Karol Śliwka
Encyclopedia
Bystrice (Frýdek-Místek District)
is a large village in Frýdek-Místek District, Moravian-Silesian Region, Czech Republic. It has a population of 5,173 , Poles are 29.7% of the population. It lies between the Silesian and Moravian-Silesian Beskids mountain ranges, in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia...
- 19 March 1943 in 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...
) was a Polish communist politician from Zaolzie
Zaolzie
Zaolzie is the Polish name for an area now in the Czech Republic which was disputed between interwar Poland and Czechoslovakia. The name means "lands beyond the Olza River"; it is also called Śląsk zaolziański, meaning "trans-Olza Silesia". Equivalent terms in other languages include Zaolší in...
region in the First Czechoslovak Republic. Śliwka was one of the most prominent political leaders of the Polish minority in Zaolzie
Zaolzie
Zaolzie is the Polish name for an area now in the Czech Republic which was disputed between interwar Poland and Czechoslovakia. The name means "lands beyond the Olza River"; it is also called Śląsk zaolziański, meaning "trans-Olza Silesia". Equivalent terms in other languages include Zaolší in...
and a member of National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic from 1925 to 1938.
Śliwka was born son of a metallurgy worker in Bystřice (Bystrzyca). After finishing five classes of elementary school in his native village he entered the Polish gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
(grammar school) in Cieszyn
Cieszyn
Cieszyn is a border-town and the seat of Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. It has 36,109 inhabitants . Cieszyn lies on the Olza River, a tributary of the Oder river, opposite Český Těšín....
.
After outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he volunteered to army of General Józef Haller but after several months became a prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
from 1915 to 1918 (mostly in Kaluga
Kaluga
Kaluga is a city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Population: It is served by Grabtsevo Airport.-History:...
). In 1917 he joined the Bolshevik Party. In 1921 he became an Executive Committee member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....
. He was the editor of the newspaper Głos Robotniczy ('Workers Voice'). Śliwka was the foremost leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia within the Polish minority. He was an advocate of unity between Polish, Czech and German communists in Český Těšín
Ceský Tešín
Český Těšín is a town in the Karviná District, Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. The town is commonly known in the region as just Těšín . It lies on the west bank of the Olza River, in the heart of the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia...
.
Śliwka represented the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the Czechoslovak National Assembly between 1925-1938. As a parliamentarian, Śliwka fought for the rights of the Polish minority in the Czechoslovak Republic. Following the cession of Zaolzie
Zaolzie
Zaolzie is the Polish name for an area now in the Czech Republic which was disputed between interwar Poland and Czechoslovakia. The name means "lands beyond the Olza River"; it is also called Śląsk zaolziański, meaning "trans-Olza Silesia". Equivalent terms in other languages include Zaolší in...
territory to Poland
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...
, Śliwka and another Polish parliamentarian Leon Wolf, leader of the League of Silesian Catholics, lost their parliamentary seats on 30 October 1938. Other parliamentarians representing national minorities suffered a similar fate. Polish authorities adopted strict measures against communist activists. Śliwka and another activist Franciszek Kraus have been jailed in Mokotów Prison
Mokotów Prison
Mokotów Prison is a prison in Warsaw's borough of Mokotów, Poland, located at Rakowiecka 37 street. It was built by the Russians in the final years of the foreign Partitions of Poland...
in 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...
. He was released after he signed a testimony saying he is breaking up with communist movement.
As a result, he was expelled from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In April 1940 he was arrested by 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...
and jailed in Moravská Ostrava and later in other towns. In 1942 he was sentenced for five years in prison, which he served in Cieszyn
Cieszyn
Cieszyn is a border-town and the seat of Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. It has 36,109 inhabitants . Cieszyn lies on the Olza River, a tributary of the Oder river, opposite Český Těšín....
. Śliwka was eventually transferred to the 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 he officially died in March 1943. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he was dishonoured in Czechoslovakia for alleged betrayal of communist ideals in 1938. He was exonerated in 1969.