Józef Szczepański

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Józef Szczepański tombstone in Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery

Józef Szczepański ( [ˈjuzɛf ʂt͡ʂɛˈpaɲskʲi] , born November 30, 1922 in Łęczyca ; † September 10, 1944 in Warsaw ) was a Polish poet and member of the Armia Krajowa . During the Warsaw Uprising , when he was only 21 years old, he was the commander of the Parasol battalion, where he was known under the cover name Ziutek . He was also a well-known poet about the occupation. Many of his works later became songs; the most famous is "Pałacyk Michla".

Life

Szczepański spent his childhood in different places such as Łęczyca, Grudziądz , Jabłonna . Around the mid-1930s, he and his family moved to Warsaw. During the German invasion of Poland , he and his parents fled to Wolhynia , later to Rzeszów and Dębica . Eventually he returned to the Polish capital in the early 1940s. Once there, Józef Szczepański resumed his underground training, which he had to break off due to the German-Soviet attack in 1939. In addition, Szczepański joined the Polish resistance (see also: Szare Szeregi ), where he became an officer candidate . Szczepański was a member of the command that carried out an attack on the general of the Waffen-SS Wilhelm Koppe , but failed. Szczepański was a soldier on the 1st platoon of 1st Agat Company of the Parasol Battalion . Szczepański performed his first poem Dziś idę walczyć mamo (German: mother, today I am going to fight) publicly on December 31, 1943 in a house on Świętojańska Street in Warsaw. Shortly afterwards he was declared a bard of the Parasol Battalion .

During the Warsaw Uprising he was group leader of the Parasol battalion, which consisted mainly of young boy scouts from the ranks of the Szare Szeregi . After the leader of the battalion, Adam Borys, was badly wounded, he took command of the unit. Szczepański was wounded in Warsaw's Old Town on September 1st and was brought to safety in Warsaw's inner city by his comrades. He died from his serious injuries on September 10, 1944.

Szczepański received the Cross of Valor (2 times) and the Virtuti Militari (5th grade, posthumously).

Poetry

Many of Szczepański's poems became known in occupied Warsaw, especially because he used them as chronicles of the battalion Parasol battalion. Some of them were also processed into songs. Nevertheless, many of his works disappeared during the battles for the capital; only 20 have survived to this day. His poetry, but especially his poem Rote Plage, was one of the things that moved the Polish Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda to make the film Kanał (1957) . to turn. The poem, which addressed the failed hopes of the Warsaw insurgents for support from the Red Army, was banned in the People's Republic of Poland due to its anti-Soviet tenor . During Stalinism, possession of the poem was prosecuted with prison sentences.

Józef Szczepański belongs to the generation of Polish artists whose lives were shaped by the dramatic turn of the Second World War .

credentials

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Channel on the official website of Andrzej Wajda
  2. ↑ CZERWONA ZARAZA ( Memento of the original dated November 12, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Rzeczpospolita , September 4, 2004, No. 208 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rzeczpospolita.pl
personal data
SURNAME Szczepański, Józef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ziutek (nom de guerre)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish poet and commander in the Warsaw Uprising
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Łęczyca
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1944
Place of death Warsaw