HENRYK SLAWIK

                                                                    A WAR HERO
                                                                HENRYK SLAWIK
Henryk Slawik was a Polish politician in the interwar period, social worker, activist, and diplomat, who during World War two helped save over 30,000 Polish refugees, including 5,000 Polish Jews in Budapest, Hungary, by giving them false passports with Catholic designation. Henryk was executed with some of his fellow Polish activists on order of Reichsfuhrer  SS in Concentration Camp Gusen on 23rd August, 1944. (All information is taken from Wikipedia.)

Henryk was born 16th July, 1894, into an impoverished Polish Silesian family as one of its 5 children. His mother sent him to an Academic Secondary School. After graduation, Henryk left his hometown, thus starting his journey towards saving lives.
In 1928, Henryk married a Varsovian, Jadwiga Purzycha. World War Two broke out and Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Henryk joined the Polish mobilised police battalion attached to the Krakow Army. He was taken to a POW camp near Miskoic and was 'freed' thanks to his fluent knowledge of German. He was taken to Budapest and allowed to create the Citizen's Committee for Help for Polish Refugees. Together with Joseph Antall, Henryk organized jobs for POW's and displaced persons, schools and orphanages.

Henryk started to issue false documents confirming (those of Jewish descent) their Polish roots and Roman Catholic faith. One of Henryk's initiatives was the creation of an orphanage for Jewish children (officially named School of Polish Officers) in Vac. To help disguise the true nature of the orphanage, the children were visited by Catholic Church authorities.
After the Nazis took over Hungary in March, 1944, Henryk went underground and ordered as many of the refugees as were under his command to leave Hungary. The Jewish children of the orphanage in Vac were also evacuated.

On 19th March, 1944, Henryk was arrested by the Germans and although he was brutally tortured, Henryk never informed on others. He was sent to the Concentration Camp Gusen and Henryk Slawik was hanged with others on 23rd August, 1944.
His wife survived the Ravensbruck concentration camp and after the war, found their daughter hidden in Hungary by the Antall family.

It is  estimated that 30,000 Polish refugees in Hungary, approximately 5,000 of them Jews, were saved by Henryk. After 1948, the communist authorities of both Poland and Hungary did commemorate Henryk Slawik's deeds and pointed out his importance for humanity.
Henryk Slawik was posthumously awarded the title of "Righteous Among The Nations."