During the war, they helped Jews, and after 1945, they themselves experienced persecution. Evidence of the nuns' activities, hidden for years in monastery archives, is now becoming part of academic research and collective memory. This is the subject of the 53rd National Conference of Monastic Historians, co-organized by the Heschel Center at the Catholic University of Lublin.
The first day of the meeting took place at the headquarters of the Polish Episcopal Conference. The conference was opened by Sister Jadwiga Monika Kupczewska, PhD, from the Center for Research on the Historical Geography of the Church in Poland at the Catholic University of Lublin and chairwoman of the Historical Commission of the Conference of Major Superiors of Women Religious Congregations (KWPŻZZ). “In the silence of our archives, working in libraries, reading, following reports, we document and collect them so that we do not forget and so that this tragedy never affects anyone again,” said Sister Kupczewska about the sisters' attitudes towards the Holocaust. The second day of the conference at the IPN's Central History Stop will be devoted to post-war repression against female religious orders.
Their testimony must not be forgotten
The event is held under the honorary patronage of Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda, president of the Polish Episcopal Conference. “Your conference covers not only those who died, but all those who had the courage to help their neighbors during the criminal German occupation. May it contribute to revealing the truth about the actions of the Church and consecrated persons,” wrote the president of the Episcopal Conference in his message.
The meeting began on the liturgical memorial of St. John Paul II, who, during his visit to Yad Vashem in 2000, spoke of “the need for silence that allows us to remember.” These words became the spiritual theme of the conference.
A new stage of research
The director of the Center for Research on the Historical Geography of the Church in Poland at KUL, Prof. Bogumił Szady, recalled that the cooperation between the nuns and KUL has been ongoing since 1971. He noted that conferences are only part of the systematic scientific work carried out by female religious orders. The sisters, he said, not only collect documentation and publish studies, but also increasingly share their research results with the outside world, becoming “a body of experts in Poland.”
The professor also announced a new stage of research: a synthesis of the activities of female religious congregations during World War II. Seventeen volumes of studies are to form the basis of an interactive map of the sisters' activities, covering their works and places of assistance.
The convent meant life to them
In an interview with Heschel Center News, Sister Dr. Jadwiga Monika Kupczewska recalled that 72 sisters were awarded the Righteous Among the Nations medal, but behind each of them stood entire communities. She pointed out that Yad Vashem awarded the medals primarily to superiors who represented congregations helping Jews. “Behind these seventy-two sisters are teams of others,” she said.
Sister Kupczewska also spoke about the fate of Jewish children saved by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Przemyśl. The youngest boy was 18 months old. The sisters changed the children's names and hid them in a nursery. One of the girls recalled that the sister spent half an hour with her every day so that she could pray in Hebrew and “not forget her tradition.”
Moral imperative
The importance of research was also emphasized by Dr. Ewa Kaczmarek, chairwoman of the KWPŻZZ. She said that when describing the attitude of the sisters during the war and the communist era, historians often ask about their motivation. “The answer has always been the same—because of God,” she noted.
The 53rd National Scientific Conference of Religious Historians is organized by the Heschel Center at the Catholic University of Lublin, the Center for Research on the Historical Geography of the Church in Poland at the Catholic University of Lublin, the Institute of National Remembrance, and the Historical Commission of the Conference of Major Superiors of Female Religious Congregations.
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Heschel Center News