Kazimierz Siemaszko

A priest, educator, social activist, born in Dyckojno near Kaunas in Lithuania, died in Kraków. He came from a family of parochial nobility. After graduating from high school in Vilnius, he entered the 20th Missionaries’ Seminary in Krakow, and then was ordained a priest in Lviv. He became the provincial prosecutor of the Congregation of the XX Missionaries. He was a catechist, chaplain, social worker and he conducted charity work. He bought a tenement house at No. 42 Długa St. in Krakow, where he ran a clubhouse for children, mainly boys from poor families, where they could study, eat, write or read. With time, another home for poor boys was opened – in these activities he was assisted by missionary priests. During the Nazi occupation, some rooms were converted into hospitals. After the war, the plants were transformed into charity and educational activities, but were soon closed by the authorities.