Eleven Polish Nuns Offer Their Lives To Save Prisoners In 1943

We trace how Poland is crushed between Nazi and Soviet violence, then follow the Nazareth Sisters of Novogrodek as they become the town’s spiritual backbone. We tell how eleven nuns choose to take the place of imprisoned men and walk into the woods to die, and why their witness is later honored rather than forgotten. 

• Poland’s geography as a battleground between Germany and Russia 
• Indoctrination, dehumanization, and the targeting of civilians in World War II 
• The Nazareth Sisters arriving in 1929 and facing local suspicion 
• How prayer and daily routines slowly win a community’s trust 
• Soviet occupation forcing the sisters out and banning their habits 
• Nazi takeover bringing public executions and terror in the town square 
• The arrest of local men and the fear of deportation or death 
• Sister Stella’s offhand vow and the sisters’ shared willingness to substitute their lives 
• The summons to the commissar and the final night in confinement 
• The executions in the Novogrodek woods and the silence afterward 
• The hidden grave, later exhumation, and reburial at the Church of the Transfiguration 
• The beatification cause opened in 1990 and the lasting memory of martyrdom

Journeys of Faith Store

Open by Steve Bailey

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Hello family and welcome. We're Bob and Penny Lore. We only spent a short time in Poland. We listened to the eyewitness accounts of wholesale massacre of these brave people, first by the communists, then by the Nazis, and again by the communists. We can't help but wonder what kind of brainwashing had to be done to the troops of the Nazi and Soviet Union armies to get them to believe that everyone else in the world except them was so much garbage to be discarded at will and slaughtered in any cruel and inhuman manner. We do know that Hitler instituted an indoctrination program for the Nazi military, claiming that they were the Aryan race and better than anyone else. By comparison, the rest of the world was just so much trash. Brother Joseph of our ministry told us that Poland had always blocked Germany from Russian attacks just by the nature of its geographical location. When the Russians would attack the Germans, or vice versa, the battle always wound up being fought on Polish soil.

The Sisters Earn A Town’s Trust

SPEAKER_00 3:00

A statistic we read about World War II maintains that close to thirty million people were killed during that war, and over half of them were civilians. So much for the reported skill and bravery of those crack Nazi troops. It doesn't take much of either to mow down unarmed, defenseless people with machine guns. They did their best work against unarmed men, women, and children. And let us not forget our priests and nuns. They were not only unarmed victims, they even prayed for their attackers. One of the most outrageous and senseless massacres of the Polish people we have ever learned about was the slaughter of eleven helpless nuns of the Order of the Holy Family of Nazareth in the woods of Novogrodek on August 1st, 1943. During the war, that was part of Poland. The Soviet Union took it over after World War II and is today a part of Bailo-Russia. This also gives you some idea of how these people have been footballed around by tyrannical bullies during this century alone.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

The sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth were founded for the express purpose of ministering to the family. They are consecrated to the Holy Family. Two sisters came to Novigrodek in August 1929. It had been the express wish of their bishop Zygmunt Lozinski, who had been born in the small town. He wanted them to open a school there, and the mother superior was more than happy to accommodate him. But there was a slight problem. He was the only one who wanted them in the town. The people didn't want them. It was an uphill fight from the very beginning. They couldn't find a place to call their own. They were blocked by the people in power of the town. There were many Protestants and Jews. They were suspicious of the little ladies in black. When they appealed to their mother superior and in Rome and to the bishop, they were told to stand their ground, stick with it.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

