Edward Ślusarczyk 1913 - 1943

Born 14.10.1913 in Cieszyn
Died 21.4.1943 in Mauthausen

Biography

Edward Ślusarczyk was the son of Paul und Stanisława of the Puchała family. He was a Polish teacher and a Roman Catholic.

Edward Ślusarczyk wanted to change the world for the better and inspire others. He had decided to become a teacher, and despite his upbringing in a poor family, he pursued this goal with great resolution and commitment. After completing the Paul Stalmach teaching course in Cieszyń, he took his exams as an external candidate in Chorzów and was subsequently accepted to study at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. From 1933 he worked at the primary school in Chybie Mnich, where he also led the Scout group and the amateur orchestra. He had been in the Scouts since his primary school days in Cieszyń; he soon became troop leader and led the General Józef Haller Scout Group for two years. In addition to his work at the school in Chybie, he organised the holiday for the Scouts there.

Edward was also an active traveller. He belonged to the Polish Association of Tourism and Geography – membership dues are recorded for the membership card number 609 for the period until 1942. Together with his friends – including Walter Sprenzel and the brothers Wilhelm and Edward Wałga – he built a canoe in the Wałgas’ flat. They took the craft on voyages on major Polish rivers over distances sometimes longer than a thousand kilometres. Their record journey ended at the Black Sea, where they sold the canoe and signed on as sailors on board a merchantman en route to Constanța, Istanbul, Athens, Alexandria, Haifa and Beirut. Edward was 21 years old at the time.

Before the war, Cieszyń – the city in which Edward lived – was inhabited by Poles, Germans, Czechs and Jews, who were often friends with each other. Immediately before the start of the war, he received a warning from former colleagues who belonged to German organisations that arrests were being planned. Edward’s conspiratorial activity consisted of his membership of the organisation Służba Zwycięstwu Polski (Service for Poland’s Victory), which had been founded in the region around Cieszyń and later changed its name to Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Union of Armed Struggle). He left Cieszyń on 20 February 1940. He travelled with friends (including Eugeniusz Sprenzel, Walter’s brother), disguised as a skiing party, via Vienna and Graz to Köflach, and then onwards towards the Austrian-Yugoslavian border. But they were soon arrested after they were almost suffocated in an abandoned shelter. 100 kilometres before the border they were betrayed by a man they had met on the way.

After a trial that took place on 3 October 1940, Edward was imprisoned in Graz. He was sentenced to imprisonment under harsh conditions (Halle [Saale], Zwickau). He was accused of joining the Polish army of exile under Sikorski and intending to join the fight against the German Reich. On 27 February 1943, at the end of his imprisonment, he was transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was placed in Room B of Block 19 as a prisoner in the ‘preventive detention’ category. His prisoner number was 24175.

Edward’s life ended two months later, at 7.05am on 21 April 1943. According to the documents, he died of nephritis and uraemia. He had not even reached his 30th birthday.

Ilona Binda

 

Sources:

Private collection of Alicja Sprenzel Koenig.

Private collection of Ilona Binda.

Information from the International Tracing Service, 8 November 2011, Document T / D-2 254 071.

 

References:

Wojciech Kiełkowski: Dzieje Szkoły Podstawowej im. Pawła Kojzara w Mnichu [History of the Paweł Kojzar primary school in Mnich] (Jastrzębie Zdrój 2013).

Tadeusz Kopoczek: Pfadfinder Schlesien Cieszyń [Cieszyn Silesia guide book] (Cieszyn 1998).

 

Franciszek Pasz: Nieustający egzamin [‘Never-ending Ordeal’] (s.l., no date).

Translation into English: Joanna White

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