Jozef Wieczorek

Wieczorek, Józef 

(pseudonym: Ryszard). Born Sept. 10, 1893, in Lipiany-Slask, near Swietochlowice; died at the end of 1944. Figure in the Polish workers’ movement. A miner.

During the years 1920-21, Wieczorek was one of the lead- ers of the Communist Party of Upper Silesia, and he took part in the Silesian uprising of 1921. Beginning in 1921 he was a member of the Communist Party of Poland. In 1924, Wieczorek was a member of the united front Committee of 21, elected by representatives from 46 mines and plants of Upper Silesia. In 1930 he was a deputy to the Silesian Sejm. During the years 1933-39, Wieczorek was arrested several times. He spent the period 1939-42 in the USSR, where he joined the organizing body of the Polish Workers’ Party (PWP). In 1942 he returned to Poland; he was a member of the Central Committee of the PWP and secretary of the district committee of the PWP in Silesia. In August 1943, Wieczorek was arrested by the Hitlerites. He perished in the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

I. S. MILLER