soon was freed following a prompt intervention by German parishioners and the parish priest, Emil Śliwka.

Konrad Szweda became involved in the resistance movement with Polska Organizacja Podziemna [the Polish Underground Organization] (also known as Polska Organizacja Powstańcza [the Polish Insurgent Organization]), his activity involving the distribution of a magazine called Zryw [Spring to Action]. He was arrested again on December 18, 1940 (the order for his arrest was signed by SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reichssicherheitpolizei in Berlin) and deported to the German death camp in Auschwitz (camp number 7669).⁴ He was assigned to a labor kommando, and at the end of January 1941 was sent to the camp hospital (or infirmary) as a nurse’s assistant in Block 15. His duties involved carrying a first aid kit containing very modest medical supplies (paper bandages, lignin towels, anthrax pills and eubasine) and conveying the bodies of those who died or had been murdered to the crematorium. He had numerous encounters with Father Maximilian Kolbe, who became his confessor. Szweda and Kolbe held retreats for the priests in the camp. In October 1941, Szweda was assigned the work of a nurse in blocks where Soviet prisoners of war were kept. Later he was transferred to an earthwork kommando employed in the construction of the Buna-Werke synthetic chemicals plant in Dwory and Monowice. Working there as an orderly, he would celebrate Holy Mass in secret, hear the confession of fellow prisoners, and provide them with spiritual preparation for death. He also distributed food, medicines, and letters. On December 8, 1941, on the Ceremony of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, after Holy Mass celebrated in the basement of Block 7, an act of consecration was performed submitting prisoners to the protection of the Virgin Mary. In this way the prisoners entrusted their plight to the Virgin each day of their life in the camp in full awareness of the fragility of their situation under the existing conditions. On numerous occasions, Szweda’s fellow inmate and friend Tadeusz Paczuła assisted him in the celebration of Holy Mass in the conspiratorial conditions, which for Szweda in particular meant risking his life. Another equally perilous activity of a religious kind, when working in the external Buna-Werke kommando, involved secretly bringing the Communion host and wine into the camp. As he would recall it later, the bread was concealed in the lining of a sleeve and the wine in a flat bottle in a shoe. This activity put him in mortal danger at least three times. In March 1942, he was among a group of priests and lay inmates who consecrated themselves to the protection of St. Joseph, vowing that after leaving the camp they would spread the cult of St. Joseph and hold celebrations before the saint’s picture in Kalisz. At the beginning of June 1942, with a group of several dozen priests, Szweda was deported to the German concentration camp in Dachau, where he received another number, 30312. He was assigned to work in clothing warehouses, and then in a “button shop” and the camp’s post office. Szweda mentions a Holy Mass in Dachau celebrated for the souls of the executed Kudera brothers from Mysłowice. Stefan and Marian Kudera had been brought to the Dachau camp in April 1944. When in July they were summoned by the political unit, they foresaw what kind of end was awaiting them. Taking advantage of the opportunity, they both asked Szweda for confession. In June 1944, together with other priests from Block 28, Szweda held an act of consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. At the end of April 1945, after the liberation of the Dachau camp by American troops, Szweda went to France. After his return to Poland, whenever he talked about his camp experiences, he showed no hatred or desire to be revenged on the perpetrators. Instead, he emphasized that he wanted to save from oblivion the wonderful manifestations of Christian faith he had witnessed in the inhumane conditions of camp life. He referred to those exemplary acts of faith as “flowers on Golgotha.”

After his liberation, Szweda started writing a memoir, which in its final 1967 manuscript version consists of three volumes and is entitled A Memoir; or, the Facts and Events in a Miserable and Sinful Life, Containing Evidence of the Good Lord’s Bountiful Grace and Mercy.⁵ When in France, Szweda stayed in Paris and undertook pastoral work among Polish emigrants in the Decize camp on the Loire. After the liquidation of the camp in March 1946, he returned to Poland. He briefly served as a substitute priest in the parish of the Apostles Peter and Paul in Świętochłowice, and then, in April 1946, he became a vicar (Pl. wikary) in the parish of St. Mary Magdalene in Cieszyn. He was esteemed not only by the parish priest Teodor Lichota, who appreciated Szweda’s versatility, but also by the parishioners. He conducted spiritual retreats, organized religious formation days, and gave sermons during pilgrimages to Marian sanctuaries.

