Walter J. Ciszek, SJ Interviews

Collection

Identifier: GTM-GAMMS191

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Scope and Contents

Consisting of audio taped interviews with Walter J. Ciszek, SJ, this collection documents the American-born Jesuit's life, ca. 1938-1963. Discussed are: his mission work in Poland and Russia, 1938-1941; arrest by Soviet secret police in 1941; imprisonment in Moscow and Siberia; and eventual release and return to the United States in 1963. The interviews are contained on 9 tapes (duplicates of tapes 1-8 included). The tapes give no indication, either on their face or by their content, of their recording date. However, an accompanying packing label states that they were recorded: 'Upon [Father Ciszek's] return from Russia.' There is similarly no indication of the identity of Ciszek's interviewer.

Dates

Creation: 1964

Creator

Ciszek, Walter J., 1904-1984 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Most manuscripts collections at the Georgetown University Booth Family Center for Special Collections are open to researchers; however, restrictions may apply to some collections. Collections stored off site require a minimum of three days for retrieval. For use of all manuscripts collections, researchers are advised to contact the Booth Family Center for Special Collections in advance of any visit.

Conditions Governing Use

Researchers are solely responsible for determining the copyright status of the materials being used, establishing who the copyright owner is, locating the copyright owner, and obtaining permission for intended use.

Biographical Note

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Walter J. Ciszek (1904-1984) was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, to Martin (1871-1938) and Maryja Mika Ciszek (1876-1931), immigrants from Kolbuszowa, Poland. He attended St. Casimir’s Parish School and later began his priestly formation at SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan. He then entered the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew-on-Hudson in Poughkeepsie (1928-1930) and, after a brief transfer to the newly established novitiate in Wernersville (1931), he completed his philosophical studies at Woodstock College (1932-1934). Ciszek pursued theology at the Collegio San Roberto Bellarmino in Rome (1935-1938) where he was ordained a priest in the Byzantine Rite (1937).

In 1939 Ciszek was assigned to the Albyrtyn (Albertyn) mission in the Province of Greater Poland and Mazovia, located near Słonim in present-day Belarus. Following the invasion of the region in September 1939, he crossed into the Soviet Union in an effort to minister to deportees in a Ural Mountain logging camp called Chusovoy. He was arrested in June 1941, imprisoned at Lubyanka in Moscow, confessed to crimes of espionage under torture in July 1942, and sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor. Ciszek remained at Lubyanka until 1946 before being transferred to Krasnoyarsk and later to Norilsk, the center of the Norillag labor camp complex. Completing his sentence in April 1955, he was released but restricted to the area of Norilsk. At that time, he was permitted to correspond with family in the US where he had been legally declared dead since 1947.

While in Norilsk Ciszek organized a Catholic parish but was ordered by the KGB to relocate to Krasnoyarsk in 1958 and then to Abakan in 1963. On October 12, 1963, he was released as part of a prisoner exchange, along with American student Marvin Makinen, in return for two Soviet agents. Upon his return to the US, Ciszek was assigned to Fordham University where he served at the John XXIII Center for Eastern Christian Studies until his death in 1984. He authored two memoirs detailing his experiences: With God in Russia (1964) and He Leadeth Me (1973). A third book, With God in America: The Spiritual Legacy of an Unlikely Jesuit, incorporating primary sources, was published posthumously in 2016.