Albert Willimsky


Albert Willimsky was a German Roman Catholic priest active in resistance movement against the National Socialism, martyred in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Biography

Willimsky was born in 1890 in Oberglogau in Prussian Silesia. After he finished secondary school, he started his theological studies at the Breslau University. During the World War I, he decided to suspend his studies to work as a medic and later, as a radio-telegraphist. He was ordained as a priest on at the cathedral of Breslau Diocese, and became a vicar in Bytom.
In 1933, while he was a provost in Friesack, he openly criticized Nazism, and because of that he fell into conflict with local authorities. In he had to leave this parish and became a provost in Gransee. In, he was arrested for the first time by the Gestapo. He was freed on and in July of the same year he became a provost in Podjuchy – which was at the time the only Roman Catholic parish in Stettin. Here he encountered maltreatment of Polish forced labourers working in extremely difficult conditions. His further criticism of Nazism and protection of the Polish labourers led to his denunciation in, when he was arrested for the second time and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg. He died several weeks later.

Memory