For his boldness in speaking the truth, Szweda suffered persecution and repression not only from the Nazis but also from the Communists. His criticism of actions and decisions of the communist authorities exposed him to the harassment and repression of officers of the political police. He was repeatedly summoned for interrogation, not only to the Office of Public Security, but also to the School Inspectorate in Cieszyn which demanded that he disband the Eucharistic Crusade of school children⁶. In 1950, the Presidium of the District National Council in Cieszyn first refused to employ him as teacher in the schools of the Cieszyn powiat (county), and then banned him from all towns of this border-belt area. Despite the protests of his parishioners, Szweda had to leave Cieszyn. He went to his hometown of Rybnik and then became a vicar in the parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Bartholomew in Piekary Śląskie. In the sanctuary of Piekary he gave tours and preached to groups of pilgrims. He ended his ministry in Piekary Śląskie in 1953, when, in a telephone call from the Curia, he was ordered to leave his post in Piekary and immediately go to Chudów. In his new capacity of wikariusz ekspozyt, a special type of vicar at the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary Queen of Angels, a minor church belonging to the parish, he conducted a wide range of pastoral activity, organizing, among other things, days of spiritual formation and spiritual retreats for various groups of parishioners, or “estates” (e.g., workers or married couples). As he continued to be openly critical of the Communist regime, he was repeatedly summoned for interrogation by the authorities in charge of religious affairs. At their request, the vicar capitular Jan Piskorz gave Szweda a formal warning in February 1955 about his “hostile statements made from the pulpit.” When, a few months later, at a district conference of priests in Rybnik, Szweda accused the communist authorities of breaking the rule of law and persecuting the Church, the bailiff seized all his furniture. Moreover, his taxes were raised, and he was not permitted to purchase building materials. Persuaded to get involved in the movement of “patriotic priests,” Szweda is said to have replied that it was not his business to interfere in politics, but also that compromise and cooperation with the authorities were not an option for him. After the return of the Katowice bishops from exile, at the beginning of 1957 he was sent to the parish of St. Florian in Chorzów with the task of completing the construction of the church and erecting the rectory. In April, he became the parish priest there, and additionally took on the duties of diocesan leader in a campaign against drunkenness and the family rosary action⁷.

The Security Service listed Szweda among the group called “reactionary and militant clergy.”⁸ Hence, at the end of the 1950s, he was subjected to increased surveillance as a so-called figurehead of the registration and observation case.⁹ The Security Service were planning to recruit him as a secret collaborator, but Szweda refused to cooperate. On September 20, 1960, he was arrested and imprisoned in Katowice on charges of offering bribes to workers in the River Shipyards in Koźle in exchange for steel work on the construction of the church of St. Florian. Szweda’s imprisonment became something of a public concern and the International Auschwitz Committee intervened in his behalf. Thanks to numerous interventions, including by the bishop of Katowice, Szweda was released several months later. In April 1961, the Provincial Court in Katowice found him guilty of paying a bribe (in the amount of about seventeen thousand zlotys) and he was sentenced to eight months in prison reduced by pre-trial detention. In consideration of his poor health related to his imprisonment in German concentration camps, the court suspended the execution of the sentence for three years.

According to the Department for Religious Affairs in Katowice, people regarded Szweda as “a hero, innocent of the abuses that have occurred.”¹⁰ His time in prison affected his health. In the years that followed, he suffered further persecution at the hands of the communist authorities. In the years 1962–1965, he was fined four times: for not keeping the inventory book, twice for conducting the Corpus Christi procession along an unsuitable route (as a punishment for which his private furniture, wardrobes, a couch and a desk were seized), and for failing to submit a catechetical point to the authorities’ approval. At the same time, the church authorities valued his pastoral commitment (in the folder¹¹ of operational records of the clergy kept by the Security Service, there is a note that in the opinion of the Curia “he is the best priest in the whole of Poland, a good organizer, infinitely devoted to the church. Considered a martyr by the Curia.”).¹² In 1962, his position in the church hierarchy was raised to that of a prelate; a year later he became the director of the Pontifical Missionary Union of the Clergy in the Diocese of Katowice, then the director of all the Pontifical Missionary Works in the Diocese of Katowice and a member of the Pastoral Council of the Diocese of Katowice. In January 1967, he handed the bishop his resignation from the parish of St. Florian in Chorzów and a request to be assigned to the then vacant parish of St. Paul in Ruda Śląska, in the district of Nowy Bytom. The Department for Religions at the Presidium of the Provincial National Council in Katowice did not accept this request, justifying their refusal by the fact that, in his capacity of parish priest in Chorzów, Szweda had “failed to comply with the existing state regulations regarding catechetical points and inventory books.”¹³

