There is a short note in biography of Jan £ukasiewicz, Polish logician and philosopher, about his move from Warsaw to Münster at the end of WWII:
He and his wife wanted to move to Switzerland but couldn't get permission from the German authorities. Instead, in the summer of 1944, they left Poland with the help of Heinrich Scholz and spent the last few months of the war in Münster, Germany hoping to somehow go on further, perhaps to Switzerland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_£ukasiewicz
Heinich Scholz, a German philosopher and logician, has known £ukasiewicz personally since early 30s. See: http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Scholz.html
In 1932, at the time when German-Polish relations were already tense, Scholz, at £ukasiewicz's invitation, had delivered various lectures in Warsaw and Lwów (£ukasiewicz's birthplace). In 1938, Scholz had strongly recommended that Münster University should award an honorary doctorate to £ukasiewicz, and on 21 December 1938 this title had been duly bestowed upon the Polish logician by von Moltke, the German Ambassador to Poland. Finally, in February 1939, £ukasiewicz, at the invitation of the Faculty of Philosophy and Science, had given four lectures in Münster.
In a period 1939-1943 Scholz helped Jan and Regina £ukasiewicz in various ways: finding them work in Warsaw City Archives and Institute for East German Affairs (Regina, Jan - refused the position), smuggling monthly money transfers and some food via his friends and German Red Cross. He did it with considerable risk, as is evident from the consequences of his intervention in favour of the Cracow theologian, Jan Salamucha. In November 1939, Salamucha was detained in Oranienburg concentration camp. Scholz campaigned vigorously for Salamucha release. His petition to the Education Department, provoked the wrath of Bernhard Rust, the Minister of Science, Education and National Culture -- witness the following missive:
Berlin W 8, 2 Oktober 1940. It has just been brought to my attention that you addressed a petition to the Department of Education in occupied Poland on 14 March 1940. (…)
I most strongly disapprove of your conduct, and in order to preclude, once and for all, any further incidents of this kind, which could serve as a dangerous weapon to anti-German propaganda against the political leadership of the German people. I hereby prohibit you from presenting any further petitions on behalf of foreign scholars unless they are made through the proper channels via me. Should you contravene this order, I shall institute disciplinary criminal proceedings against you.
Berlin, 20 September 1940
The Reich Minister
for Science, Education and National Culture
signed Rust
By the end of 1943 £ukasiewicz was keenly aware that Russians were soon to take over Warsaw and that was not good news for him and his wife. First, he had been the Polish Minister for Religion and Education in 1919. Second, he had been awarded Polonia Restituta medal. Third, his wife Regina, nee Barwinska, to whom he had been married since 1928, was an aristocrat. As he wrote to Scholz:
Warsaw, 13 December 1943.
My dear, good Heinrich,
(…) A decision to leave our homeland would not be easy to take. But circumstance may arise that would leave us with no choice but to flee. Nine of my wife's relatives had been deported to Asia by the Bolsheviks and we know for certain that some of them are no longer alive. My wife and I do not want to suffer the same fate.(…)
After a long series of negotiations with German authorities via Scholz colleagues in charge of various institutions and dozens of letters written to and received from £ukasiewicz, Scholz finally obtained promises of work and accommodation for the £ukasiewicz's at Münster. On this basis the exit visa was granted and on July 17, 1944 they left Warsaw and the following day arrived in Münster.
All of this is nicely described in the 15 page pdf file, available here: http://uci.academia.edu/KaiWehmeier/Papers/433867/On_the_Relations_Bet ween_Heinrich_Scholz_and_Jan_Lukasiewicz
"On the relations between Heinrich Scholz and Jan £ukasiewicz", Hans-Christoph Schmidt Am Busch and Kai F. Wehmeier, March 2006, History and Philosophy of Logic, (2006),1-15, Preview article,
|
