Jerzy Kazmirkiewicz
Encyclopedia
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
scientist and university professor, a specialist in wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
at the Warsaw Agricultural University
Warsaw Agricultural University
The Warsaw University of Life Sciences is the largest agricultural university in Poland. It was founded in 1816.-History:On 23 September 1816 the School of Agronomy was founded at Marymont and was accommodated in the palace of Marysa Sobieski. Branches were established at Bielany, Ruda, Wawrzyszew...
(SGGW).
Biography
He was born April 24, 1924 in GąsewoGasewo
Gąsewo is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Bodzanów, within Płock County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately south-west of Bodzanów, east of Płock, and north-west of Warsaw.-References:...
near Pułtusk, Poland, to a family of a teacher at the local manor. Before the war the family moved to Pułtusk, where Jerzy's father became a teacher at the local primary school. There Kaźmirkiewicz formed a Scouting troop
Zwiazek Harcerstwa Polskiego
Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego is the coeducational Polish Scouting organization recognized by the World Organization of the Scout Movement and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. It was founded in 1918 and currently is the largest Scouting organization in Poland...
for boys. Shortly after the outbreak of the Polish Defensive War
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
and the German take-over of Poland, both Jerzy and his father found themselves on the proscription lists of the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
. Arrested in December 1939, both were sent through Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
and the Dachau concentration camp to Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
Mauthausen Concentration Camp grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly east of the city of Linz.Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940, the...
, where they spent the entire war as political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s.
Liberated in 1945, they returned to Pułtusk, where Jerzy recreated the scouting troop in the school, now headed by his father. After his matura
Matura
Matura or a similar term is the common name for the high-school leaving exam or "maturity exam" in various countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia,...
exam, he graduated from the Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
-based Main School of Agriculture
Warsaw Agricultural University
The Warsaw University of Life Sciences is the largest agricultural university in Poland. It was founded in 1816.-History:On 23 September 1816 the School of Agronomy was founded at Marymont and was accommodated in the palace of Marysa Sobieski. Branches were established at Bielany, Ruda, Wawrzyszew...
and started his university career there. With the grade of docent
Docent
Docent is a title at some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks below professor . Docent is also used at some universities generically for a person who has the right to teach...
he became the head of the Faculty of Wood Technology (WTD). One of the most notable specialists in technology of wood processing
Wood processing
Wood processing is an engineering discipline comprising the production of forest products, such as pulp and paper, construction materials, and tall oil...
, he authored numerous works on the topic. He also became a co-founder of several wood processing plants in Poland and Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
. Apart from his university career, he was an active member of the ZBoWiD veterans organization and initiator of the construction of several neighbourhoods in the city of Warsaw financed by the university workers. He died of a stroke on May 21, 1977 and is buried at the Powązki Cemetery
Powazki Cemetery
Powązki Cemetery , also known as the Stare Powązki is a historic cemetery located in the Wola district, western part of Warsaw, Poland. It is the most famous cemetery in the city, and one of the oldest...
.