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Conventual
Franciscan friar, religious brother
(1913-1942)
Piotr
Zukowski Zukowski was born on January 13th, 1913, at Baran-Rapa, a village
populated by the lower middle class, in the parish of Niemenczyn, in the
province of Vilnius. Son of Andrzej and Albina Walkiewicz.
After the first four years of the primary school at Rudowiek, he stayed at home
to help his parents in the farm work.When he was sixteen, he entered the
Conventual Franciscan Order in Niepokalanów, where he arrived on September 9th,
1930. He began his noviciate on June 14th, 1931, and he pronounced his temporary
vows on July 16th, 1932, receiving the name Bonifacy.On August 2nd, 1935, he
made his perpetual profession.
Before it, the then guardian of the convent, Father Florian Koziura, wrote in
his report: "A good person from every point of view. I wish there were
others like him!"
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Friar
Bonifacy spent his whole religious life in Niepokalanów, carrying out
many tasks of responsibility in the printing works, devoting himself in
this way to the apostleate of the printed word. He was quiet, serene, a
well-balanced friar.
After the outbreak of the war, he remained in the convent and he safely
put away the typographical machines, seriously running the risk of losing
his life. He was a brave person and sometimes he showed it, in his
conversations with the German occupants.
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MARTYRDOM
On
October 14th, 1941, he was arrested by the Gestapo, together with other
six friars, including Friar Tymoteusz Trojanowski, and shut up in the
Pawiak prison in Warsaw. During the imprisonment, he often said the Rosary
and in the evening, with the other friars, he sang religious hymns.
Talking with the other prisoners, he spiritually comforted them. He shared
with his fellow prisoners, the food he received from the outside.
On January 8th, 1942, he was transported with Friar Tymoteusz to the
concentration camp of Oswiecim (Auchwitz), where he was registered with
the number 25447. He was assigned to the transport of building materials
("Bauhofkommando"), the transport of gravel, the demolition of
the crumbling buildings of Oswiecim ("Abruchkommando"), the roof
maintenance staff and, finally, to the harvest of oil seed rape. He tried
to bear his sufferings with courage and spirit of faith. Once he was
beaten with a piece of wood until he bled.
The labour in the cold gave rise to pneumonia. He died on April 10th,
1942, after spending two weeks in the hospital of the lager (barrack).
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