Ignacy Fik (4 April 1904 – 26 November 1942) was a Polish poet, essayist, literary critic and political activist. He was the father of the theatre historian Marta Fik. Born in

Przeciszów Przeciszów is a village in Oświęcim County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Przeciszów. It lies approximately east of Oświęcim and west of the regional capit ...

, he attended high school in Wadowice and then studied Polish literature at

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

and

Jan Kazimierz University The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...

. Imprisoned for several months in 1925 for his political activities, he worked mostly as a teacher, while contributing literary criticism to leftist magazines such as ''Nasz Wyraz'' and ''Sygnały''. He was the author of several books of poetry, including (1931) and (1936), of essays such as ("Notes on the language of

Cyprian Norwid Cyprian Kamil Norwid, a.k.a. Cyprian Konstanty Norwid (; 24 September 1821 – 23 May 1883), was a nationally esteemed Polish poet, dramatist, painter, and sculptor. He was born in the Masovian village of Laskowo-Głuchy near Warsaw. One of h ...

", 1930), and of the critical survey ("Twenty years of Polish literature", 1939). His outlook was

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

and in the essay (1935) he condemned the work of Bruno Schulz and

Witold Gombrowicz Witold Marian Gombrowicz (August 4, 1904 – July 24, 1969) was a Polish writer and playwright. His works are characterised by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and absurd, anti-nationalist flavor. In 1937 he published his f ...

as degenerate. Upon the German invasion he founded the Communist group "R" with his wife Helena Moskwianka and edited underground magazines. He was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

in October 1942, and shot in a mass execution at

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

Bibliography

*Stępień Marian. Issue 257 of . Naukowe: Państwowe Wydawn, 1975. 1904 births 1942 deaths Polish literary critics 20th-century Polish poets Polish people executed by Nazi Germany Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany {{Poland-writer-stub