Jan Chudzik was a lawyer, national and social activist, as well as a subordinate to the military aviation of the Second Republic of Poland. His engagement in the National organization made him 1 of the key activists in the Podkarpackie region.
In 1933, he fell victim to a political coup that shook public opinion. His tragic death became a symbol of violent repression of the opposition during the period of the sanitation rule.
I. Youth and Education
Jan Chudzik was born on 11 October 1904 in Wołoszyny, in the then territory of Nikansk, in the peasant family. He grew up in an environment where function work was the basis of life, which shaped his character and strong attachment to national and social values. Even at a young age, he showed ambition and determination, which resulted in studying at the State Secondary School in Nisk.
It was there that he encountered the first national ideas that had a profound impact on his later activities. most likely the school catechate played a key function in shaping his beliefs, encouraging him to take an interest in social and political matters. After graduating from junior advanced school, he undertook law studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where he rapidly became active with the national movement.
During his studies, he joined the Academic Union “Youth of All Poland” and the National Guard, which was his first step towards active political activity. At the same time, in order to stay in a large city, he gave tutoring to a richer youth. After 3 years he moved to the University of Warsaw, where he graduated from law school and obtained his master's degree. While in the capital, he had the chance to grow his horizons and establish contacts with leading national activists.
II. National and social activities
After finishing his education Chudzik actively engaged in political activity. He was a strong supporter of national ideas, which led him to join the Camp of large Poland, which after the May 1926 bombing became 1 of the main opposition organizations to sanitization. Thanks to his industriousness and organizational abilities, he rapidly advanced into the structures of this organization, assuming the position of president of the OWP Youth Movement territory Committee in Brzozów.
His engagement in social affairs was manifested not only through political activity, but besides by helping the people of the region. Chudzik, along with another activists, organized free legal advice, which contributed to expanding trust and support for the National Party. His influences grew, which did not escape the attention of the sanatorium authorities, which began to see him as a threat to their structures.
The crucial minute in his activity was to presume the position of individual secretary Roman Dmowski in Chludów close Poznań in 1929. Working with 1 of the leading leaders of the national movement was an chance for Chudzik to gain valuable political and ideological experience. Dmowski, describing his co-worker, drew attention to his attachment to Polish values, strong convictions and energy for action.
After returning to Brzozów Chudzik he continued his political activities within the National Party, which replaced the dissolved Camp of large Poland. In local structures, he became the Head of the Young Section and became 1 of the key organizers of national activities in the region. Its activity and increasing popularity were becoming increasingly worrying among local authorities, which began to take action to weaken its position.
III. Professional and military career
Jan Chudzik, alongside political activity, developed his professional and military career. After graduating from law school in Warsaw, he began compulsory military service, which he held at the Air School in Dęblin. There he gained basic piloting skills and was appointed a sub-aeronautics. His service in the military lasted comparatively short but strengthened his organizational abilities and discipline, which he later utilized in social and political work.
After moving to the reserve, Chudzik returned to civilian life and undertook a notarial application in Brzozów at the Leon Gwóźd. Working in a notarial firm allowed him to gain applicable legal skills and establish many contacts among the local community. His position grew due to the fact that the inhabitants of Brzozów and the surrounding area rapidly saw his legal cognition and readiness to help.
One of his key activities was to organise free legal advice for the poorest. Together with Władysław Fruit, the local leader of the National Party, they helped residents solve legal problems, which importantly increased support for their organizations. Thanks to these actions, Chudzik not only built his position in the region, but besides shaped the image of the National organization as a force fighting for the rights of Poles.
At the same time, his expanding activity and influence began to rise concerns among the sanitation authorities. In Brzozów, tensions between national activists and representatives of the government camp, who saw Chudzik as a threat to their interests, increasingly occurred.
IV. Attack and death
On May 14, 1933, it became a tragic day in the past of the National organization and the local Brzozów community. That evening, Jan Chudzik and Major Władysław Owoc attended the political rally of the National Party, after which they visited the parish priest Kazimierz Dutkiewicz at the rectory. After the gathering ended, around 10:30 p.m., both politicians went out on the streets, unaware that they were about to fall victim to a deadly assassination.
Several shots fired from the shotgun were fired from the dark. Skinny was hit in the back of the head and died on the spot, while Fruit was badly wounded. The execution shook the local community and public opinion across the country. It shortly began to be suspected that the killing was political and was the consequence of expanding tensions between sanctioning and national movement.
Jan Chudzik's ceremony was held on May 16, 1933, and gathered crowds of mourners from all over the country. The ceremony was attended by leading National organization politicians, including Senator Michał Siciński and national press editors. In Brzozów, mourning continued for a long time, and residents did not hide outrage over the violent assassination.
The case of Chudzik's execution became the subject of a broad political debate. Sanitation media tried to minimize the importance of this crime, while the national opposition utilized it as evidence of violent repression against their activists. Authorities, under force from the public, had to launch an investigation that shortly revealed the amazing links of perpetrators to local state structures.
