Kazimierz Tomczak (1883–1967) was a 20th-century

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

theologian and teacher, interned by the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

forces during World War II. He was born on 17 February 1883 in Besiekierzu and studied at the

Jesuit School in Chyrów The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

, where he graduated from

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

. He studied also at the

Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy The Imperial Roman Catholic Theological Academy () was an institution of higher education preparing Roman Catholic theologians in the Russian Empire. The academy granted master's and doctorate degrees in theology and was designed to prepare clergy ...

, in Paris, and in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

, and was ordained a priest on 7 January 1907. For 16 years he worked as a professor at the , where he taught moral theology, the history of philosophy, archaeology, Christian liturgy and literature. In 1936, he was one of the founders of the Society of Friends of Science in Łódź. On 25 February 1927,

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

appointed him the first

auxiliary bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

of the diocese of Łódź and

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

Sicca Veneria El Kef ( '), also known as ''Le Kef'', is a city in northwestern Tunisia. It serves as the capital of the Kef Governorate. El Kef is situated to the west of Tunis and some east of the border between Algeria and Tunisia. It has a population of ...

. He was ordained bishop on 3 April 1927 in Warsaw Cathedral by

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Aleksander Kakowski Aleksander Kakowski (; 5 February 1862 – 30 December 1938) was a Polish politician, diplomat, a member of the Regency Council and, as Cardinal and Archbishop of Warsaw, the last titular Primate of the Kingdom of Poland before Poland fully r ...

. On 6 September 1939, after the

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

, he headed the Citizens' Committee of Łódź with the task of keeping law and order after the Polish authorities fled the city and representing city residents to the German occupation authorities. He was arrested on 9 November 1939 during a large operation by Łódź

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

against the local intelligentsia, part of the so-called ''

Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders committed against the Polish people, Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) during the ...

''. He was sent for several days to a transit camp factory and then released but placed under house arrest in the building of the Łódź Episcopal Curia. On 6 May 1941, together with

Włodzimierz Jasiński Włodzimierz Bronisław Jasiński (12 June 1873 – 17 April 1965) was a bishop of the Diocese of Łódź. Biography Jasiński was born in Włocławek to Władysław and Maria Jasiński (). After completing secondary school, he attended the ...

, members of the Cathedral Chapter and the employees of the episcopal curia, he was interned by the Nazis. He was detained in the monastery of the Franciscan Friars Minor in

Biecz Biecz () () is a town and municipality in southeastern Poland, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Gorlice County. It is in the Carpathian Mountains, in the Doły Jasielsko-Sanockie, by the Ropa (river), Ropa River. Due to its rich history, it is often ...

. In 1943, he moved to Warsaw where he stayed until January 1945. After the war, he returned to Łódź. On 20 October 1957, during a sermon in

Piotrków Trybunalski Piotrków Trybunalski (; also known by #Etymology, alternative names), often simplified to Piotrków, is a city in central Poland with 71,252 inhabitants (2021). It is the capital of Piotrków County and the second-largest city in the Łódź Voi ...

at the dedication of an altar, he suffered a

brain hemorrhage The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

, which resulted in paralysis.A. Gronczewska, ''Pierwszy biskup pomocniczy'', :„Kocham Łódź” (dod. do „Polska. Dziennik Łódzki”, 21 IX 2012, nr 200, p. 14). He died on 21 October 1967. He was buried in the Old Cemetery in Łódź.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomczak, Kazimierz 1883 births 1967 deaths Polish theologians 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Poland Mayors of Łódź