Prince Seweryn Franciszek Światopełk-Czetwertyński (; b. 18 April 1873 in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

– 19 June 1945 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

) was a Polish landowner, entrepreneur and politician. He belonged to a

cadet branch In history and heraldry, a cadet branch consists of the male-line descendants of a monarch's or patriarch's younger sons ( cadets). In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets— realm, tit ...

of the

Czetwertyński family The House of Czetwertyński or Chetvertynsky (also ''Czetwertyński-Światopełk'' and ''Sviatopolk-Chetvertynsky'') is a Polish princely family of Ruthenian origin that was founded in modern-day Volhynia within the Crown of the Kingdom of Polan ...

, historically one of the

princely houses of Poland and Lithuania The princely houses of Poland and Lithuania differed from other princely houses in Europe. Most importantly, Polish nobility (''szlachta'') could not be granted nobility titles by the Polish kings in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Therefo ...

.Enache, Nicolas. ''La Descendance de Marie-Therese de Habsburg''. ICC, Paris, 1996. pp. 107, 115. (French). He was a pupil at the Realschule in Riga and was a member of the Polish student fraternity ''Arkonia''. He went on to study at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

. He became a member of the Russian

Duma A duma (russian: дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were for ...

in 1906 and after Poland regained her independence, he was elected to the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

from 1919 until 1935. During World War II, he was a prisoner of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, and was imprisoned at both the

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or sus ...

and Auschwitz

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

s. He died of exhaustion barely two months after liberation, having newly arrived in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Married to Zofia Przeździecka, their son Włodzimierz (1907-1965) and elder grandchildren were born in Poland, but during World War II, they fled to Britain, eventually taking up residence in North America.

References

1873 births 1945 deaths Politicians from Warsaw Nobility from Warsaw People from Warsaw Governorate Seweryn Franciszek Popular National Union politicians National Party (Poland) politicians National League (Poland) members Members of the 1st State Duma of the Russian Empire Members of the Polish National Committee (1914–1917) Members of the Legislative Sejm of the Second Polish Republic Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1922–1927) Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1928–1930) Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1930–1935) University of Bonn alumni Buchenwald concentration camp survivors Auschwitz concentration camp survivors World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom {{Poland-politician-stub