Poland

(1894-1944)

The founder of the Citizens’ Committee to Aid Polish Refugees in Hungary, was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations on January 26, 1977. Sławik, a Polish journalist and activist, arrived in Hungary in 1939 with his retreating military unit and was interned in a camp. In the camp, he connected to Jozsef Antall of the Hungarian Ministry of Interior, who brought him to Budapest, where Sławik established the Citizens’ Committee to Aid Polish Refugees. Among the refugees he helped were many Polish Jews who managed to escape to Hungary with their families. Among others, Sławik and his colleagues established an orphanage in Vác for Jewish children, and to hide their identity, they were registered as Catholic Poles. After the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, Sławik had to go underground. He was soon caught, but despite the brutal interrogation, refused to denounce his Polish and Hungarian collaborators. He was incarcerated in the concentration camp of Mauthausen and hanged in the Gusen subcamp on August 23,1944.