Finder, Pawel

Finder, Paweł 

(party pseudonyms Paul Reynot, Ryszard Mrowiec). Born Sept. 19, 1904, in Bielsko (present-day Bielsko-Biała); died July 26, 1944, in Warsaw. Figure in the Polish labor movement.

Finder was educated as a chemical engineer. Between 1922 and 1928 he studied in Vienna and in France, where he worked at the Sorbonne under the direction of J. F. Joliot-Curie. He was a member of the Communist Party of Austria and the French Communist Party. Beginning in 1928, he was engaged in illegal party work in Poland and was repeatedly persecuted. In 1933 he became a member of the secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Poland.

During the invasion of Poland by fascist German troops in September 1939, Finder crossed over into the USSR, where he joined the Action Group of Polish Communists (founded 1941). In December 1941 he was transferred to Poland, where he helped found the Polish Workers’ Party (PWP) in 1942. He became a member of the triumvirate of the provisional leadership of the PWP, a member of the Central Committee, and secretary of the Warsaw PWP organization. On Nov. 28, 1942, after the death of M. Nowotko, he became general secretary of the PWP. Finder was coauthor of the PWP program declaration “What Are We Fighting For?” (Mar. 1, 1943).

On Nov. 14, 1943, Finder was arrested by the Gestapo. After being subjected to torture, he was shot.