Józef Cyrek [SEP] religious order
Józef Cyrek
Józef Cyrek (born 13 September 1904 in Bysina; d. 2 September 1940 at Auschwitz) was a Polish writer and Roman Catholic clergyman, member of the Society of Jesus involved in the religious publishing industry, who shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland was arrested by the Gestapo, imprisoned at several places of detention, and lastly deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he was murdered.
He has in recent years been accorded the title of Servant of God and is in the process of being beatified by the
Catholic Church.
Life and death.
Cyrek was born at Bysina, a village some 34 km (21 miles) south of Cracow, on 13 September 1904 – when the area was under Austrian occupation – in the family of Józef Cyrek, a farmer, and his wife Barbara "née" Sobal who died when Cyrek was 18-months' old. Cyrek was thus from his earliest years inured to physical work having been obliged to help out with the agricultural work of the family. He went to school at Bysina