These dear sisters were so filled with the love of Jesus and Mary. They put up with all the distrust and coldness of the people. They persevered. By October, two more came, and they were given half a house. It was so small they had to have the kitchen and bedroom in the same room. But they persevered. The bishop came to bless their humble quarters. When they saw how they lived, he said to them, Oh, you little flock, you were not accepted in town. You had to seek refuge in the last of the houses outside town, as if in a stable. Be glad and rejoice, for from here will appear the same Christ of Bethlehem. Through you, little flock, Christ will act and radiate until you enter the glory of the Father. You will return to Jerusalem, your city, and become its glory and adornment. The town will accept you, and it will be proud that it possesses you. This was to prove to be a prophecy.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Little by little the locals could see why they were there, to love and teach as Jesus and Mary did. Gradually the walls that separated them crumbled. The little band was accepted. They were even given a nickname, the eleven pri. Pri is a French word for a kneeler. The eleven nuns would go to the kneelers to the left of the main altar in the Church of the Transfiguration in Novigrodek and pray. People came to look forward to seeing them there. Over the years it became sort of a tradition. The eleven pride, the eleven nuns praying at the kneeler. If one was missing, for whatever reason, great concern was manifested by the townspeople. The question was always raised, is she well? Should I bring her some hot soup?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Another tradition of the nuns which became expected of them was the way they walked up the hill to the Farah, as the Church of the Transfiguration was called. It was a steep incline, but they seemed to glide up the hill single file in their black habits which were down to the floor. First, several of them cut across the road. Then, one after another, they ascended the narrow path to the top of the hill, which wasn't high. It was a small elevation. The climb to their destination wasn't easy, yet to those who observed them, it seemed as though they were gliding along, almost as if they were flying up the hill like birds. Perhaps their wide habits, their pleated collars, and their windblown veils made them look so picturesque. They came to be a strong part of the community. The fortitude of these nuns would be an important factor for the spiritual and emotional survival of the little village when the war began.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

September the first, nineteen thine, the Nazis attacked Poland from Germany. While Nowy Grodek was in eastern Poland and the Nazis attacked from the German border into western Poland, the danger was very real. It manifested itself in an unexpected way. On September 17, 1939, the Russians crossed the border into eastern Poland and occupied it. The war had begun for the people of Nowy Grodek. The nuns had to leave their school and their convent. They were not allowed to wear their habits. They had to beg in the town for a place to sleep and board. But they had a motto. Wherever they were, that was their convent. Wherever they laid their heads, Christ the King was present. Things were so bad under the Russian rule, they almost wished the Nazis could come in and take over. That is, until the Nazis did come in and take over.

Nazis Bring Murder To The Square

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Within two years, the governing of Novogrodek changed hands from Soviet butchers to Nazi murderers. By June 1941, the people of the little village saw what a real threat a crack team of armed torturers could do to unarmed men, women, and children. The most immediate and obvious result of the Nazi takeover was the sight of Jews taken out of their homes, brought to the center square, and murdered. That was definitely the Nazi modus operandi. However, the nuns were allowed to put their habits back on. They were able to pray in the church. Perhaps the Nazis wanted to be able to identify them easily. Right after that, the persecution and atrocities began. In addition to the 50 Jews slaughtered in the center of town, while the band played a Johann Strauss waltz, the Nazis routed out any communist sympathi sympathizers and immediately shot them.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Watching executions, something most of the inhabitants of the little town had never witnessed in their lives, was becoming an everyday event. The people became numbed to what was happening. The situation went from intolerable to unbearable as the years went by. Jewish people were arrested for no reason, taken into the back of Nazi barracks and murdered. Other arrests of the men of the town very often took place in the middle of the night. The frightened voices of the men, screaming voices of their wives, and the muffled sound of children all became normal for that little town. The men would be taken off, never to be heard of again. The Nazi nightmare was in full swing.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

This was the situation on July the 25th, 1943. A group of men, mostly engineers and factory workers, were arrested by the Gestapo. It was pretty well expected that they would be killed. But an unusual thing happened. The commissar of the town, a man named Straub, complained bitterly to the Gestapo and SS that his authority was being belittled. He wanted to be the one to pass judgment on local people. Secretly. He wanted to hold them in the palms of his hands in fear, their entire lives depending on his whim. Actually, the Nazis would have understood that. They would have worked with him. But he gave them the excuse that he needed the men who had been arrested to work in the various offices and institutions. Or he even flew to Minx to appeal to a higher authority to have the sentence changed so that he would have these men to work for him. Nobody in the town knew anything about this. All they knew was that their husbands and loved ones were arrested. They would either be killed or sent to far-off concentration camps. A great fear overcame them. Then when days passed and the prisoners had not been removed from the town, curiosity took over.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

