Henryk Zieliński (22 September 1920 in Szembruczek near

Grudziądz Grudziądz (, ) is a city in northern Poland, with 92,552 inhabitants (2021). Located on the Vistula River, it lies within the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and is the fourth-largest city in its province. Grudziądz is one of the oldest citie ...

- 6 March 1981 in

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

) was a Polish

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at the

University of Wrocław The University of Wrocław (, UWr; ) is a public research university in Wrocław, Poland. It is the largest institution of higher learning in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, with over 100,000 graduates since 1945, including some 1,900 researcher ...

Biography

After his high-school exit exam ("maturity diploma") he was conscripted, in summer 1938, to the Polish military service as cadet; next year, after the

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

he was wounded during the

Battle of Bzura The Battle of the Bzura (or the Battle of Kutno) was both the largest battle and Polish counter-attack of the German invasion of Poland and was fought from 9 to 19 September.''The Second World War: An Illustrated History '', Putnam, 1975, Goog ...

. Soon he was imprisoned in a

German POW camp In Germany, stalag (; ) was a term used for prisoner-of-war camps. Stalag is a contraction of "Stammlager", itself short for ''Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschaftsstammlager'', literally "main camp for enlisted prisoners of war" (officers were kept i ...

, from which he tried to escape three times, finally succeeding in 1944.Juliusz Zieliński, ''Wspomnienie o Ojcu – Profesorze Henryku Zielińskim'', [in:
''Łambinowicki Rocznik Muzealny. Jeńcy wojenni w latach II wojny światowej'', nr 33/2010
, ed. Centralne Muzeum Jeńców Wojennych w Łambinowicach-Opolu, Opole 2010, ISSN 0137-5199, pp. 153-164 He moved to Kraków, where he became one of the Underground education in Poland during World War II, students of the underground university. After the war, in the People's Republic of Poland, although at first he opposed the

Polish communist Communism in Poland can trace its origins to the late 19th century: the Marxist First Proletariat party was founded in 1882. Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (''Socjaldemokracja Króle ...

government, in 1949 he joined the

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parti ...

and was allowed to become a staff member of the

. Years later, a few days before his mysterious death, he told the listeners – group of his apprentices and co-workers in the University – that in 1949 he 'allowed himself to be manipulated'. Around 1951/1952 he defended his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

. In 1955 he became a

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

, and in 1962 he became

. However from the 1960s he became increasingly critical of the government. In the aftermath of the Polish 1968 political crisis, the

Prague Spring The Prague Spring (; ) was a period of liberalization, political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected Secretary (title), First Secre ...

and the Polish 1970 protests, where he openly supported the opposition, he was persecuted by the Polish

secret police image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression. Secre ...

Służba Bezpieczeństwa The Security Service (; ), in full Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and commonly known as SB, was a secret police force established in the Polish People's Republic in 1956 as a successor to the Ministry of Public Security (P ...

, and in the period of 1970-1972 he was forced to retire from Wrocław University, and briefly worked at the new University of Silesia. In 1972 he returned to Wrocław, as the environment there became more open again, while the Silesian University became a party stronghold, with Zieliński's research criticized for not being "

proletarian The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist philo ...

" enough, and his refusal to bow down to the ''

nomenklatura The ''nomenklatura'' (; from , system of names) were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in the bureaucracy, running all spheres of those countries' activity: ...

'' and accept the children of party officials as his students, irrespective of merit.Wanda Dybalska, ''Tylko bokser był świadkiem'', in: ''Taki zwyczajny'', ed. Atut, Wrocław 2005, , pp. 115-127 He supported the

Solidarity Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...

movement created in 1980. His death in the early morning hours of 6 March 1981 was suspicious: he was found dead on a sidewalk near his house. Although at first both the press and milicja investigators talked about a

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

," Wieczór Wrocławia" nr 45 (4145), March 6th 1981 (pp
1 & 12
from the next day the official line was that it was an accident and the investigation was annulled.

Works

Henryk Zieliński was interested in the history of Polish-German relations, especially the history of

germanization Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, German people, people, and German culture, culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nati ...

. He was the author of many publications related to

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

and its

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

, such as the

Silesian Uprisings The Silesian Uprisings (; ; ) were a series of three uprisings from August 1919 to July 1921 in Upper Silesia, which was part of the Weimar Republic at the time. Ethnic Polish and Polish-Silesian insurrectionists, seeking to have the area tran ...

and the Wielkopolska Uprising after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Near the end of his life he also became interested in the development of Polish

political thought Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political institutions, such as states. This field investigates different forms of government, ranging from ...

in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 1970s, with the improving relations between Poles and Germans, he took part in the work of the Polish-German Textbook Commission, a joint Polish-German governmental organization which reviewed the current textbooks in both countries in order to remove anti-German and anti-Polish stereotypes and former propaganda. His last major work, ''Historia Polski 1914 – 1939'' (''History of Poland 1914-1939''), was printed

posthumously Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award, an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication, publishing of creative work after the author's death * Posthumous (album), ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1 ...

. Due to the government crackdown on opposition the book was heavily

censored Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

, but the underground

errata An erratum or corrigendum (: errata, corrigenda) (comes from ) is a correction of a published text. Generally, publishers issue an erratum for a production error (i.e., an error introduced during the publishing process) and a corrigendum for an a ...

was soon realised in the form of '' bibuła'' (Russian ''

samizdat Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...

''). The censorship of his books is a good example of the problem faced by historians under regimes which interfere with academic work. Specifically, the Polish communist censorship completely removed any mention of the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...

