Henryk Sławik participated in the Silesian Uprisings as an active member of the Polish Socialist Party as well as a reporter. During WWII, he coordinated help for Polish and Jewish refugees who found refuge in Hungary. 

The young Silesian was drafted into the Prussian army at WWI’s outbreak and made prisoner by Russia. He returned to his hometown of Szeroka in 1918 once the war was over in order to fight the Germans in the Silesian Uprisings. He was soon awarded the Cross of Independence and the Cross of the Silesian Ribbon of Valour and Merit for his bravery. 

From 1920, he worked for the left-wing “Gazeta Robotnicza” as a reporter and then became editor-in-chief. In the late 1920s, he was part of the City Council of Katowice as a member of the Polish Socialist Party. In 1928, he married Jadwiga Purzycka, with who he soon had his only daughter Krystyna. 

Sławik reached Hungary shortly after the outbreak of WWII. He met Hungary’s future Prime Minister and then commissioner for refugees József Antall in a resettlement camp. The latter helped him run the Citizens’ Committee for the Care of Polish Refugees in Hungary.

Between 1940 and 1944, the two men saved at least 5,000 Polish Jews from extermination by the Germans. This led to his arrest by the Gestapo in July 1944.

The Pole did not reveal where Antall was hiding despite being tortured by the SS. He was then transferred to the German concentration camp of Mauthausen-Gusen, where he was hanged on the 23rd of August 1944. 

Poles, Hungarians, and Israelis remember him up until this day as a hero. He has been posthumously discerned the title of Righteous Among the Nations and also received the prestigious Order of the White Eagle.

Image: IPN

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen