Władysław Bartoszewski (Polish: [vwaˈdɨswav bartɔˈʂɛfskʲi] ; 19 February 1922 – 24 April 2015) was a Polish professor of History, politician, social activist, journalist, writer, historian and insurgent. 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 ruling Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) of the Polish People's Republic regime due to his membership in the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK) and opposition activity.
After the Revolutions of 1989, Bartoszewski served twice as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of democratic Poland 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 Solidarity leader and later president of Poland, 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.
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."
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 number was 4427). Due to actions undertaken by the Polish Red Cross, he was released from Auschwitz on 8 April 1941.
After his release from Auschwitz, Bartoszewski contacted the Association of Armed Struggle (Związek Walki Zbrojnej). In the summer of 1941, he reported on his concentration camp imprisonment to the Information Department of the Information and Propaganda Bureau of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, or AK, a reformed version of the Association of Armed Struggle and the largest resistance movement in Poland). In 1942, he joined the Front for the Rebirth of Poland (Front Odrodzenia Polski), which was a secret, Catholic, social-educational and charity organisation founded by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka. From October 1941 until 1944, Bartoszewski studied Polish studies in the secret Humanist Department of Warsaw University. At this time, higher education of Poles was outlawed by the German occupational authorities.
In August 1942, Bartoszewski became a soldier of the Home Army, working as a reporter in the "P" Subdivision of the Information Department of its Information and Propaganda Bureau. His pseudonym "Teofil" was inspired by Teofil Grodzicki, a fictional character from Jan Parandowski's novel entitled The Sky in Flames. He cooperated with Kazimierz Moczarski in the two-man P-1 report of the "P" subdivision.
From September 1942, Bartoszewski was active on behalf of the Front for the Rebirth of Poland in the Provisional Committee for Aid to Jews and its successor organisation, the Council for Aid to Jews (codenamed Żegota). Żegota, a Polish World War II resistance organisation whose objective was to help Jews during the Holocaust, operated under the auspices of the Polish Government in Exile through the Delegatura, its presence in Warsaw. He remained a member of Żegota until the Warsaw Uprising. In 1943, he replaced Witold Bieńkowski in the Jewish Department of the Delegatura.
From November 1942 to September 1943, Bartoszewski was an editorial team secretary of the Catholic magazine Prawda (The Truth), the press organ of the Front for the Rebirth of Poland. From fall of 1942 until spring of 1944, Bartoszewski was the editor-in-chief of the Catholic magazine Prawda Młodych (The Youth's Truth), which was also connected with the Front for the Rebirth of Poland and aimed at university and high-school students. In November 1942, Bartoszewski became a vice-manager of a division created in the Department of Internal Affairs of the Delegatura, whose remit was to help prisoners of Pawiak prison. In February 1943, Bartoszewski became a reporter and vice-manager of the Department's Jewish Report. As a part of his activities for Żegota and the Jewish Report, he organised assistance for the participants of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April 1943.
On 1 August 1944, Bartoszewski began his participation in the Warsaw Uprising. He was an aide to the commander of radio post "Asma" and editor-in-chief of the magazine The News from the City and The Radio News. On 20 September, by orders from the commandant of the Warsaw District of the AK, General Antoni "Monter" Chruściel, Bartoszewski was decorated with the Silver Cross of Merit. This was the result of a proposal put forward by the chief of the Information and Propaganda Bureau in General Headquarters of the Home Army, Colonel Jan Rzepecki). On 1 October, he was appointed Second Lieutenant by the AK commander general Tadeusz "Bór" Komorowski (also due to a proposal by Rzepecki). He received the Cross of Valor order on 4 October.
Bartoszewski left Warsaw on 7 October 1944. He continued his underground activity in the Information and Propaganda Bureau of the Home Army at its General Headquarters in Kraków. From November 1944 to January 1945, he held a position as editorial team secretary for Information Bulletin. At the end of February 1945, he returned to Warsaw, where he began his service in the information and propaganda section of NIE resistance movement. From May to August 1945, Bartoszewski was serving in the sixth unit of the Delegatura (he was responsible for information and propaganda) under the supervision of Kazimierz Moczarski). On 10 October 1945, he revealed that he had served in the AK.
In Autumn 1945, Bartoszewski started his cooperation with the Institute of National Remembrance at the presidium of the government and the Head Commission of Examination of German Crimes in Poland. His information gathered during the occupation period about the Nazi crimes, the situation in concentration camps and prisons, as well as his knowledge concerning the Jewish genocide, appeared to be very helpful.
In February 1946 he began his work in the editorial section of Gazeta Ludowa (People's Gazette), the main press organ of the Polish People's Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, PSL). Soon, he joined the PSL, at that time the only influential party in opposition to the PZPR government. In the articles published in Gazeta Ludowa, he mentioned the outstanding figures of the Polish Underground State (the interview with Stefan Korboński, the report from the funeral of Jan Piekałkiewicz), and the events connected with the fight for liberation of the country (a series of sketches presenting the Warsaw Uprising entitled Dzień Walczącej Stolicy).
Due to his collaboration with the PSL, Bartoszewski became subject to repressions by the security services. On 15 November 1946, he was falsely accused of being a spy, resulting in him being arrested and held by the Ministry of Public Security of Poland. In December, he was transferred to the Mokotów Prison; he was released on 10 April 1948, with the help of Zofia Rudnicka (a former chief of Żegota, then working in the Ministry of Justice). Although Bartoszewski was accepted into the third year of Polish Studies in December 1948, his arrest in 1949 and the resulting five years' imprisonment rendered him unable to finish his studies.
Bartoszewski was again arrested on 14 December 1949. On 29 May 1952, he was sentenced by the Military District Court to eight years in prison due to the false charge of espionage. In April 1954, he was moved to the prison in Rawicz and in June to the prison in Racibórz. He was released in August 1954 on a year's parole due to his bad health condition. On 2 March 1955, during the wave of de-Stalinization, Bartoszewski was informed he was wrongly sentenced.