Franciszek Bajorek (23 September 1908 – 23 November 1987) was a Polish lawyer, national activist and politician. He was a member of various organizations active amongst the Polish minority in interbellum Czechoslovakia.

Biography

Bajorek was born in the family of Jan Bajorek, a principal of the Polish school in Łazy. In 1926 he graduated from the Juliusz Słowacki Polish Grammar School in

Orlová Orlová (; pl, ; german: Orlau) is a town in Karviná District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 28,000 inhabitants. Administrative parts Orlová is made up of four town parts: Lazy, Lutyně, Město and Poru ...

. Later he studied law at the University of Brno, where he earned a doctorate in 1932. After his university graduation, Bajorek worked in Fryštát, in a law office of

Leon Wolf Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

, Polish deputy to the National Assembly in Prague. He was active in the Association of Silesian Catholics, co-founded the Association of Poles in Czechoslovakia in 1938 and chaired the Association of Polish Choirs in Czechoslovakia. After the annexation of

Trans-Olza Trans-Olza ( pl, Zaolzie, ; cs, Záolží, ''Záolší''; german: Olsa-Gebiet; Cieszyn Silesian dialect, Cieszyn Silesian: ''Zaolzi''), also known as Trans-Olza Silesia (Polish language, Polish: ''Śląsk Zaolziański''), is a territory in the ...

region to Poland in 1938, President

Ignacy Mościcki Ignacy Mościcki (; 1 December 18672 October 1946) was a Polish chemist and politician who was the country's president from 1926 to 1939. He was the longest serving president in Polish history. Mościcki was the President of Poland when Germany ...

named him a deputy of the

Silesian Parliament Silesian Parliament or Silesian Sejm ( pl, Sejm Śląski) was the governing body of the Silesian Voivodeship (1920–1939), an autonomous voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic between 1920 and 1945. It was elected in democratic elections and h ...

, where Bajorek was a deputy until the outbreak of World War II. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In November 1938 he entered the local Zaolzie chapter of the Camp of National Unity. After the defeat of the

Polish forces The Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Siły Zbrojne Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, abbreviated ''SZ RP''; popularly called ''Wojsko Polskie'' in Poland, abbreviated ''WP''—roughly, the "Polish Military") are the national armed forces of ...

in the September Campaign, Bajorek escaped Germans through Tatras, Hungary and Yugoslavia, and finally ended up with the Polish troops in France. There, he entered the Polish military school, which he finished in Great Britain after the French were defeated by Germans. He decided to stay in Great Britain after 1945, where he established the Association of Cieszyn Silesians, being its chairman for 40 years. Franciszek Bajorek was considered the main representative of Cieszyn Silesia in the British exile. He also actively participated in the Polish Army Choir and Fryderyk Chopin Choir in London. He died on 23 November 1987 in London and is buried at the Greenford Cemetery.

Biography

References

Further reading