Robert Pruszkowski (1 February 1907 – 30 April 1983) was a German

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest. A Parish priest in several towns in

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

, he was arrested in 1940 for hearing confessions in Polish and was held in captivity in the

Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp The Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration (in German Pfarrerblock, or Priesterblock) incarcerated clergy who had opposed the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. From December 1940, Berlin ordered the transfer of clerical prisoners held at other camps, ...

until 1945. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he worked in West Germany. Pruszkowski was born in Wartenburg,

(Barczewo, Poland), the son of Robert Pruszkowski, a prison guard in the Wartenburg prison, and Helene Pruszkowski. He became chaplain at the St. Jakobus Church in

Allenstein Olsztyn ( , ) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents Olsztyn is the largest city ...

(Olsztyn) in 1933, later on in

Stuhm Sztum () (formerly ) is a town in northern Poland in the Powiśle region, located in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. It is the capital of Sztum County, with some 10,141 inhabitants (2004). History Signs of settlement dating back to the Roman Empir ...

(Sztum). In 1938 he became the parish priest of the Catholic Church in Wengoyen (Węgój). Here, he was denounced for having heard the confession of Polish workers in Polish. He was arrested and sent to

Dachau Concentration Camp Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...

in 1940. On 23 November 1940, shortly after his arrival, he mentioned his profession to a SS guard who immediately ordered him and another detainee to slay each other "with all their might". He remained in custody in the

until the liberation of the camp in April 1945. After World War II he worked at the

Chiemsee Chiemsee () is a freshwater lake in Bavaria, Germany, near Rosenheim. It is often called "the Bavarian Sea". The rivers Tiroler Achen and Prien (river), Prien flow into the lake from the south, and the river Alz flows out towards the north. The ...

for a year and moved to

Preetz Preetz () is a town southeast of Kiel in the Plön (district), district of Plön, in Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany. Preetz is also known as "Schusterstadt" (English: 'shoemaker town') named after shoemakers who used to live and work in this ...

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

in April 1946 by request of bishop Maximilian Kaller. On behalf of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Osnabrück The Diocese of Osnabrück () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic church in Germany.Flight and expulsion of Germans Flight or flying is the motion of an object through an atmosphere, or through the vacuum of space, without contacting any planetary surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift associated with gliding or propulsive thrust, aer ...

. He remained in Preetz until 1960. From 1960 to 1962 Pruszkowski served in

Bad Oldesloe Bad Oldesloe () is a town located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is the capital of the district of Stormarn. The area has been inhabited since Mesolithic times. The flint tools found here from that era (6000–4500 BC) ar ...

and from 1962 until his retirement in 1981 in

Schönberg Schönberg () may refer to: Places Austria *Schönberg im Stubaital, a municipality in the district of Innsbruck-Land, Tyrol *Schönberg am Kamp, a town in the district of Krems-Land, Lower Austria Belgium *Schönberg (Sankt-Vith), a part o ...

near

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

at the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

. He died 30 April 1983 in

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

. In 2013 a street in Preetz was named in his honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pruszkowski, Robert 1907 births 1983 deaths People from Barczewo People from East Prussia 20th-century German Roman Catholic priests Dachau concentration camp survivors