A Mrs. Ranazuska enters the picture. We're not sure if she had a relative or a husband in the group of men who had been arrested. All we know is that one day she went to Mass at the Farah. The nuns of the Holy the Order of the Holy Family of Nazareth were at that mass also. After the mass, she followed the nuns to their home. There was conversation about the situation in the town since the Germans had taken over. There was also a very casual discussion about the men who had been taken prisoner. All the sisters expressed their concern over the safety of these men, most of whom had families. The mother superior, Sister Stella, made a comment very off-handedly, very innocently, how I would like to give my life to save them. The other sisters joined in, also very wistful, stating, and I too, and I also. We also. Nobody was really paying attention to what they were saying except Mrs. Branazuska. But perhaps that was enough.

Ordered To Report At Night

SPEAKER_00 15:04

At this, Mrs. Branazuska left them. The following Saturday, late in the afternoon, Sister Emelda and Sister Stella were in the church preparing for the 40 hours devotion which was to place take place the following week in honor of the transfiguration of the Lord. A civilian Nazi came to the church. He said to all the nuns and to Sister Stella the Superior that they were to report to the commissar's office that evening at 7:30. A surge of fear went through the mother superior. After the men left, Sister Imelda asked her what she thought it meant. Sister Stella shared her fears that the nuns were being taken away to work in Germany, at least the youngest and strongest. The others might be sent somewhere else based on their strength and age. All of this was speculation, however. She couldn't think of any other reason why they would be summoned. She couldn't bring herself to consider that the little community might possibly be broken up. But she obediently gathered up her flock of twelve together at the church. The local priest, who would himself be a fugitive in a matter of days, held a prayer service and blessed all the nuns. He encouraged them not to be late. It didn't take much to rile the Nazis. He assured them of his prayers. Sister Malgorzata, an older nun, was chosen to stay with him to pray while the rest went down to the commissarat to get to the bottom of this.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

The nuns who went to the commissar's office that night of july thirty first, nineteen forty-three were as follows. Sister Maria Stella, age fifty four, mother superior of the group, a teacher by profession. Sister Mary Melden, age 50, a graduate of a teacher's college. Sister Mary Ramunda, age 50, three weeks short of her 51st birthday. Sister Maria Daniela, age 48. Sister Maria Canuccia, age 47. Sister Maria Guidona, age 43. Sister Maria Sergia, age 42, 18 days short of her 43rd birthday. Sister Maria Canuccia, age 38, six weeks short of her 39th birthday. Sister Maria Felicita, age 37, one month short of her 38th birthday. Sister Maria Heliodora, age 37. Sister Maria Borromeo, age 27. They traveled the road from their convent into the town. They passed friendly places, like the church of St. Michael, where they always bowed their heads and made the sign of the cross. Other places which had always been happy places were now fearful places. The town square where many executions had taken place. Smolensky Street, where the Nazi soldiers were billeted, and the office of the commissar was located. These had become frightening places. Neighbors begged them not to venture down into that part of town, but they went cheerfully, singing as they walked along these brave women of Poland. When they arrived at the commissariat, they were swallowed up into the bowels of the building. They were never seen again alive.

Substitution That Saves Families

SPEAKER_00 19:19

No one knows exactly why what happened happened. A solid reason was never given. It was never even admitted that they were murdered, much less why. They were nuns. What could they do? They had no weapons. How could they jeopardize the great Nazi war machine? How could Hitler or any of his henchmen possibly have been afraid of these women in black? Unless they were afraid of the nun's boss, the man on the cross, the god man, whom they could not destroy. After many years, people came forward and gave enough details to piece together the events of the evening of July the 31st, 1943, and the early morning hours of August 1st, 1943. We figured out what happened, but initially we could not figure out why. Finally, we were given the reason. The men who were arrested would have to be executed unless someone could be gotten to take their place. The sisters agreed to give up their lives for the lives of the men who were being held prisoner. The commissar needed the men. The Gestapo could not lose face by giving in to his demands. The killing of the nuns would make a suitable compromise. They took the men's places, just like Saint Maximilian Colby took the place of a fellow prisoner just two weeks short of two years before.

