"In the combat zone and in the occupied territories, the people are experiencing severe humiliation and mistreatment, they are experiencing tragic moments about which we probably do not know everything, but what is reaching us should move every Christian conscience," Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk said in his daily message on Saturday, June 11. Archbishop Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics, addresses the nation every day of the war - and this time he stressed that "these events cry out to the whole world for the necessity of saving these people, for an immediate halt to the aggressor and this unjust war". The cry to the whole world goes unanswered.

On the same day, 11 June, in Wrocław, there is the beatification of ten Elizabethan sisters, brutally, even bestially, murdered by Soviet soldiers in 1945, right after they entered Lower Silesia, which for them was simply "Giermania". And the "Giermans" had to be dealt with, so the Soviet soldiers did and used as much as they could in their Soviet and soldatian way.

For example, Sister Rosaria Schilling, aged 36, murdered on 23 February 1945 in Nowogrodziec near Bolesławiec, was the victim of hours of mass rape by thirty soldiers; in an agonal state, with a bloody pulp instead of her head, she was shot while marching. Sister Melusja Rybka, 39, was murdered on 24 March 1945 in the nunnery house in Nysa when she tried to protect a girl who was hiding at the nuns' house from being raped. There were thousands of nuns and girls and women who were raped and murdered - and it was not just German women. Young Polish women returning from German concentration or prisoner-of-war camps were also terrified of Soviet troopers - and they knew why.

Agata Puścikowska, a columnist for the "Gość Niedzielny" weekly and the author of several books about the heroism of nuns during the war, is in the process of preparing her next publication about the crimes committed by Soviet forces against nuns. The Germans had been murdering priests and nuns for more than five years of the occupation; when the Soviets entered, they added to this the shocking martyrdom of nuns.

SIGN UP TO OUR PAGE
To these two names of nuns from Lower Silesia I will add eight more, so that at least in this way they will become part of our memory: Sister M. Edelburgis Kubitzki, 40, murdered on 20 February 1945 in Żary, when the sisters, expelled from the convent, were driven to an inn and there abused by sex-crazed, drunken Red Army men; Adela Schramm, 59, murdered on 25 February 1945 in Godzieszów near Lubań after a long struggle to defend her dignity; Sister M. Sabina Thienel, 35, murdered on 1 March 1945 in Lubań; Sister M. Adelheidis Töpfer, 57, murdered on 24 March 1945 in Nysa. They were nurses and caretakers of old people in nursing homes run by the orders.

"The fact that the Holy See and the Holy Father Francis want to show humanity the faces of these ten sisters murdered by Russian soldiers during World War II at precisely this moment in history seems prophetic, because in these faces we can see the faces of women and children - victims of the aggression of Russian soldiers. During the Beatification Mass, there is a moment when the image of the new Blesseds is unveiled. I strongly encourage you to see in the faces of these sisters the faces of people killed today across our eastern border," said Józef Kupny, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Wrocław, quoted by Catholic News Agency (KAI).

"When Pope Francis made the decision to elevate to the altars ten Elizabethan sisters, martyrs of World War II, it seemed that we could only talk about violence, aggression, killing of innocent people in the past tense. We recalled the life stories of Sister Maria Paschalis and her companions with the hope that the events they witnessed would never return. At that time no one expected that the experiences of these ten Elizabethan sisters would become the experience of our brothers and sisters living in Ukraine", he emphasized.

The Soviets raped, plundered, murdered, destroyed, and thought they had the right to do so, because everything around was already theirs, was "conquered", deserved. Extremely rare, perhaps even extremely rare, were situations when their officer reacted, forbade, sometimes even punished - so there is practically nothing to talk about. Just like now in Ukraine, which we hear about - if we want to hear, and not everyone wants to.

When, in the first days of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, I heard on the radio that a Russian soldier had shot a man in Melitopol because he refused to give him his telephone, I immediately remembered Januszek Baran, the only son of my mother's aunt Michalina Baranowa, who was shot by a Soviet soldier in Jelenia Góra on 13 May 1946. A fifteen-year-old boy in a scout uniform rides his bicycle to a gathering - and refuses to comply with a Soviet soldier's demand that he give up his bicycle. The Soviet soldier takes out a pistol and kills the boy, then takes the bike and rides away. And it is already 1946, a year after the war! How is this different from the Russian crimes committed in Ukraine in 2022? And the world doubts these crimes and repeats the thesis of Kremlin propaganda.

In Wrocław, during the beatification ceremony of the Elizabethan Sisters, a chalice from the Chapel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the House of St Elizabeth in Nysa was exhibited - with numerous bullet marks. It was profaned by Red Army soldiers, who first used it during meals, and then had fun shooting at it. We can say that, just like the Blessed Sisters, this chalice is representative of a large, never-to-be-counted group of objects - especially liturgical objects - profaned and stolen by the Red Army.

And they stole everything they liked - both individually and collectively. They stole cutlery, bathroom taps, contacts, lavatory seats, wash basins , tracks, machines such as lathes or drills, vehicles: from bicycles to cars, tools - not to mention watches, which to this day is an example of Soviet behaviour, probably needlessly repeated as an anecdote.

Certainly in the family memories of many people - especially in lands that the Soviets considered German, and to which Poles from the Borderlands had already been deported - stories still circulate today about dramatic attempts, often ending in prison, to prevent the mass theft of equipment, tools, or even entire factories. In fact, traces of such courageous action by Poles - for example by museum workers or school organisers - can be found in literature published quite officially in the People's Republic of Poland, even if the stories are wrapped in situational humour so that the censors can swallow them.

Therefore, all the current examples of looting by Russian invaders on Ukrainian soil are for us, or at least for some of us, quite clear and even obvious. The Tsar's generals were already seizing whole hectares of Polish property. These examples are not only clear to Poles, as other nations - led by the Finns - that were invaded by Russian barbarians in the past have similar examples in their collective memory.

It is worse if we want - we ordinary people, I am not talking about state level talks - to talk about them with our friends in France, in England or in Italy, for example. They often do not want to understand, and yet - we must talk. We must not remain silent about it, because then the invader, the aggressor, the criminal, gains a sense of impunity. The crime is forgotten, and the victim dies a second time.

In his next message, on 14 June, Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk addressed the dramatic situation of 33 volunteers who helped evacuate Mariupol residents. Now they are held in a "filtration camp" on the territory of the former prison near Volnovaha. Because of the crowded cells, the prisoners cannot even lie down, they can only stand or sit. There is a lack of water and food, there are no walks and the toilet can be visited only once a day. All this is accompanied by hours of interrogation, torture and threats. "They are mainly drivers who, using various means of transport, took people away from this place of martyrdom and thus saved their lives. They did this under falling bombs, under fire, risking their own lives. And now the Russians are holding them, subjecting them to cruel torture, and they will probably face many years of imprisonment, at best," Archbishop Shevchuk appeals. And again - where do we know such examples?

We do not know to what extent the beatification of the nuns murdered by Soviet soldiers has at least turned the eyes of the Catholic world on the crimes of genocide committed in Ukraine. But we certainly have another reason - and an incentive - not to remain silent and raise our hands. And not to agree to Russian lies if their crimes we are unable to prevent.

– Barbara Sułek-Kowalska
– Translated by Tomasz Krzyżanowski

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists