Alicja Jadwiga Kotowska (, Warsaw – 11 November 1939, near

Wielka Piaśnica Wielka Piaśnica is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Puck, within Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately west of Puck and north-west of the regional capital Gdańsk. World War II After ...

) was a Polish

religious sister A religious sister (abbreviated ''Sr.'' or Sist.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to pr ...

who was head of the Resurrectionist convent in

Wejherowo Wejherowo ( csb, Wejrowò; german: Neustadt in Westpreußen, formerly Weyhersfrey) is a city in Gdańsk Pomerania, northern Poland, with 48,735 inhabitants (2021). It has been the capital of Wejherowo County in Pomeranian Voivodeship since 199 ...

between 1934 and 1939. She was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

on 24 October 1939 during prayer and murdered alongside over 300 other Poles and Jews on 11 November in one of the Piaśnica massacres. Witnesses reported seeing her comfort Jewish children while being transported. She was beatified by the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in 1999 as one of the

108 Martyrs of World War II The 108 Martyrs of World War II, known also as the 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs ( pl, 108 błogosławionych męczenników), were Roman Catholics from Poland killed during World War II by Nazi Germany. Their liturgical feast day is 12 June. The 108 ...

Life

Kotowska was born on 20 November 1899 to a devout Catholic family, the second of eight children. During World War I she worked as a nurse. She took her vows on 2 February 1924, but continued her academic studies in addition to her duties, earning a Masters degree in chemistry in 1929. She later worked as a teacher and headmistress of a school.

Death

She was arrested by the

References

Bibliography

* . * . * . * Alicja Marie Jadwiga Kotowska, in . 1899 births 1939 deaths Polish people executed by Nazi Germany 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs Catholic resistance to Nazi Germany Polish civilians killed in World War II Nuns from Warsaw Executed people from Masovian Voivodeship 20th-century Polish Roman Catholic nuns {{Poland-reli-bio-stub