Father Aloysius Breznik

July 23, 1981 Davenport Times

Funeral services for Father Aloysius Breznik, who served as Catholic minister here for about seven years, were held Tuesday at the Immaculate Conception Church here. Father Breznik died Thursday, July 16 at the age of 68. Most Rev Lawrence H Welsh, bishop of the Spokane Diocese, officiated the services.

Father Breznik was born in Slovania, Yugoslavia, and was ordained in 1938 for the Diocese of Maribor in Slovania. He served there until he was incarcerated by the Germans and kept there for several months. He was later expelled by the Germans to Craitioa, Yugoslavia.

He then returned to Slovania where he faced death under communist rule. He escaped from there the first week of May, 1945 as soon as it was learned that Yugoslavia was to be under the rule of General Tito.

He was then placed in a displaced persons camp in Italy for more than two years until the bishop from Barcelona, Spain, received him. He served as chaplain to university students in Barcelona who emigrated from Slovania to Spain.

Then, by request of the Rev Joseph Mauser, Bishop Gilmore and Bishop White of the Spokane Diocese invited Rev Breznik to the Spokane Dioceses about 1950. After serving in Spokane, he served as pastor in Colville, WA, Tekoa, WA, and Uniontown, WA, before coming here.

He is survived by a brother, Janez Breznik of Benedict, Yugoslavia. Interment was held at Holy Cross Cemetery in Spokane.”

[Reardan had Friday prayer breakfasts for the men of the community. At some time during the 1970s he called upon the men of the community who witnessed the German concentration or death camps to come forward and give testimony. General Eisenhower had issued an order for any soldier in the vicinity of one of these camps to visit it. One who answered the call was Keith Carlson. Adrian Bafus was another. There were probably others.]