Executed Kneeling Beside A Grave

SPEAKER_01 21:15

About an hour after the nuns reported to the office of the commissar, they were taken out of the building and loaded into the back of a truck. It headed in the direction of the woods of Novigrodek. They went out a short distance and then turned around. They came back to the office of the commissar, and the nuns got out again. They were taken to the basement of the building where they stayed until the middle of the night, somewhere around 3 a.m. They were very cramped in the basement. There was not enough room for all of them to lay down on the floor, so they took turns. Then they were brought out into the woods. They asked to remain in their religious dress, to die with dignity. They were allowed to say goodbye to each other. The Mother Superior, Sister Stella, blessed each one of them. They were kneeling in the same position that they did in the Farah, the Church of the Transfiguration. Only now, rather than kneeling on the Pride Dieu in front of the altar, where Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament was smiling on them, they were kneeling on the ground before an open hole, a grave dug for eleven.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

When Sister Stella finished blessing them, the first shot rang out. She was shot in the head, she fell into the grave. Then Sister Imelda was shot in the head. She fell into the grave. The other nine sisters were shot through the chest. They all fell into the grave. There was a great hush in the woods. After all the noise of the rifles killing the nuns, the sound of the silence was piercing. The sun began to rise about this time. The soldiers moved slowly and methodically. They filled the new grave with dirt, then got into the truck and headed back for their barracks. A good night's work done. They had fought a valiant battle against a vicious enemy and had been victorious. A really important question has to be, did they sleep that night? Or any night in the near future? It is said that the next day a drunken soldier could not get the image out of his mind. He kept repeating how they went. You should have seen how they went, those sisters.

The Hidden Grave Is Found

SPEAKER_01 24:18

The eleven nuns never came back. A few days later the priest was advised that the nuns had been killed out in the woods. He told Sister Malgozata, she went into the woods, into hiding, and discarded her religious clothing as did the priest. Five weeks later she went out into the woods on the pretext of looking for mushrooms. She had a little shovel with her. When she got to the spot in the woods where she could see the digging had recently gone on, she began to dig with her little mushroom shovel. Not far down she felt a leg. She tore the stocking from the body. It had identification. It was Sister Sergia. She knew her comrades were truly dead. She marked the spot with a cross made out of twigs and left. She kept coming back from time to time to tend the grave of her companions.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

The priest who had successfully escaped the town came back again after a year. The Nazis had already left. Now the Russian troops were in Novogrodek. Sister Malgrotzada told him about finding the grave. He went with her and a small group of people and blessed the grave. It was determined that that area had become a common grave for other religious, especially two priests who had disappeared early in the Nazi occupation and had never been heard from again.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

At the war's end, the poor people of Nowy Grodek were told that this town was no longer in Poland. The boundary lines had been moved quite a distance. So the land they had been born in, lived in, suffered in, was not theirs anymore. They had to be deported. Sister Malgozata and the priests feared the grave of the eleven brave sisters would be covered by the brush. That coupled with the fact that they were all being deported, no one would know anything about the nuns or their bravery or their grave. It would all be forgotten.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

On March 19, 1945, the common grave was exhumed. The bodies of the eleven nuns were brought into their beloved Farah, the Church of the Transfiguration. There was a solemn mass of burial, and the eleven were put in their usual position at the left side of the altar near the Pri Dieu. Then they were put into eleven individual little coffins and buried on the church grounds. The town will accept you and it will be proud that it possesses you. The prophecy of the bishop, when they first arrived in 1929, was fulfilled.

Exhumation And Beatification Journey

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Honor was given them by those who loved them. But that's not the end of the story, however. Liberation came to Poland. In 1990, a request was made to open the cause for beatification for Sister Maria Stella and her ten companions, brutally murdered by the Nazis on August 1, 1943. The reason given for their martyrdom was hatred for the church. The cause was opened. The bodies of the nuns were brought in from their tombs outside the church to a special chapel built inside the church. On September 27, 1991, they were brought into the church and placed in a common grave. After forty-six years outside the church, they were finally home. They will never be forgotten.