Some excerpts from the life of priest Alojzy Schmauch with particular focus on his charity activities

St. Adalbert’s Church was build on an Elbląg hill called Neue Welt in the beginning of 20th century. Parish rights were granted on 22 February 1907 after the church received the altars. Hugo Ganswind (1875 – 1925) became its first parish priest on 14th October 1909. This area got incorporated into the municipal territory of Elbląg on 1st October 1912.

A folder dating from 1933 and including 196 documents out of chronological order was found in the parish archives. These documents concerned the process of preparing and organizing temporary leisure (between several days to a few months, from the end of May until the end of September) for children and youth from large, poor and incomplete families. At that time the work of the local section of the Warmińska Diocese Caritas that related to leisure of children in the catholic diaspora was coordinated by priest Alojzy Schmauch, who since 3rd February 1936 was also the parish priest at St. Adalbert’s.

The documents include the correspondence between the involved actors, as well as reports and fact sheets, which all show Alojzy Schmauch as the chief contributor to this particular Caritas action (called Diasporakinderhilfswerk). They also prove a significant number of non-governmental organizations operated actively in Elbląg at that time. Cultural initiatives played an important role in their work. In addition, we find out that catholic associations were developing since the middle of 19th century and kept extending their offer. In the whole Warmińska Diocese this movement was widely promoted and attracted thousands of church-goers.

The initiative related to in these documents and coordinated by priest Schmauch targeted the Catholics who were members of the local religious diaspora. Members of both the parishes in Elblag belonged to the diaspora. This account can shed a new light on the operations of the Warmińska Diocese Caritas in 1933.

A. Górnicki, J. Hochleitner