Jan Włodarczyk 1892 - 1944

Born 24.8.1892 in Maleszowa
Died 13.12.1944 in Hartheim

Biography

Jan Włodarczyk had close connections with the province of Zagłębie Dabrowskie, the Dąbrowa Basin, and with the city of Sosnowiec. His lived there with his wife Katarzyna and their three children, Maria, Mieczysława and Jerzy. From 1924 on he was an active member of the Polska Partia Socjalistyczna (Polish Socialist Party, or PPS), the Gwardia Ludowa (People’s Guard) of the PPS, as well as the Milicja (Militia) of the PPS.

In 1928 he started to work at the local bathhouse, which was located right next to his home. From 1935 Jan Włodarczyk was in charge of the Towarzystwo Uniwersytetu Robotniczego (Society of the Workers’ University) youth organisation. Within this organisation he was considered a role model and a great authority.

The unexpected death of his wife in 1939 worsened the tragedy of the Second World War. The Włodarczyk’s apartment and the bathhouse became distribution centres for conspiratorial PPS newspapers, leaflets and literature. For over two years newspapers, sometimes also fliers, were duplicated here and distributed among a population cowed and persecuted by the Nazis in order to give them courage, belief and hope.

Jan Włodarczyk, who went by the pseudonym ‘Czarny’ (Black), and his children hid the duplicating machine and weapons for the sabotage troops of the Gwardia Ludowa and the PPS. His daughters, who had grown up in the ranks of the Red Scouts and the Organizacja Młlodzieżowa Towarzystwo Uniwersytetu Robotniczego (Youth Organisation of the Society of the Workers’ University), were active as couriers and go-betweens. Two searches of the Włodarczyks’ home and of the neighbouring bathhouse by the Gestapo yielded nothing. The house of Jan Włodarczyk and his children had two exits, which made it possible to dispose of incriminating documents in the case of a search.

The next operation by the Gestapo in the night of 11-12 August 1942 as part of the ‘Oderberg’ action resulted in the seizure of over 200 families in Zagłębie Dabrowskie. The Włodarczyk family was among them: Jan and his daughters Maria and Mieczysława. His son Jerzy was at work and therefore avoided arrest.

Jan Włodarczyk was submitted to brutal interrogation at the prison at Mysłlowice. After almost three months he was deported to Auschwitz (27 October 1943, prisoner number 159044). His daughters met a similar fate: they were prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, Maria under prisoner number 54679 and Mieczysława under prisoner number 54680. They never saw their father again. In the letters written by Jan Włodarczyk he reported that on 12 February 1944, he had been deported from Auschwitz to Ebensee, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp. He wrote his last letter in June 1944 from Ebensee. Despite a variety of efforts to trace him, Jan Włodarczyk’s fate remained unknown after the end of the war. Only 48 years later, in 1992, did a letter arrive from Bad Arolsen in which the International Red Cross informed the family that Jan Włodarczyk had died on 13 December 1944 in Hartheim Castle.

He was classified as ‘unworthy of life’ and murdered in Hartheim for his torturer’s gratification. He was 52 years old.

 

Urszula Kowalska

Translation into English: Joanna White

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