Józef Straszewski

Józef Straszewski was a Polish Roman Catholic diocesan priest of the Diocese of Włocławek and one of the martyrs of the German occupation of Poland. He was born on 18 January 1885 in Włocławek, then in Congress Poland under the Russian Empire. After seminary formation for his home diocese he was ordained to the priesthood on 25 June 1911. In the first years of his ministry he served as a curate in parishes of Kuyavia, including Izbica Kujawska, Służewo, and Nieszawa, ordinary pastoral work among a population that had lived for generations under partition.

Following the restoration of Polish independence he was appointed in 1918 prefect of schools in Włocławek, combining catechesis with the education of youth. In 1921 he became rector of the church of Saint John in Włocławek. In 1930 he was named a canon of the Włocławek cathedral chapter. He remained a secular priest of the diocese rather than a member of a religious order, and there is no record of marriage or children, consistent with the Latin-rite discipline of clerical celibacy.

The German invasion of September 1939 was followed by a systematic campaign against the Polish clergy, especially in territories annexed to the Reich. Straszewski was arrested by the Gestapo on 7 November 1939. He was held in prisons at Włocławek, Ląd, Inowrocław, and Berlin, then sent to Sachsenhausen. On 14 December 1940 he was transferred to Dachau, the principal concentration camp for imprisoned clergy, and registered as prisoner 22764. Like many Polish priests there he was subjected to forced labor, starvation, and neglect.

He died in Dachau on 12 August 1942. Camp practice was cremation; no individual burial place is recorded. On 13 June 1999, during a Mass in Warsaw, Pope John Paul II beatified him together with 107 other Poles who had died for the faith between 1939 and 1945. They are known as the 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs of the Second World War. Their collective liturgical memorial is 12 June. He has not been canonized, and no distinct personal patronages are attached to his name apart from membership in that group of martyrs.