Passion play in Poland's 'Valley of Death' reminder of dark past, invincible Christian hope

(OSV News) -- In Bydgoszcz, Poland, a powerful Passion play performed on Palm Sunday is bringing new life to one of World War II's darkest chapters.

In this northwestern city, one of the first mass murders of the war took place. For the 24th time, the "Valley of Death" in Bydgoszcz's Fordon neighborhood, the site of the massacre, will host a Passion play reminding that through Christ new life comes from death and suffering.

On Sept. 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, sparking the beginning of the bloodiest conflict in history. In the Nazi ideology, Poland's Jewish and Roma populations were to be completely exterminated, while Slavic Poles were to be slaves for the German "master race," with their elites killed off.

According to historian Alex J. Kay in his "Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing," approximately 100,000 educated Poles were killed in the early phase of the war, either through mass executions or in concentration camps. This operation and the massacre of at least 20,000 Polish psychiatric patients, people with disabilities and nursing home residents were the first two mass murders of World War II. (While the Jews were subjected to discrimination from the German occupiers from the moment of invasion, their genocide in death camps began in 1942).

One of the most notorious sites of this murderous campaign was Bydgoszcz's "Valley of Death," where in October and November 1939, more than 1,000 Polish teachers, priests, lawyers and physicians were shot, although some sources say there were up to 1,500 victims.

In 1999, St. John Paul II visited Bydgoszcz, where he implored the local church to commemorate the wartime sufferings of the city's residents.

The pontiff's words inspired sculptor Jacek Kucaba to design Calvary in the "Valley of Death" titled "The Golgotha of the Twentieth Century"; the installation was completed in 2009. The first 13 stations consist of approximately 6-foot steel crosses. The final station is titled "The Door to Heaven" and includes a sculpture of the triumphant Christ emerging from a wall made of smaller crosses symbolizing the victims of 1939 in Bydgoszcz and a reference to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

"The notion to organize a Passion play at the site of the massacre came out of the 'Martyria' student ministry in Bydgoszcz. It seemed like a crazy idea, but now we're organizing this event for the 24th time," Kevin Kolodziej, a student at the Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology and the coordinator of the Passion play, organized since 2001, told OSV News.

"In the first edition, several people were engaged in its organization, while the audience consisted of about 200 people. Today, there are about 450 organizers, 350 actors and 100 people responsible for the technical aspect of the performance, all volunteers. According to police estimates, 15,000 spectators attended in 2024."

Kolodziej himself was an actor in several editions of the play, playing a Roman soldier. The audience includes organized groups of pilgrims from other parts of Poland as well as Germany, the Czech Republic and Ukraine.

Kolodziej explained that in 2001 Tomasz Schmidt, then a university student, fascinated with historical reconstructions, had the "crazy idea" to hold a Passion play. Each year, the event focuses on a biblical theme as well as a reference to the present day or to history.

In previous years, the Passion play has referenced, among others, St. Faustina's mystical visions and the centennial of the birth of St. John Paul. In 2024, the biblical reference was the parable of the prodigal son, which was simultaneously a commentary on the contemporary problem of broken families.

The "Martyria" student ministry's name refers to the many wartime Catholic martyrs of western Poland. While, as Kolodziej says, none of the many priests killed in Bydgoszcz's Valley of Death is an official candidate for canonization, at least four blessed martyrs with ties to Bydgoszcz -- Bishop Michal Kozal, seminarian Bronislaw Kostkowski, and the priests Antoni Swiadek and Franciszek Dachtera -- perished in the Dachau concentration camp.

This year's edition of the play focuses on Job and the quote "For a tree there is hope" (Job 14:7).

In an interview with Poland's Catholic weekly Niedziela, Father Piotr Wachowski, responsible for student ministry in the Diocese of Bydgoszcz and the spiritual director of the Passion play, explained that the choice of Job, "a noble, innocent man who experienced many misfortunes due to his fidelity to the Ten Commandments," was to "provoke a personal response to the question of if we treat personal difficulties as an opportunity to awaken hope, personal growth, and experiencing everyday life in accordance with God's will."

Additionally, this year's Passion play will reference the 1939 executions.

"In one scene, the story of one family will be recreated," Kolodziej says. "The father was brutally murdered in the Valley of Death, while his wife had to carry her cross and find meaning in her shattered life. Meanwhile, there will be a procession of actors playing the Fordon victims in the Stations of the Cross; their execution will be recreated, and a recording of shots will be played in a tribute to their martyrdom."