Wartime Rescue of Jews by the Polish Catholic Clergy

But her father [who was murdered by the Gestapo, along with Mrs. Jus’s mother and only sister, on April 22, 1942] believed that the danger was overdramatized …
The memoirs of Andrzej and Karolina Jus, which are dedicated to the memory of the “many … Poles, among them many Catholic priests and nuns, who, risking their own lives, enabled Karolina, and others like her, to survive the times of contempt,” detail the couple’s many encounters with the Catholic clergy during the German occupation. Karolina eventually survived the war in the village of Uherce, sheltered by her husband’s aunt. (Ibid., pp.74, 78, 79, 80, 84, 90, 93, 106, 108, 131–32, 169.)
When Andrzej returned to Karolina … he met [Sister] Filomena at Karolina’s place … She was dressed already in her traditional nun’s habit with the medieval ‘corner hat’ of the Sisters of Charity. She brought food for Karolina and her family. Her convent was not far from Karolina’s apartment. She intended from now on to pay frequent visits to Karolina, and had asked other nuns to be of assistance to them. Her organizing was already evident as nuns from the convent of Holy Sacrament [Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament] had brought fruit and vegetables from their garden to Zosia [Karolina’s sister]. They, at once, took a great liking to her and promised to bring fresh fruit and vegetables every day. Before Andrzej’s second visit on this day, Filomena had a chat with all the members of Karolina’s family, and she fully understood their sufferings. She came to comfort them and diminish their isolation. …

… In his most hopeful dreams, he could not imagine how open-minded, understanding, and helpful the bishop [Eugeniusz Baziak] was. …

The bishop discussed with his secretary the choice of the priest who would be the best person to baptize Karolina, marry the couple, and, after the wedding, have them under his constant vigilance to advise them what to do in the case of imminent danger. After a while, they agreed on one of the priests from the Bernardine Monastery. His name was Father Aloisius (Alojzy), and the secretary promised to arrange an appointment with him for the couple next day at 10.00 a.m. in the office of the Bernardine Monastery in Lwów.

The bishop added: ‘Father Alojzy will take care of all the documents that will be needed. He is a very courageous and shrewd person. In the fight against Evil we have to use sophisticated methods and act quickly to save decent people. He knows how to fight and what methods are appropriate. He is under my jurisdiction, and I will personally watch over your situation and always be of assistance.’…

There was still the matter of protection for Karolina’s family. … The bishop [Eugeniusz Baziak] thought for a while, and said: ‘Tell them that my advice is to hide all three of them: the father in one of our monasteries, the mother and Karolina’s sister in a convent with nuns. The sooner, the better. Any day something might happen to them. … They will be protected by all the means available to the church. Of course, our means are not unlimited, and our greatest concern is that we cannot help all people who need protection. Our help is unfortunately a drop in the big ocean of human needs. This help must be kept in the strictest secrecy. One false step and everybody might be lost.’

He paused and then continued: ‘Do not forget to tell Karolina’s parents that we do not expect them to convert. Nor will we exercise any pressure in this direction. Although the mission of the church is to expand the Catholic faith, above all our mission is to help, in Jesus’s name, any needy human being. As I just told you, our greatest concern is that we can do it only for a limited number of people who, in this country, are in grave danger.’

At the end of the conversation, the bishop added: ‘We consider the Nazis’ anti-Semitism as racism and crime. The German nation was educated to feel superior to all the nations in the world. In general, any anti-Semitism, not only theirs, is considered by us to be against the teaching of Jesus.’ His voice was very sad now: ‘Unfortunately, some of our priests before the war preached in a way that was not always consistent with the conception of love for all human beings, whatever their nationality and religion might be, not in a way that Jesus taught us.’…

Then, [Father Alojzy] explained to them that the certificates of baptism and marriage had to be written on old forms, that of baptism on a form used in or around the time of Karolina’s birth, the certificate of marriage on a form used before the Second World War. In the Lwów monastery [of the Bernardines], they had neither form. He knew that they still had the marriage forms in the village parish about 20 kilometres from Lwów. Andrzej would have to go there with a message from Father Alojzy, and bring the forms to him.

