The Martyrdom of the Salvatorian Sisters in Mikołów (1945)
Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska
Stanisława Falkus and Leopolda Ludwig belonged to the Congregation of the Sisters of the Divine Savior (Salvatorians). On 27 January 1945, they were murdered in a chapel by soldiers of the Red Army after having been sexually assaulted. Their beatification process is currently ongoing.
Sister Leopolda Gertruda Ludwig SDS
Leopolda Gertruda Ludwig was born in 1905 into a large working-class family as the fifth of nine children of Józef, a steelworker, and Maria née Tomecka. She came from a deeply religious family. She received her First Holy Communion on 1 April 1916 and the sacrament of Confirmation on 19 September 1918.
As a young woman, she worked in domestic service. Later, she stayed at a retreat house run by the Salvatorian Fathers in Trzebinia. Following this path, she entered the female branch of the congregation—the Salvatorian Sisters—on 7 December 1937. She completed her novitiate in Vienna, where she took the religious name Leopolda, and made her first religious vows on 15 July 1939.
After returning to Poland, she worked as a convent cook. In August 1939, she was sent to Mikołów, a town in southern Poland (Silesian Voivodeship), where the Salvatorians ran a secondary school. There she worked in the kitchen together with Sister Stanisława Agnieszka Falkus SDS. It was in Mikołów that she experienced the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939.
Sister Stanisława Agnieszka Falkus SDS
Agnieszka Falkus was born in 1901 into a large working-class family as the sixth of sixteen children of Franciszek, an employee of the zinc smelter Huta Hugona, and Maria née Kołodziej. She was baptized on 26 January 1901, five days after her birth, in the parish church of Our Lady of the Rosary in Halemba. She attended school in her hometown of Stara Kuźnia.
At the age of 17, she began working in domestic service for the Skutell family in Lipiny, then worked in a hospital in Piaśniki and in a factory in Wirek. Eventually, she worked in the kitchen of the Salvatorian convent in Kraków. Through their support, she entered the related female congregation of the Salvatorian Sisters in Berlin on 28 August 1928. In October 1930, she made her first religious profession, taking the name Stanisława.
After returning to Poland, she worked in Trzebinia and later in Goczałkowice-Zdrój, where she made her perpetual vows in 1936. She subsequently served in Kraków and was sent to Mikołów in 1939. Due to her abilities, diligence, and organizational skills, she was appointed deputy provincial superior. She also possessed pedagogical talents, which she used in her work with young people. She was in Mikołów when World War II broke out on 1 September 1939.
The Tragic Events of January 1945
The advancing eastern front of the Red Army in January 1945 brought fear, persecution of consecrated persons, as well as numerous murders and acts of looting. By the end of January, Soviet troops had reached Mikołów.
On 27 January 1945, soldiers of the Red Army stormed the convent house at 4 Rybnicka Street, looting property, stealing watches, and demanding alcohol. At that time, the house was occupied by Father Celestyn Rogowski—the provincial and superior of the house—Father Tomasz Klimas, Brother Kostka Kremiec, Brother Władysław Marszałek, and three Salvatorian Sisters responsible for domestic work.
The priests, religious brothers, and two of the three Salvatorian Sisters took refuge in the cellar (the third sister, Ryszardyna Głogowska SDS, was away from the house at that time). They were later taken to the chapel of the convent. The priests and brothers were then led back to the cellar and locked inside under guard. The sisters were left alone in the chapel.
Martyrdom
Only after the soldiers had left was it possible to learn the fate of the sisters. They were violated and then brutally murdered. The soldiers stabbed them with bayonets, beat them, and finally shot them, causing their deaths.
Sister Stanisława was found lying in a pool of blood in front of the altar, while Sister Leopolda Gertruda Ludwig SDS was found between the pews of the chapel. The events were confirmed by witnesses who had been near the chapel on that tragic day. Jerzy Kajzer, a student of the Mikołów secondary school, testified on 12 November 1954:
“On 27 January 1945, during the military operations in Mikołów, upon entering the chapel of the Salvatorian Fathers […] I saw the late Sister Stanisława Falkus, a Salvatorian sister, lying in front of the altar, bloodied and killed. On her chest, that is on her religious coif, there were visible marks of dagger stabs and entry wounds from revolver bullets. Near her head lay knocked-out teeth. Under the pews, with her face turned toward the altar, lay Sister Leopolda Ludwig, also a Salvatorian sister, bloodied and killed.” On the floor lay trampled liturgical vestments.
Burial and Remembrance
After Soviet soldiers left the town, on 6 February 1945 the bodies of Sisters Stanisława and Leopolda were buried in the convent garden opposite the entrance to the church, where today the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes stands.
In 1952, when secular authorities took over the convent house and the sisters’ graves fell within its boundaries, the bodies were exhumed in 1954 and transferred to the parish cemetery in Goczałkowice-Zdrój. A commemorative plaque honoring both victims of the murder was installed in the Church of Our Lady, Mother of the Savior, in Mikołów.
Sources:
https://www.siostry.pl/duchowosc/siostry-meczenniczki
Wikipedia
Images: Wikipedia
