Father Adam Sztark, a Polish Jesuit priest born in 1907, sheltered Jewish children and families during the Nazi occupation while serving as parish priest in Albertin. Working with two nuns from the Sisters of Immaculate Conception, he arranged hiding places and used disguises to protect those targeted by German forces. The Gestapo arrested him on December 18, 1942, and executed him that same day on Pietralewicka Mountain near Słonim, despite three opportunities to escape. Yad Vashem later recognized him as Righteous Among the Nations, and witness accounts preserve details of his final moments and rescue efforts.
Father Adam Sztark stood naked on Pietralewicka Mountain near Słonim on December 18, 1942, moments before his execution, and spoke his final words not in protest but in comfort. When the two nuns beside him hesitated to undress, embarrassed by the German order, he told them, “Lord Jesus was also exposed.” Within minutes, the Gestapo shot all three.
Sztark was born on July 30, 1907, in Zbiersk, near Kalisz, Poland, the oldest of four children in a merchant family. A hand injury prevented him from attending officers’ school, redirecting his path toward the priesthood. He entered the Jesuit Order on September 6, 1924, and was ordained on June 24, 1936, in Lublin. He later served in roles that reflected the Jesuit emphasis on education and pastoral care, connecting his ministry to the broader patristic and scriptural traditions of the Church.
He taught Greek and Latin at a Jesuit college in Pinsk and served as socius to the novitiate master.
The German-Russian invasion in September 1939 displaced him from Pinsk to Vilnius, then to Zhirovichi, where he served as administrator of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross parish. By the time of the German occupation, he was parish priest in Albertin, working in the Słonim district of what is now Belarus.
During the occupation, Sztark sheltered Jews in his parish and arranged hiding places in private homes. He worked with Sisters Ewa Bogumiła Noiszewska and Marta Kazimiera Wołowska, who concealed Jewish children in the convent of the Sisters of Immaculate Conception.
They used disguises and deception to save lives, aware of the risk. He coordinated with parishioners to collect payments, including a golden cross, to help Jews meet German-imposed taxes.
The Gestapo arrested Sztark on December 18, 1942, at the Albertin parish. That evening, around 11 PM, German officers arrived at the convent demanding Sister Marta, who delayed them by pretending not to understand German.
Both nuns were taken alongside Sztark. All three were transported to Słonim for interrogation and executed the same day. According to witness accounts, the details of Sztark’s final moments were preserved by those who survived the Nazi occupation.
Yad Vashem posthumously honored Sztark as Righteous Among the Nations for his efforts to shelter Jews. He died at age 35, refusing three chances to escape. His name appears in the martyrology of Polish clergy killed in the twentieth century, remembered for choosing solidarity over survival.
