Józef Berger (14 March 1901 in Orłowa – 11 June 1962 in

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

Lutheran pastor, theologian and politician from the region of Zaolzie,

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. He was a member of the Polish People's Party, a political party active amongst middle-class Lutherans of the Polish minority in interbellum

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. In 1920 Berger graduated from Juliusz Słowacki Polish Grammar School in Orłowa, and in 1924 from the Theological Faculty of the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

, where he studied the Protestant theology. He was actively engaged in the life of the Polish community in Zaolzie. It was mainly thanks to him that the new Lutheran church was built in 1932 in Czeski Cieszyn. From its foundation in 1922, he was one of the leading activists of the Polish People's Party in Czechoslovakia. After the annexation of Zaolzie region to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

in 1938, President

Ignacy Mościcki Ignacy Mościcki (; 1 December 18672 October 1946) was a Polish chemist and politician who was the country's president from 1926 to 1939. He was the longest serving president in Polish history. Mościcki was the President of Poland when Germany ...

named him a deputy of the

Silesian Parliament Silesian Parliament or Silesian Sejm ( pl, Sejm Śląski) was the governing body of the Silesian Voivodeship (1920–1939), an autonomous voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic between 1920 and 1945. It was elected in democratic elections and ...

, where Berger was a deputy until the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. During the Nazi occupation he was interned in the

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

and

Dachau , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

concentration camps. From 1945 to 1952, he worked as a pastor at the Lutheran church in Czeski Cieszyn. On 25 June 1950 he was elected a superintendent of the Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession.50. rocznica śmierci ks. superintendenta dr Józefa Bergera
at the Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession website In 1952, Berger was designated a professor of systematic theology at the Theological Academy in

Modra Modra (german: Modern, hu, Modor, Latin: ''Modur'') is a city and municipality in the Bratislava Region in Slovakia. It has a population of 9,042 as of 2018. It nestles in the foothills of the Malé Karpaty (Little Carpathian mountains) and is ...

near Bratislava and moved permanently to Bratislava. Berger was also active in the tourist and skiing organizations of the Polish minority in Czechoslovakia. In his free time, he also enjoyed painting, covering mostly the landscapes of his native region.

Footnotes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Jozef 1901 births 1962 deaths Polish Lutheran theologians Polish politicians Polish people from Zaolzie Members of Silesian Parliament Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Dachau concentration camp survivors People from Orlová University of Warsaw alumni Czech Lutheran clergy 20th-century Protestant theologians