Polish Senate Passes Resolution on WWII Heroes

(MTI) – The upper house of Polish parliament, the Senate, adopted on Wednesday a resolution which pays tribute to Hungarian and Polish WWII politicians who helped several thousand Polish refugees escape to Hungary at the outbreak of the war.

In Hungary, Parliamentary Speaker Laszlo Kover and the parliamentary representative of the country’s Polish minority, Halina Csucs, submitted a joint resolution on Sept. 12 that the National Assembly should declare Jozsef Antall Sr. and Henryk Slawik heroes, on the occasion of the anniversary of the 40th and 70th anniversary, respectively, of the their deaths.

Polish politician, social activist and journalist Slawik and Hungarian government official Antall Sr, a founder of the Independent Smallholders’ Party, together helped save tens of thousands of Polish refugees who arrived in Hungary after the Nazi German attack in 1939. Among them, they saved about 5,000 Polish Jews in Budapest by helping them escape to the West.

Slawik was murdered in March 1944 in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp while Antall died “entirely forgotten” in Budapest in July 1974.

The resolution states that Hungary’s parliament pays tribute to Slawik and Antall as heroes who risked their lives and who should be symbols of loyal friendship for Poland and Hungary.

The resolution passed in Warsaw also states that the Polish Senate pays tribute to Slawik and Antall as heroes and should be symbols of loyal friendship for Poland and Hungary.

The Polish Senate session was addressed by Janos Latorcai, the deputy speaker of Hungary’s parliament.

A vote about the resolution is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in the Hungarian parliament.

Jozsef Antall Sr was the father of Jozsef Antall, Hungary’s prime minister of the first freely elected government after the regime change between 1990 and 1993.