Pinkowski Files

Rev. Wojciech Artur Rojek
(1906-1988)
A priest of the Przemysl diocese, major, a chaplain of the regular service, dean of Army "Warszawa."
He was born on April 13, 1906 in Gorzyce, in Tarnobrzesk county. Son of Wojciech, an organist, and Jozefa nee Madejow. (He died Feb. 15, 1988.)
In 1924 he passed his maturation exam at the Hetman Jan Tarnowski high school and entered the seminary in Przemysl. On August 15, 1928 he was ordained by Przemysl bishop Anatol Nowak. He started work as a priest in Krzemienica near Lancut as an assistant pastor. From 1932 he was an assistant pastor in Golcowa. In 1934 he was called to active service in the Polish Army. He became the pastor of the military parish of St. George [Jerzy] in Kalisz.
On August 25, 1939 he was appointed as pastor to the 25th Infantry Division that was part of the Poznan Army. On September 5th departed to make an inspection of the Center of the Reserve Division in Kielce. Since the city was already in German hands, he returned to Warsaw with difficulty. On September 9 he was appointed Dean in the Defense of Warsaw; on September 23 on orders of Gen. Walerian Czuma, commander of Warsaw Defense, he became the Dean of the Warsaw army. He organized the pastoral work in the city. During the fighting he visited various defense sectors. He organized an emergency spiritual service consisting of chaplains who would go to the affected sectors of the city after air-raids to bring spiritual comfort. In the spiritual service he organized there were 148 chaplains on the front lines and 240 priests stationed in hospitals.
For his heroism in the Campaign of 1939 he was given the Virtuti Militari Cross, V class, number 12308, by the Commission of the Virtuti Militari Order in London.
After the surrender of Warsaw he decided to go into captivity and share the lot of the soldiers. He made this recommendation to all the professional chaplains, the reserve chaplains were given the option of going into captivity or returning to their former place of pastoral work.
He spent time at the transition camp in Skierniewice, then in the offlag camps IV A in Hohstein and IV B in Konigstein, where he was head of pastoral work among the prisoners , and in oflag IX A in Rotenburg. At the oflag in Konigstein he was given 21 days in confinement for protesting the order forbidding the singing of the "Boze cos Polske" hymn which was supposed to have "a detrimental effect on other prisoners." On April 18, 1940, he was placed by the Gestapo in KL Buchenwald (his camp number 3345), from where he was moved to KL Dachau on July 7, 1942 (his camp number 31226). In the concentration camps he was a person trusted by the chaplains. On April 29, 1945 he was liberated.
After leaving camp he rejoined the Polish Army. He was in charge of spiritual work among the Polish soldiers who remained in Italy after the 2nd Polish Corps had departed for Great Britain due to having married Italian women. In April 1946 he was promoted to rank of senior chaplain. In 1948 he went to London, expecting to be given a visa for Canada where he was to work in the Polish Demobilization and Relocation Corps. Because he did not receive the visa he worked as a chaplain in one of the London hospitals.
In 1949 he left for the United States, becoming an assistant pastor in McAlester, Oklahoma. From 1951 he was an assistant pastor at the parish of St. John in Buffalo, NY. In that city he conducted a campaign to help polish orphans under the slogan "Help Polish Orphans from Outside Poland." From 1956 he was assistant pastor at the Mother of the Rosary parish in Passaic, NJ. During the years 1956-1958 he conducted in New York a television program called "Echa Poloni" [Echoes of Polonia]. On May 11, 1958 he was named a papal domestic monsignor by Pope Pius XII. From 1958 he was engaged in organizing tour groups to Poland. On August 14, 1971 he became the pastor of the Polish parish of Stanislaw Kostka on Staten Island, NY. He was also the chaplain for the Sisters of Mercy in that city.
He was a member of the Polish Army Veterans Association, the Polish Combatants' Association, Union of Members in the Polish Opposition Movement, the Association of Former Political Prisoners and War Invalids Organization PSZ.
He died on February 13, 1988 in New York. He is buried on the Avenue of the Meritorious in the cemetery of the Pauline Fathers in Doylestown, PA (American Czestochowa).
He also received the Fighting Cross.
From: Szwedo, Boguslaw, Zawsze w Pierwszej Linii [Always in the Front Line]; Chaplains decorated with the Virtuti Militari Order 1914-1921, 1939-1945. Oficyna Wydawnicza Rytm, Warsaw
Sources: AAP personnel files; IPiMS, recommendation for promotion A.XII.86/30/17; Glowacki, Obrona Warszawy [Defense of Warsaw], per index; Jacewicz, Wos, Martyrologium, part IV, p. 287, 302, 303; Kapelani wrzesniowi [Chaplains of September] per index; Lukomski, Polak, Sucheiz, Kawalerowie Virtuti Militari [Cavaliers of the Virtuti Militari Order] p. 493; Rev. Roman Nir, Sp. Ks. Pralat Artur W. Rojek [Dear Departed Rev. Msgr. Artur W. Rojek] DPZ, 1988, no. 3, p. 489-492; Piatkowska, Polskie Koscioly w Nowym Jorku [Polish Churches in New York] per index; Pogrzeb sp. Pralata Artura W. Rojka [Funeral of Rev. Msgr. Artur W. Rojek] "Nowy Dziennik" no. 4321, Feb. 19, 1988, p. 1, 16; Stanislaw Podlewski, Dziekan Obrony Warszawy [Dean of Warsaw Defense], WTK, no. 43, 1972, p. 6-7; Podlewski, Wierni Bogu i Ojczyznie [Faithful to God and Country] per index; Podlewski, Virtuti Militari; Pralat Artur Rojek Nie Zyje [Msgr. Arthur Rojek Has Died], "Nowy Dziennik", no. 4319, Feb. 17, 1988, p. 1, 13; Schematysm przemyski [Church schema in Przemysl] 1925, 1926, 1927, 1929, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, per index; Szkola w rysie historycznym i wspomnieniach [The School in Historical Sketch and Memoirs] Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace w Tarnobrzegu [Tarnobrzeg High-School], Tarnobrzeg 1987; Waszkiewicz, Duszpasterstwo [Pastoral Work] per index; Wesolowski, Order Virtuti Militari, p. 606, 714; Wspomnienia wojenne kapelanow wojskowych [War Memoirs of Military Chaplains] p. 551; Wykaz osob odznaczonych [Listing of Decorated Persons] p. 511; information from rev. Henryk Borcza at the Archdiocesan Archives in Przemysl and Zbigniew Rojek, brother, living in Krakow.
Translation by: Peter J. Obst December 31, 2007

Additional Items:
Obituary Article - Polish American World; Feb. 26, 1988
Article - Msgr. Arthur Rojek; Pol-Am Journal, July 1988
Article - First Catholic Pol-Am TV Program; Pol-Am Journal, Sept. 1, 1956