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Professor passed away
Władysław Bartoszewski was Auschwitz prisoner number 4427. He was transported to the camp as a teenager in the second Warsaw transport in September 1940. He was released in April 1941, probably thanks to the efforts of the Red Cross, where he worked during the occupation period.
During the war he worked for the Office of Information and Propaganda of the Home Army Headquarters, co-founded the “Żegota” Polish Council to Aid Jews and participated in the Warsaw Uprising. He was the deputy manager of the Jewish Division in the Department of Home Affairs of the Delegation of the Government of the Republic of Poland in the Country. Soon after the war, he was arrested two times and spent nearly seven years in Stalinist prisons. During the entire communist period he was constantly invigilated and repressed.
In 1963, Bartoszewski received the title of the “Righteous Among the Nations”.
Since 1978, he was the member and lecturer of the Society for Educational Courses and the “Flying University”. In the years 1980-81, he was a member of the Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity” (NSZZ “Solidarność”). During the martial law period, he was a detainee in Białołęka and Jaworze.
He was the leading historian of the Warsaw Uprising as well as the expert in the field of the Second World War and the Shoah, lecturer among others at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) and several universities in Germany.
He devoted many years of his life to journalism, he was also the active member of PEN Club and its secretary general, and in the last decades its Vice President, President and Honorary President. He cooperated for many years with the weekly magazine Tygodnik Powszechny and was a member of its team.
After Poland regained its freedom, he became the Ambassador of the Polish Republic in Vienna, then he held the position of the Minister of Foreign Affairs twice, was the Senator and in the last years the Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. Since 2001, he was the leader of the Council for the Protection of Memory of Combat and Martyrdom (ROPWiM).
In the 1990s, he was the chairman of the International Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and then of the International Auschwitz Council established in the year 2000. While holding this position, he created the international consensus on the shape and future of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site. In 2009 he founded the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, the aim of which is to preserve the authenticity of the space and remains of the former camp. He is the author of ca. 50 books and over 1500 articles.
Chevalier of numerous Orders, among others the Order of the White Eagle, he was also awarded with the highest distinctions of many countries. Honorary doctor of 11 universities in 5 countries. Considered by many as an eminent authority.
Władysław Bartoszewski passed away on 24 April 2015.
Uncompromising patriot, great Statesman passed away. The history of the 20th century has in a way come to an end. The Man who died gave the Republic of Poland more than he actually had.
