He had a sense of large mission, gratitude for all minute of life he received, and no minute of that life, in my opinion, he did not waste – said Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, mentioning Władysław Bartoszewski. The National Defence Minister took part in a ceremony commemorating the prof. on the 10th anniversary of his death.
The tenth anniversary of the death of Władysław Bartoszewski was celebrated, among others, at the Warsaw Uprising Museum during the mentioned meeting. It was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, who had previously laid a wreath on the professor's grave in Warsaw Powązki. The ceremony was besides attended by: erstwhile president Bronisław Komorowski, boy of prof. Bartoszewski – Secretary of State at the Ministry of abroad Affairs Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski and manager of the Warsaw Uprising Museum Jan Ołdakowski, as well as subchorżów from the Military method Academy and students of Warsaw CLXI LO named after Władysław Bartoszewski at Smoża Street.
– He spoke fast, he acted fast. He was very dynamic, he didn't want to waste an hr of his life. I think that's a large lesson that we all request to accept that it's not worth wasting a moment. If it is well consumed and survived, it is of large importance. This is the meaning of the life of Władysław Bartoszewski until today: his mission, role, activity for the Polish state – said the Deputy Prime Minister.
The Minister of Defence besides pointed out that for the young generation prof. Bartoszewski is simply a figure worth accepting as a patron besides in his way of life. – He is simply a individual who has proven that you can operate in many areas related to the service of the country. Be a soldier, aid another man, especially saving his life," Kosiniak-Kamish emphasized.
In turn, erstwhile president Bronisław Komorowski pointed out that Bartoszewski was and is simply a model for Polish patriotism. He added that the prof. was a wise patriot, though full of emotion. He didn't focus on declarations, he focused on action.
During the September campaign, as a seventeen-year-old, he participated in the defence of Warsaw – he joined sanitary work as a stretcher. In September 1940, he was sent to Auschwitz, where the sick and exhausted 1 managed to be released in April 1941 thanks to the efforts of the PCK in the global Red Cross. Then Bartoszewski made contact with the Union of Armed Forces and then with National Army. He co-organized a secret Council of Aid to Jews “Zegota”. He became active in underground press activities and the Catholic Front of Polish Revival. He was besides active in Warsaw Uprising. After the war ended, he continued to engage in political activity. He was a associate of the PSL fought by communists. Persecuted, he went to prisons where, as his boy Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski recalls, he spent 9 Christmases. He did not abandon opposition activities. He was, among others, co-founder of the Society of technological Courses and lecturer of the University of Flying, and besides taught the past of Poland at the Catholic University of Lublin.
During his martial law, he was interned. After 1989, he was the Ambassador of Poland to Austria, twice serving as Minister of abroad Affairs. He was besides the president of the global Auschwitz Council and the Council for the Protection of the Memory of Combat and Martyrdom.
Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski, speaking about his father's patriotism, emphasized that he was shaped by, among others, his family, the Jesuit schools he attended, teachers whom he recalled many years after the war. He remembers the words of his father, who said that if at school before the war individual asked him if he was a patriot, he'd get punched. “It was obvious,” said the politician.