Father Szweda was an important witness of the crimes committed in the concentration camps in Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau and published a total of one hundred and twenty-eight articles on the subject, most of them in the newspapers Gość niedzielny [Sunday Guest] and Przewodnik katolicki [Catholic Guide]. In 1970, he took part in a pilgrimage of priests to Dachau and Rome. He was a witness during the proceedings for the beatification of Father Maximilian Kolbe, and in 1971 he took part in the ceremony of Kolbe’s beatification in Rome. He celebrated Holy Mass many times in the former Auschwitz camp and gave talks all over the country on the martyrdom of the Polish nation, especially the fate of the clergy in Nazi concentration camps. He actively participated in meetings of priests who were former prisoners of the Dachau camp, which took place in the sanctuary of St. Joseph in Kalisz.¹⁴ In 1970, he donated to the Museum in Kalisz valuable souvenirs from the concentration camp: a makeshift chalice, a paten, a corporal, a burse bag, a mass form – a roll of paper used during clandestine Holy Masses – and a cross carved in the camp by one of the prisoners. Due to his poor health, in January 1980 Szweda formally asked the bishop of Katowice for permission to retire, and bishop Herbert Bednorz accepted his resignation. Yet when Szweda’s health improved and in response to a shortage of priests in the diocese, he decided to return to pastoral ministry and in January 1981 became a vicar-treasurer, and then the parish priest of Our Lady Queen of the Holy Rosary in Łaziska Górne. At the invitation of John Paul II, in October 1982, Szweda concelebrated Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican during the canonization of Blessed Father Maximilian Kolbe. In 1982, a collection of his camp memoirs entitled Flowers on Golgotha was published,¹⁵ which Szweda considered his modest contribution to a comprehensive report on the human losses sustained by the Polish clergy during and after the war. Starting in the late 1970s, he regularly wrote reports on the meetings of priests, former prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp (published in the internally circulated Biuletyn informacyjny [Information Bulletin]).¹⁶ During his trips to Kalisz, he gave sermons and conducted group prayers. He was active as a preacher in spiritual retreats, where his participation included conducting ascetic conferences for nuns. His sermons were Biblioteka kaznodziejska [Preachers’ Library] and other magazines.

In addition to texts on the subject of the camp, Szweda wrote a total of ninety-four articles on pastoral issues, ascetic life and liturgy. He published both in national periodicals (Gość Niedzielny, Homo Dei, Przewodnik Katolicki, Mały Gość Niedzielny, Posłaniec Serca Jezusowego [Messenger of the Heart of Jesus], Msza Święta [Holy Mass], Biblioteka Kaznodziejska, Wiadomości Diecezjalne, Kalendarz Rycerza Niepokalanej), and in the press of the Polish diaspora (Nasza Rodzina and Nasza Droga in France and Wydawnictwo Milenijne in London). As he wrote in his memoirs, many of his articles “were thrown in the trash because of censorship.”¹⁷ In May, 1988 he retired from the parish in Łaziska. He died on 28 July 1988 of a heart attack in a hospital in Mikołów (before his retirement formally began). The funeral was held in Łaziska Górne on August 1, 1988, and he is buried in the local parish cemetery. In 1989, his second book, Ponieśli swój krzyż [They Carried Their Cross], was published, which contains testimonies of the martyrdom of children in concentration camps and biographical sketches about people helping them.

Streets in Rybnicka Kuźnia, Łaziska Górne and Chorzów have been named after Konrad Szweda. In 1998, a commemorative plaque was placed in the crypt of the Cathedral of Christ the King in Katowice, and in 2012 in the church of St. Florian in Chorzów. In 2005, the Rybnik City Council gave the Primary School No. 15 in Rybnik the name of “Prelate Konrad Szweda.” Before his death, Szweda donated to the Archdiocesan Archives in Katowice a legacy¹⁸ consisting of sermons, articles, letters, papers, testimonies and books, which he had managed personally to sort out before his death.

Konrad Szweda can be called a prolific writer. Alongside the performance of pastoral duties, he wrote a lot and regularly, evidently encouraged by the words of his professor, Konstanty Michalski, also a priest. His writings did not always meet with praise, yet he was never discouraged and never ceased to write. He wrote during his imprisonment in the concentration camp and continued to do so as a free person. He had a demanding disposition and expected a lot, both from himself and from others. He knew how to apologize, and for him Christmas and the New Year were perfect occasions to do so, which he never missed.

