Remembering Polish Catholic Heroes of WWII

May the example of Polish Catholic heroes of World War II, who never
accommodated to evil and achieved moral victory, inspire today’s Church.

Although even secularist historians admit that Pope St. John Paul II inspired the rise of Solidarity and dealt a death blow to the Soviet Empire, the pivotal role Polish Catholicism played in anti-Nazi and anti-Soviet resistance is less well-known. The 70th anniversary of the end of World War II this year is a fitting time to remember three Polish Catholics whose faith led them to courageously resist totalitarianism. Their moral victory can inspire today’s Catholics, who again face a hostile world dominated by perverted ideologies.

For Western Europeans, the surrender of Nazi Germany on May 8, 1945, was a time of jubilation. Americans, meanwhile, consider the capitulation of Japan (which, depending on one’s point of view, occurred on August 14 or September 2) to be the end of the war.

However, for most Poles 1945 was not quite as jubilant. Poland was the first Ally and endured the harshest occupation of any country during the war, losing one-fifth of its population (half Jewish and half Gentile). Nonetheless, Poland had the fourth largest Allied army (larger than the Free French). Polish mathematicians cracked the Enigma code before Alan Turing, and Polish airmen killed the most German planes during the Battle of Britain. Yet Poland’s contribution to the Allied cause went unrewarded. While in the post-war era West Europeans and North Americans enjoyed prosperous decades marked by blue jeans, Coca-Cola and convertibles, censorship, ration cards and political prisoners dominated post-war Poland after the country was overrun by Red Army tanks and sold out to Stalin by her Allies.  (more...)

Remembering Polish Catholic Heroes of WWII