Kompetentna i wyczerpująca monografia na temat dziejów Kościoła katolickiego i katolików w dramatycznych, totalitarnych czasach (w związku z książką Pawła Skibińskiego)
A Competent and Exhaustive Monograph on the History of the Catholic Church and Catholics in Dramatic, Totalitarian Times (in Connection with the Book by Paweł Skibiński)

Summary/Abstract: The Catholic Church and its faithful were particularly exposed to repression in the pe- riod 1917–1989, when two totalitarian systems – fascist and communist ones – developed their criminal activities. Crimes – including genocide – and other repressions against Catholics had become an everyday occurrence. Paweł Skibiński’s findings show that Poles were particularly repressed by the Soviets and Germans because of their nationality and Catholicism. German concentration camps, including Dachau – the place of execution of many priests – and Soviet labor camps, as well as the Katyn Massacre, a particular- ly important event from the perspective of the fate of clergy of various denominations, have become symbols of their persecution. The research of the author of the reviewed monograph indicates that the repressions of the Third Reich affected Catholics in all the countries occupied by it during World War II and in Germany itself. In turn, Soviet repression became the norm against Catholics in those areas that were occupied by the Red Army during World War II and, after the war, found themselves in the sphere of influence of the USSR. After 1945, local communists, often trained in Moscow, support- ed the Soviets in their criminal activities. The author of the reviewed book noticed and discussed in detail the role of John Paul II in the process of dismantling the communist political system in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1970s and 1980s.

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