Biography
Father Władysław Plewik
1905–1940
Life
Born on 7 April 1905 in Bełżyce in the Lublin region, the son of farmers Paweł and Franciszka (née Wójtowicz) Plewik.
He completed the public elementary school in Bełżyce and in 1922 entered the third year of the Salesian Fathers' Gymnasium in Ląd on the Warta. In 1925, after completing the fifth year, he transferred to the Archdiocesan Gymnasium in Wilno, from which he graduated in May 1929. That same year he entered the Theological Seminary in Łódź. Because he was preparing for the priesthood, on 3 October 1929 the Draft Board in Wilno assigned him to the unarmed levy (pospolite ruszenie bez broni).
He was ordained a priest on 2 September 1934 and celebrated his first Mass in his native Bełżyce.
From 3 September 1934 he served as curate of St Adalbert's Parish in Krzepczów, in the Pabianice deanery. He taught religion at the public elementary schools in the villages of the parish: Krzepczów, Budków, Borysów, Dziewoliny, Grabica, Ostrów and Wdowin. On 1 September 1936 he became curate of St Anthony's Parish in Tomaszów Mazowiecki.
There he served as school chaplain (prefekt) at two local seven-grade public elementary schools, School No. 9 on President Ignacy Mościcki Street and School No. 2 on Legionów Street, and as chaplain to the Tomaszów troop of the Polish Scouting Association (ZHP).
Chaplain of the Polish Army
On 28 April 1939, by order of the President of the Republic of Poland, Ignacy Mościcki, he was appointed a reserve chaplain, with seniority dating from 1 January 1939.
In August or September 1939 he was mobilised into the Polish Army. The unit to which he was assigned is unknown. After 17 September 1939, in circumstances that remain unknown, he was taken prisoner by the Soviets. Shortly after his arrest he managed to smuggle out a note to an acquaintance in Lublin, in which he wrote: "Stach, please be so kind as to tell Mother that I am alive and will be home soon. Władek Plewik."
Letters from Shepetivka and Starobilsk
He was held at the NKVD reception and transfer point in Shepetivka (Szepietówka), from where he sent the following letter to his family:
My dear Mother, my dearest ones. I am well. I thank God Almighty that I am alive. I am now under Soviet guard in Shepetivka. So please, Mother, do not worry – I feel well. I beg you, Mother, and all of you, my dear brothers and the whole family, to take care of your health. My dear sisters-in-law, please look after Mother. I shall manage. God is good and will allow us to see each other soon. I have met many priests I know here, together with our superior from Łódź. I am not giving an exact address, because the post is not yet working, and besides, we are often moved. If we settle somewhere permanently, I will send my address and we will be able to write to each other. I send a son's kiss to Mother's hands. Embraces to everyone and greetings to the Canon. Władek.
Probably in November 1939 he was transferred to the prisoner-of-war camp in Starobilsk (Starobielsk), from where he managed to send a single postcard to his mother, dated 29 November 1939. In it he wrote:
Dearest Mother and beloved brothers and sisters! I am in Starobilsk. I am in good health; I only long for Mother and all of you. But please do not worry – everything will be fine, and there is hope that we shall see each other soon. Please take care of your health and that of the whole family. My belongings remained in Tomaszów, where I lived. Please write there and find out what has become of them. Please write to me often – I very much want to know how everyone at home is doing. It would be best to ask Father Stanisław Borecki to help Mother write and address the letter. I send my greetings to him and to our relatives. I kiss Mother's hard-working hands and send my regards to my sisters-in-law, my brothers and the little ones. Władek.
Unlike the other chaplains, he was not removed from the camp before Christmas Eve 1939, which may indicate that he succeeded in concealing his priesthood from the NKVD. Between 5 April and 12 May 1940, on the basis of an NKVD list drawn up in Moscow, he was handed over to the head of the NKVD Directorate for the Kharkiv Oblast. His name appears as item 2578 in the register of files of prisoners of war who left the Starobilsk camp. He was murdered by NKVD officers in the building of the NKVD Oblast Directorate in Kharkiv. His body was thrown into a death pit at Piatykhatky near Kharkiv – today the site of the Polish War Cemetery in Kharkiv.
Posthumous Promotion and Commemoration
By Decision No. 439/MON of 5 October 2007, Minister of National Defence Aleksander Szczygło posthumously promoted him to the rank of captain. The promotion was announced on 9 November 2007 during the ceremony "Katyń – We Remember: Let Us Honour the Memory of the Heroes". His promotion contained an error: he should have been promoted to the rank of major, as he had held the rank of captain since 28 April 1939.
Father Władysław Plewik was posthumously promoted to the rank of major of the Polish Army by a decision signed on 21 June 2022 by Minister of National Defence Mariusz Błaszczak.
His name has been placed on a plaque in the Field Cathedral of the Polish Army commemorating military chaplains killed and murdered under Soviet occupation between 1939 and 1956; on a plaque in the Archcathedral of St Stanislaus Kostka in Łódź dedicated to priests of the Łódź diocese who died during the Second World War; and on the memorial plaque of the monument at the War Cemetery in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, dedicated to Polish Army officers held in the NKVD special camp in Starobilsk who now rest in the Polish War Cemetery in Kharkiv.
Through the efforts of his family, a memorial plaque dedicated to Father Władysław Plewik was unveiled in the Parish Church of the Conversion of St Paul in Bełżyce. His name also appears on the epitaph plates on the wall of the Katyń Chapel in the Field Cathedral of the Polish Army in Warsaw and at the Polish War Cemetery in Kharkiv. As part of the educational programme "Katyń… Saving from Oblivion", Oaks of Remembrance were planted in his honour in Bełżyce in 2009 and in Ostróda on 13 April 2010.
The full biography, documents, letters and photographs are available in Polish: Biografia, Materiały.
Text: Bogusław Szwedo. Polish original: kapelanikatynscy.pl. English version published with permission.