Wladyslaw bartoszewski biography for kids

Polish politician and activist (1922–2015)

Władysław Bartoszewski (Polish pronunciation:[vwaˈdɨswavbartɔˈʂɛfskʲi]; 19 February 1922 – 24 April 2015) was a Polish politician, social activist, journalist, writer and historian. A former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner, he was a World War II resistance fighter as part of the Polish underground and participated in the Warsaw Uprising. After the war he was persecuted and imprisoned by the communist Polish People's Republic due to his membership in the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK) and opposition activity.

After the collapse of the communist regime, Bartoszewski served twice as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from March through December 1995 and again from 2000 to 2001. He was also an ambassador and a member of the Polish Senate. Bartoszewski was a close ally and friend of Polish anti-Communist activist and later president Lech Wałęsa.

Bartoszewski was a chevalier of the Order of the White Eagle, an honorary citizen of Israel, and a member of the International Honorary Council of the European Academy of Diplomacy.

Early life

Bartoszewski was born in Warsaw to a family of civil servants. He grew up on a street next to the Great Synagogue and a detention centre, later saying "“These two things, the synagogue and the penitentiary, later marked my life."

World War II

In September 1939, Bartoszewski took part in the civil defense of Warsaw as a stretcher-bearer. From May 1940, he worked in the first social clinic of the Polish Red Cross in Warsaw. On 19 September 1940, Bartoszewski was detained in the Warsaw district of Żoliborz during a surprise round-up of members of the public (łapanka), along with some 2,000 civilians (among them, Witold Pilecki). From 22 September 1940, he was detained in Auschwitz concentration camp (his inmate numb

Władysław Bartoszewski[vwaˈdɨswaf bartɔˈʂɛfskʲi] (listen) (February 19, 1922 in Warsaw – April 24, 2015 in Warsaw) was a Polishpolitician, social activist, journalist, writer, historian, former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner, World War II Resistance fighter, Polish undergroundactivist, participant of the Warsaw Uprising, twice the Minister of Foreign Affairs, chevalier of the Order of the White Eagle, and an honorary citizen of Israel and a member of the International Honorary Council of the European Academy of Diplomacy.

References

Other websites

Media related to Władysław Bartoszewski at Wikimedia Commons

Professor Władysław Bartoszewski Is 85

12-02-2007

February 12, Warsaw (PAP – Polish Press Agency) He has been the Polish foreign minister, a writer and historian, a wartime member of the Jewish Aid Council, an Auschwitz prisoner, and an indefatigable proponent of Polish-German and Polish-Jewish dialogue. His friends call him a phenomenal example of vitality with an unconquerable nature. On February 19, Professor Władysław Bartoszewski observes his 85th birthday.

“I know what retirement means. I am the child of office workers and, for them, retirement meant withdrawal from life. For me, everything is upside down,” says Bartoszewski in an interview in a special supplement to the latest issue of Tygodnik Powszechny, dedicated to him in its entirety on the occasion of his 85th birthday.

“I made my first trip abroad thanks to Tygodnik Powszechny, at the age of 41. I first held government office when I was 68. I became a government minister at 73 and a senator at 75. I became a minister for the second time at 78, and stopped being one on the eve of my 80th birthday. My father retired at 70. . . . He died at 75. At that age, I was just beginning to blossom,” Bartoszewski told the weekly newspaper.

He was born in Warsaw on February 19, 1922. His father was a director of the Polish National Bank, and his mother a city official. He began attending the private St. Stanisław Kostki Catholic gymnazjum at the age of 8. He passed his “minor maturity examination” in 1937 and enrolled in the Educational Society lyceum, from which he graduated in May 1939.

The Second World War left a lasting imprint on his biography. After the outbreak of the conflict, Bartoszewski went to work for the Polish Red Cross in Warsaw. Remembering the siege of Warsaw in September 1939, he says “I became a stretcher-bearer and was assigned to work in the orderly service. I simply carried stretchers with men who were strangers to

"Wherever I talk to people, I try to bring them closer together and to fight against stereotypes. I see that as my mission." Władysław Bartoszewski always stood up for people. At just 18 years of age, the Pole joined the resistance against the Nazis and helped persecuted Jews. During a police raid against Polish intellectuals in September 1940, he was taken away to Auschwitz Concentration Camp from where he returned seriously ill in April 1941. Only many years later the historian and publicist was able to report on his experiences in Auschwitz in his first German autobiography Herbst der Hoffnungen (Autumn of Hopes). That was in 1983, just after spending a year at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin on a DAAD scholarship.

We have come a long way, but there is still so much to do.
– Władysław Bartoszewski

After the war, the journalist was only a free man for a short time. He spent seven years in Stalinist jails. He was rehabilitated in 1955. Later, he worked in journalism and higher education and wrote numerous books and essays. From 1973 Bartoszewski taught as a professor at the Catholic University Lublin. His political commitment took him into the Solidarnosc trade union movement. Bartoszewski was again arrested with the imposition of martial law in 1981. Protests by friends in the West led to his release five months later. He came to know Germany well. After a one year gap, he taught modern history at the universities of Munich, Eichstätt and Augsburg from 1983 to 1990. He then went to Vienna as the first non-communist Polish ambassador. In 1995 he served his country as foreign minister for a few months. That was when he gave his famous speech before the German Bundestag on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Bartoszewski again held office as foreign minister from July 2000 to September 2002. In November 2007 he became secretary of state and the prime minister's plenipotentiary for international relations.

In everyday life, the holde