The Germans tolerated no descent from the Polish clergy. Twelve priests from Karol Wojtyla's parish were arrested. Eight would died in Auschwitz, located about forty miles from Krakow.
At about this time, Karol met a tailor, Jan Tyranowski, who introduced him to St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. Joining Tyranowski's group, Karol engaged in yet another act of defiance against the Nazi regime. One of his jobs was to be a spiritual leader for a group of young men.
As the outside world descended further into darkness - while Hitler implemented his Final Solution against the Jews - Karol's inside world grew in spiritual faith. "We were totally swallowed up in a great eruption of evil and only gradually did we begin to realize its true nature," he later said. "Polish culture is Christian, to its deepest roots. It cannot be torn away from its Christianity without being damaged."
In the fall of 1942, Karol told his friends some very unexpected news. He was going to become a priest.
See, also:
Witness to Evil - Young John Paul II, Part 1
Witness to Evil - Young John Paul II, Part 2
Witness to Evil - Young John Paul II, Part 3
Witness to Evil - Young John Paul II, Part 5
Witness to Evil - Young John Paul II, Part 6
Credits
Clip from "Young John Paul II - Witness to Evil," online courtesy BBC.
The BBC provides background information regarding this docudrama:
Drama-documentary telling the story of five years which
transformed the life of Karol Wojtyla and set him on the path to the
Vatican.
The man who would become John Paul II was 19 when the
Germans invaded Poland in September 1939. He had no intention of
joining the church, but the devastating experience of Nazi occupation
led him first to join the underground resistance and then to risk his
life studying in secret to become a priest.
Interviews with key
survivors from the period who knew him well, and the Pope's own
writings, are combined in a powerful exploration of the young John Paul
II's coming of age, including his brushes with death and the horrors he
witnessed that helped to shape his thinking.
"Young John Paul II - Witness to Evil" (2008)
Director
Philip Smith
Producer
Leanne Klein
Writer
Philip Smith
Starring John Sackville
as Karol Wojtyla
Narrator
Richard Lintern
Wall-to-Wall for the BBC. Originally broadcast, BBC One.