(Nazi Germany-Soviet alliance) and the section on the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939 together with the photo of the German–Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovsk was removed and replaced with a general note on changed borders. Among his former students are three notable contemporary Polish historians: Marian Orzechowski, Adolf Juzwenko and Włodzimierz Suleja. Zieliński received the Knight's Cross of Polonia Restituta and the Medal of the National Education Commission.

Selected bibliography

* "Liczba Polaków w Niemczech w latach 1918-1939 na tle systemu niemieckiej statystyki narodowościowej" (Number of Poles in Germany from 1918-1939 in the context of the German system of nationality statistics); in: ''"Przegląd Zachodni" z.9'', (1948) * "Polacy i polskość Ziemi Złotowskiej w latach 1918-1939" (Poles and Polish culture of Ziemia Złotowskia in 1918-1939) (1949) * "Zagadnienie powstań śląskich" (The issue of Silesian Uprisings); in: ''"Wiadomości Historyczne" nr 5'' (1952) ''i nr 1'' (1953) * "Położenie i walka górnośląskiego proletariatu w latach 1918–1922" (The situation and fights of the proletariat in the

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...

from 1918-1922) (1957) * Znaczenie traktatu wersalskiego dla rozwoju stosunków polsko-niemieckich"; in: ''" Kwartalnik Historyczny" nr 1'' (The importantce of the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

to the development of Polish-German relations), (1963) * "Polska myśl polityczna a sprawa ziem zachodnich (przed rokiem 1914)" (Polish political thought and the issue of western lands (before the year 1914)) ; in: ''"

Sobótka Sobótka (pronounced , ) is a town in Wrocław County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district (gmina) called Gmina Sobótka. It lies approximately southwest of Wrocław on the northern ...

" nr 1-2'' (1964) * "Historia Polski 1864–1939" (History of Poland, 1864-1939) (1968) * "Rola powstania wielkopolskiego oraz powstań śląskich w walce o zjednoczenie ziem zachodnich i niepodległą Polskę (1918-1921)" (The role of the Wielkopolska Uprising and Silesian Uprisings in the fight to unite the western lands and independent Poland (1918-1922)); in: ''Droga przez półwiecze. O Polsce lat 1918-1968. Referaty z sesji PAN i UW poświęcone 50 rocznicy odzyskania niepodległości'', (1969) * "Batalii podręcznikowej ciąg dalszy (Historia Polski w zachodnioniemieckich podręcznikach szkolnych)" (The textbook warfare continued: History of Poland in the West Germany school textbooks); in: ''"Odra", nr 10'', (1973) * "O potrzebie i trudnościach badania polskiej myśli politycznej" (On the needs and problems in studying the Polish political thought); in: ''"Polska Myśl polityczna XIX i XX w.", t.I: "Polska i jej sąsiedzi"'', Wrocław (1975) * "Polska Myśl polityczna XIX i XX w." (Polish political thought in the 19th and 20th c.), t.I: "Polska i jej sąsiedzi", Wrocław (1975), (ed.) * "Czy istniał model polskiego działacza politycznego (Piłsudski, Witos, Paderewski, Dmowski)" (Was there a model of a Polish political activist?); in: ''Dzieje kultury politycznej w Polsce'' pod red. J.A.Gierowskiego, (1977) * "Polska myśl polityczna XIX i XX wieku" (Polish political thought in the 19th and 20th c.), t.II: "Twórcy polskiej myśli politycznej", Wrocław (1978), (introduction, ed.) * "Historia Polski 1914–1939" (History of Poland 1914-1939) (1983, second edition 1985)

References

Sources

* Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN (Great Polish Encyclopedy) : ** vol. IV (1976), ithout ISBN p. 786 ** vol. V – Suplement (1988), , p. 564 * "Studia Historyczne" – "Historia XXXVI", ''Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis No 543'', University of Wrocław Editorial 1981: ''Przedmowa'' & ''Bibliografia prac prof. dra Henryka Zielińskiego'' (author – Krzysztof Kawalec) * Włodzimierz Suleja, ''Mistrz'', Dziennik Dolnośląski nr 47, 7.03.1991, p. 6 * Encyklopedia Wrocławia (Encyclopedy of Wrocław), Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie (Lower Silesia Ed. (2000), , p. 954 ←(wrong death date) * Wanda Dybalska, ''Tylko bokser był świadkiem'', in: ''Taki zwyczajny'', ed. Atut, Wrocław 2005, , pp. 115–127 * Krzysztof Kawalec, ''Zieliński Henryk 920-1981– jak go pamiętam'' �
memory of prof. Zieliński in "Gazeta Wyborcza", 7.3.2006
* Teresa Suleja, ''Henryk Zieliński'', n:''Wrocławskie środowisko akademickie. Twórcy i ich uczniowie 1945-2005'', Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków 2007, , p. 277 * Juliusz Zieliński, ''Wspomnienie o Ojcu – Profesorze Henryku Zielińskim'', [in:
''Łambinowicki Rocznik Muzealny. Jeńcy wojenni w latach II wojny światowej'', nr 33/2010
ed. Centralne Muzeum Jeńców Wojennych w Łambinowicach-Opolu, Opole 2010, ISSN 0137-5199, pp. 153–164 {{DEFAULTSORT:Zielinski, Henryk 1920 births 1981 deaths People from Grudziądz County 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Academic staff of the University of Wrocław Knights of the Order of Polonia Restituta