Unveiling of the „Gallery of the Heroes” in Katowice

The painting, 180-meter long, created by the artists from the company Mural and designed by Katarzyna Kara from the Katowice Academy of Fine Arts, depicts scenes from the lives of 9 heroes: Henryk Sławik, Jadwiga Markowa, Henryk Flame, Stanisława Dziuk-Waś, Józef Pukowiec, Teresa Baranowska, Wawrzyniec Hajda, Adam Piwowar and Władysław Kiełbasa. Those 9 historical figures have been “found” and chosen by the students from the Śląskie province in the competition “Searching for Heroes” (“Szukamy bohaterów”, organized by the Eurodeputy Marek Migalski. Their stories are briefly described on the mural and their exact biographies will appear on the portal Mmsilesia  – the patron of the competition.

The competition “Searching for Heroes” was organized to restore the memory of local heroes from the Śląskie province. Almost 70 schools and 200 students participated in it. The students were asked to prepare their own projects: choose the heroes, describe their lives and propose methods that would help promoting knowledge about them. The winner of the competition is Agnieszka Pszczółka from the Catholic Secondary School in Dąbrowa Górnicza for her project devoted to Sybilia Przybyłowicz-Jęczeń.

Henryk Sławik, a Second World War hero from Katowice, Righteous Among the Nations, was already chosen by the students on April 24th, 2010 during the final of the competition “Searching for Heroes”. About 10 liters of paint were necessary to paint his portrait, and another 90 liters for the other 8 stories, unveiled on June 23rd. The mural depicts five scenes from the life of Henryk Sławik: his meeting with Józef Antall, the founding of the orphanage in Vac in the summer of 1943, the creation of the Committee for the Welfare of Polish Refugees in Hungary, and the children saved by Sławik during the Second World War. It is estimated that Sławik rescued about 5,000 Jews. He was an activist of the Polish Socialist Party and a reporter, in 1919-1921 he took part in the Silesian Uprisings. In Hungary, together with his collaborator Henryk Zimmermann, Sławik provided the Jews with false documents, testifying their so-called “Aryan” origin. Jewish children had been hiding in the orphanage he founded in the town of Vac near Budapest. Henryk Sławik was posthumously awarded with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations in 1989.