It was much more complicated to get the form for baptism. Each baptism was entered in the parochial books of baptism. In addition, at the end of the calendar year, the parson sent a register of all baptisms in his parish to the archdiocese, where each baptism was entered in the archdiocesan books. Both the parochial and the archdiocesan offices were, at the same time, offices of the civil state, providing data on the population to state registers. Therefore, even with the access to the archdiocesan books, it was dangerous to enter Karolina’s name into them because it could be easily discovered that her baptism had not been registered in the parochial books. To avoid this danger, it was necessary to find a church in which the parochial books of the period close to her birth had been destroyed, burnt during the First World War, between the two wars, or at the beginning of the Second World War. …

After telling the bishop how grateful Karolina’s family was for his generous offer, Ludwik [Andrzej’s father] asked for a short delay before giving a definite answer. After a lapse of two weeks, he went to the diocese with a negative answer, carrying the message of immense gratitude of Karolina’s family and trying to explain the attitude of Juliusz [Karolina’s father]. The bishop was sad, but not surprised: ‘Unfortunately it is not the first time that we have seen such an attitude. We will pray for them with the hope that they will accept our offer and that when this happens it will not be too late. Sometimes just one hour, one minute, means life or death. As long as there exists such a possibility, our doors stay open for them.’…

The parson [of a small village close to Glinna Nawaria, about 20 kilometres from Lwów] welcomed him [Andrzej] warmly when he mentioned that he had been sent by Father Alojzy. The parson was in his seventies but still in good shape and agile. He handed Andrzej baptism and marriage forms printed before the outbreak of war in 1939. He did not ask any questions, but, as he passed to Andrzej a bunch of forms, mentioned: ‘Father Alojzy might need more. God bless you, young man. Take care when travelling.’ …

Juliusz and his family had the same problems [with food and heating materials]. Great help was given to them by [Sister] Filomena. She became their frequent guest, always bringing vegetables and fruit from the convent garden. Some other nuns, from the nearby Convent of Sisters of the Holy Sacrament, were also bringing food from their garden. Andrzej never learned who had told them about Juliusz’s family, whether it was Filomena or Father Alojzy. …

… They discussed with him [Juliusz] many times the proposal of Bishop Baziak. Ludwik went again to see Juliusz and told him that the proposal was still valid. But Juliusz did not revise his former decision …

They [Andrzej and Karolina] went to see Father Alojzy before their departure. He was in a very depressed state, having been seriously affected by stories of Nazi atrocities. They discussed with him many problems, and they saw how open-minded this priest was. They discussed with him the problem of informers, those who betrayed because of their profound anti-Semitism. Father Alojzy blamed the situation not only on the Germans. ‘We have to admit,’ he said, ‘that we have bred our own kind of anti-Semitism in Poland a long time before the war. It was advocated by our own pre-war government—taught by some teachers in the schools and universities, by some physicians in the hospitals, by some lawyers in the courts, by some industrialists in factories, merchants in shops, and, we have to confess, by some of our priests in offering public or private advice, even in the church. This was not what Jesus taught us to do. We need a better society after the war. We have to recognize what mistakes we made and never repeat them again. Our true Polish patriotism has nothing in common with hatred of other nations. Our Catholic religion has nothing to do with the hatred of other religions. The free will given by God means a good will, full of love for other human beings, whatever their religion, whatever their race, colour of skin or social class. Our God does not want false patriots whose principal program is to hate people of other religions or other nations. For the actions of some informers, we have to take partial responsibility. It is our sin that we have not fought hard enough against the hatred in human hearts.’ He appeared to them to be inspired by God. He blessed them and promised to be in contact: ‘Do not forget to notify me if you feel in danger. Remember that I am praying for you and I will act for you in any capacity that could be helpful.’ …

… Andrzej went to see Father Alojzy in the monastery. The terrible story of Karolina’s family was an awful shock for him. He could not conceal his tears. He knelt and prayed for a long while. Then he told Andrzej about the terrible events that were taking place in the ghetto of Lwów. …