Józef Wojaczek

Józef Wojaczek (14 April 1901 – 8 April 1993) was a Polish Roman Catholic Priest, member of the Mariannhill Missionaries.

Early life and education

He was born on 14 April 1901 in Prudnik in the German Empire, as a son of Franciszek and his wife Maria. His father was a shoemaker. He had two sisters and two brothers. He was probably a relative of a Franciscan Gotthard Wojaczek (1872–1931), buried in the monastery cemetery at the church of St. Joseph in Prudnik.

In Prudnik, he worked as a locksmith in a textile factory (later known as "Frotex"). Thanks to the financial help he had received from his family, he left Prudnik and moved to Bavaria, where he entered the religious Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill. After graduating from the religious gymnasium, based on the order of the school management, he went to further studies in the Netherlands, where he practiced in a monastery. When the village was occupied by the Red Army, he often led its inhabitants against the Russians. He found the body of Father Jerzy Greiner, murdered by the Russians in the basement of the presbytery in Skorogoszcz. Greiner was killed because he didn't have the watch that a Soviet soldier demanded from him. In 1946, Wojaczek received a decree from the general superior of the congregation nominating him a provincial superior in Poland and the order to organize a province of the congregation.

After leaving prison, he returned to Narok, and then moved to Skorogoszcz. After unsuccessful attempts to cancel the sentence, he decided that his mission in Silesia was over and he decided to settle in West Germany. He died on 8 April 1993 in Reimlingen, at the age of 91.