The documents included in this publication¹⁹ allow us to reconstruct the life of Konrad Szweda in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. They give us a detailed picture of everyday life in the camp as well as some political facts and elements of the larger context. For many readers, egodocuments written on the spur of the moment (e.g., notes scribbled in secret,²⁰ letters,²¹ religious acts of consecration to the protection of a saint) are records of genuine attitudes, choices, sentiments, and emotions. They are a great source of knowledge for historians of clerical mentality. Biographical and factual details reveal surprising paradoxes, bring to light forgotten contexts and facts, question stereotypes, and, last but not least, inspire deeper insights into the complexity of the past. They were often written hastily, in response to the needs of the heart and to the determination to maintain contact with loved ones, in a situation of danger, oppression and helplessness, but also physical fatigue and exhaustion. However, they are a living account; they are authentic because they convey and communicate everything that mattered to the writer. They describe his experiences, express his mental state, and depict his physical condition. Szweda did not underestimate the evil or the dramatic nature of his predicament, although he made all effort not to sadden his addressees, his loved ones, especially Łucja Szymura, the mother of a close friend, Teofil, who died after a two-year battle with disease. Because Teofil was an only child, after his death, Łucja bestowed her motherly care and protection on Konrad Szweda. She supported him financially, which was of great importance during his studies in grammar school. His writings include expressions of gratitude, pieces of advice and words of comfort. There is in his correspondence perpetual concern about the well-being of his loved ones. Finally, there is evidence, especially in his clandestine letters, that even in the most trying moments of the camp existence, Szweda acted according to the system of values in which he had been brought up, and that he was never robbed of the capacity to act nobly.

The egodocuments collected in this book have required comments and footnotes to familiarize readers with details of the political and familial contexts, family relations, and elements of the system operating in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. The editors’ primary goal has been to make the reading relatively undemanding. A lot of valuable content in the materials is found, as the saying goes, between the lines. Sometimes it is necessary for the reader to pay attention to the excerpts recorded in the memoires of Konrad Szweda, focusing on specific elements of the larger picture of camp life. To read Szweda’s egodocuments is to look at a past that is still recent and to decipher the consequences of historical events. It also and perhaps primarily means getting to know the mechanisms of action and behaviour of a free person in conditions of oppression and enslavement, of a man who remains faithful to the system of values in which he was brought up and who managed to preserve his empathic, responsible and courageous self when confronted with the cruelest adversity.

1 The term “egodocument” was first used by Jacques Presser (1899–1970), a Dutch historian, writer and poet. Egodocuments are manuscripts that reflect their author’s personal interests while also reflecting the mentality of the era. Such documents are closely related to private writing, the writing of private space, personal testimony, and first-person writing. The concept of the egodocument underlies a new approach to the study of private manuscripts, a method of revealing the world of personal and mental experiences and the ways in which the author perceives the reality around them.

2 Archdiocesan Archives in Katowice, Section Personal Files, Files of Father Konrad Szweda, sign. 48/838.

3 Pl. duszpasterstwo.

4 Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim, Materials, sign. D-Au I-3/1; Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, Information about prisoners, https://www.auschwitz.org/muzeum/informacja-o-wiezniach/ (accessed 10.05.2023).

5 Konrad Szweda, Pamiętnik życia i posługi kapłańskiej [A Memoir of a Priest’s Life and Pastoral Service], vol. 1 (private collection of Józef Kolarczyk); K. Szweda, Pamiętnik, czyli fakty i wydarzenia mizernego i grzesznego życia, któremi dobry Bóg nie skąpił łask i dowodów miłosierdzia [A Memoir; or, the Facts and Events in a Miserable and Sinful Life, Containing Evidence of the Good Lord’s Bountiful Grace and Mercy] (private collection of Józef Kolarczyk).

6 Literal translation referring to children’s prayer group.

7 Form of prayer.

8 J. Kiedos and A. Brzytwa, Świadectwo śląskiego kapłana. Życie księdza Konrada Szwedy [Testimony of a Silesian Priest. The Life of Father Konrad Szweda], Bytom 1995, pp. 96–98.

9 A. Dziurok, “Szweda Konrad,“ in: Leksykon duchowieństwa represjonowanego w PRL w latach 1945–1989. Pomordowani – więzieni – wygnani [Lexicon of the Clergy Repressed in the People;s Republic of Poland in the Years 1945–1989. Murdered – Imprisoned – Exiled], vol. 1, ed. J. Myszor, Warsaw 2002, pp. 279–281.