V. Process and consequences
The execution of Jan Chudzik caused a immense stir throughout the country. The national opposition explicitly recognized the assassination as a consequence of political repression against the opponents of the sanctions. Authorities, under force from the public, had to launch an investigation, but from the beginning there were doubts about its reliability. The investigation was conducted by justice Zygmunt Kruszelnicki of the Sanoku territory Court, and an additional investigation was supervised by DCI Jan Petri of Lviv.
The bombing trial began on September 18, 1933, in Sanoku and immediately attracted public attention. peculiar admission tickets were introduced to the courtroom, and national and abroad press widely reported events. The defence of the defendants argued that the trial is political in nature, and the sanatorium authorities effort to cover up the actual motives of the murder.
The accused of the assassination were: authoritative of the Municipal Savings Bank in Brzozów Roman Jajko, who according to investigators was to give a fatal shot, and elder leader of the State Police Stefan Stankiewicz and Commissioner Bolesław Drewinski, who were to co-organize the assassination. The defendants were linked to local authorities, which further fueled the belief that the killing was political in nature and was inspired by the sanction.
By judgement of September 26, 1933, Roman Jajko was sentenced to 2 years in prison, Stefan Stankiewicz to 2.5 years, and Commissioner Drewinski to 5 years. The judgments were considered amazingly mild, which provoked outrage among national activists. In subsequent years the destiny of the convicts was stormy – Drewinski died in the prison in Łomża in 1935 under unexplained circumstances, and his counsellor Marian Głuszkiewicz was poisoned or shot.
Sanitational authorities tried to minimize the impact of the assassination on political life, but the case of Chudzik became 1 of the loudest political scandals of the 1930s.
VI. Private life and legacy
Although Jan Chudzik was primarily a national activist and lawyer, he besides led a household life. In 1931, he married Janina, a teacher with whom he had 2 children, a daughter and a son, who was born on the day of his father's funeral. The Skinny family, despite his many responsibilities, was very crucial to him.
The tragic death of her husband had dramatic consequences for Janina Chudzik. After revealing the fact about the assassination, she fell into a deep depression that prevented her from further gainful work. She besides had tuberculosis, which further weakened her body. She died on 12 June 1938 at the age of only 33. She orphaned 2 children who, after the death of their parents, were cared for by the household and National organization activists.
The memory of Jana Chudziku survived primarily in national circles and among local Brzozów community. After his death, mourning services were organized, and the national press frequently resembled his work. A brochure was published in Lviv in 1933. O execution in Brzozówwhich details the trial and the circumstances of the murder.
Today, Chudzik's character is not widely known, although his biography is an crucial evidence to hard political situation in the Second Republic. He was an ideological man who devoted his life to fighting for national values, and his tragic death became a symbol of repression against the political opposition. An inscription was placed on Jan Chudzik's grave, which inactive reminds of his sacrifice and tragic fate:
“He was the boy of the faithful God, the Fatherland, the Family
His actions were his busol in Poland.
But in life, the flower of a countryman dies
Like a murderous crime innocent victim.”
Today, his grave in the cemetery in Brzozów is simply a place of remembrance for those who want to pay tribute to a man who believed in his ideals to the end.
The life and activity of Jan Chudzik is an example of a steadfast political and social attitude in hard realities of the Second Republic. As a national activist, a lawyer and socialist engaged in helping the local community, building the structures of the National organization and strengthening the national movement in the birch region. His work, both in a notarial law firm and in public activities, brought him many supporters, but besides opponents among the supporters of the sanitation.
His tragic death was not a coincidence – it was a consequence of political tensions that then torn Poland apart. The assassination of Chudzik and Major Władysław Owoc was part of a broader context of violent political conflict in which sanitized authorities sought to destruct national activists. Although the authorities officially launched an investigation and conducted a lawsuit, mild sentences for perpetrators aroused controversy and suggested an effort to sweep the case under the carpet.
The memory of Jana Chudziku survived in national environments and among the inhabitants of Brzozów. His ceremony became a manifestation of opposition to political violence, and later publications and actions of the National organization established his character as a symbol of the conflict for ideological independence.
Jan Chudzik was a man who gained authority in both academic and political environments at an early age. His life is an example of his commitment to national and social affairs, which attracted not only supporters, but besides people willing to destruct him. His past shows how hard and brutal political realities in the Second Poland were, where fierce rivalry between the sanitation camp and the national camp frequently led to dramatic consequences.
Today the character of Jan Chudzik remains comparatively small known, and his communicative seldom appears in historical textbooks. However, his biography is an crucial evidence to an era in which the conflict for convictions could have cost his life. His activity proves that politics is not only dry debates and theories, but besides a real sacrifice that can have tragic consequences.
His communicative prompts reflection on the price paid by those devoted to their ideals. It recalls that political ambitions and the conflict for power frequently lead to tragedy, but at the same time shows the strength of convictions and willingness to act for the benefit of the community. Jan Chudzik remains a symbol of the relentless conflict for national and social values, and his destiny is inactive a informing against political extremism and brutality in the conflict for influence.
Grzegorz Paprocki
