Henryk Sławik IPN Information Centre Opens in Katowice
The "History Stop" is another IPN educational centre which will organise academic conferences, debates, exhibitions, as well as promoting the academic, educational and publishing activities of the Institute. Just as with the Centre in Warsaw, the Katowice institute will serve as the site for difficult discussions about history.
The Centre was officially opened by Prof. Antoni Dudek, Chairman of the IPN Council, as well as by Colonel Marian Piotrowicz of the World Association of Home Army Soldiers. The opening featured a lecture by Prof. Antoni Dudek on historical politics, as well as the opening of the exhibition "Lost Hopes - The Jewish Population in the Śląsk/Katowice Provinces 1945-1970". Director of the Katowice branch of the IPN, Andrzej Sznajder, stressed the meaning behind selecting Henryk Sławik as patron, "We wanted him to not only be patron, but also to recall his extraordinary actions".
Henryk Sławik (1894-1944) came from the village of Szeroka, now in the Jastrzębia Zdroju district. Upon a section of Górny Śląsk becoming part of Poland, he became a journalist in Katowice. Among other activities, he was a City Councillor, Chief Editor of the Catholic "Gazeta Robotnicza" (Workers Gazette), a long-term member of the Śląsk Sejm, a delegate to the League of Nations and a trade union activist.
Following the outbreak of World War II, he managed to get to Hungary, via Rumania. There, he became President of the Civic Committee for the Care of Polish Refugees in Hungary. He was also one of the representatives of the Polish Government-in-Exile.
He rescued around 5,000 Jews in Hungary, obtaining false documents for them on the basis of birth certificates. He also organised an orphanage for Jewish children.
He was arrested in July 1944 after the Germans entered Hungary, and underwent Gestapo interrogation in a Budapest prison. He was then sent to the German camp in Mauthausen where he was shot on 25th or 26th August 1944.
