User:Happa/sandbox

Tomasz Piskorski (December 21, 1898 in Warsaw – April 1940 in Kharkiv) was a Polish lawyer, member of the Polish Military Organization, cavalry officer of the Polish Army, activist of the Polish Scouting Association, participant in the fight for independence Poland, victim of the Katyn massacre.

Early Life, Education and Work
Tomasz Piskorski was born to the family of Wacław (1852–1928) and Kazimiera née Maciejewska (1860–1919). He was the younger brother of Leonard (1883–1957).

He attended the General Paweł Chrzanowski Junior High School (later the Jan Zamoyski Junior High School), and then the Roch Kowalski Junior High School in Warsaw. He passed his high school diploma externally in the winter of 1919 (during his leave from the army). After studying in 1920–1925 (after demobilization), he graduated from the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the Free Polish University (WWP).

In the years 1926–1938 he worked as a senior in the seminar of constitutional law of the WWP prof. Władysław Maliniak. He was a co-founder and long-time chairman of the Society of Friends of the Free Polish University. From 1938, as a senior counselor, he organized the Department of Craftsmanship at the Ministry of Industry and Trade. In the same year he opened a doctoral dissertation on the replacement of the head of state. On September 1, 1939 he was to take the office of the voivode of Poznań, but the outbreak of World War II prevented it.

Participation in the Fights for Polish Independence
In 1916, Tomasz Piskorski joined the Polish Military Organization and in the fall of 1918 he was the commander of the 6th district in Warsaw. He was arrested three times and imprisoned in Pawiak for a week. In November 1918 he took part in disarming the Germans in the Warsaw garrison.

In February 1919, he enlisted in the 1st Cavalry Regiment of Józef Piłsudski in Hrubieszów. In April this year he took part in the Vilnius expedition, in July he was delegated to the Cadet School in Warsaw, and in October – to the intelligence service of the 2nd Legions Infantry Division.

At the end of February 1920, he was transferred to the Operational Group of General Lucjan Żeligowski, and later to the command of the 4th Army. In mid-August this year, he was active in the Union for the Defense of the Fatherland in the Lublin region, where he soon became an intelligence instructor in the district of Hrubieszów and Włodzimierz. He served in the army until demobilization in November 1920.

Piskorski took part in the Third Silesian Uprising.

In September 1939, he volunteered for the fourth time. He was assigned to the 21st Regiment of Vistula Uhlans or to the head of the Łódź-Lublin transport, where he took part in defensive fights. He fought at Krasnobród. He was interned by the Red Army. He was sent to the camp in Starobielsk and was shot in April 1940 in Kharkiv.

Scouting
Tomasz Piskorski became permanently involved in scouting in 1911, initially as a student at the Chrzanowski High School in a scout troop, which later took the name "2 Warszawska Drużyna im. Tadeusza Rejtana". As a scout instructor, he participated in the connection congress on November 1, 1916 in Warsaw of four scout organizations in the Polish Scouting Association. In 1916, together with legionnaire sergeant Antoni Mańkowski, he founded the first scouting team in Wołomin, joining independent groups and creating the 1st Wołomin Scouting Troop. They recruited mainly street boys and working class families for the tr. Tomasz Piskorski, today recognized as the founder of the ZHP Wołomin, was a squad member, and after the scout structure expanded around 1920 to a squad – squad member.

In 1918, he became the commander of the 24th scout troop of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz. In June 1920, during his military service, he organized an intelligence unit among the scouts in Minsk. He was a scout leader, and then deputy commander of the Warsaw Men's Banner. He visited the camps of Warsaw teams. In the summer of 1923 he was the deputy commander of the third instructor course of the Warsaw Men's Banner in Mickuny near Vilnius (90 participants). In November 1925 he was appointed commander of the Warsaw Men's Banner. He held this position until March 1929.

He organized and led 4 conventions of senior scouting.

In April 1926 he organized the 3rd Program Congress of the Elder Scouting in Sromowce Niżne and chaired its proceedings. Eugeniusz Sikorski writes about this convention:

"The figures of the leading activists of the old-timer movement began to become more and more visible. They were: Tomasz and Maria Piskorski, Sabina Marcinkowska, and Jerzy Zawodzki"

- Eugeniusz Sikorski

He was the founder and then the head of the Elder Scounting group of Zygmunt Jeż-Miłkowski (the so-called Jeże). In August 1928, he organized the 4th Congress of Elder Scouting in Pieniny [8]. In July 1930, he was the commander of the 5th Starszoharcerski Congress in Kiełpiny. He was the chairman of the editorial committee of the collective work "Poles on Dżembori" (published in 1931), in which he published his article under the same title. In August 1931 he led the expedition of the Polish delegation to the 1st International Rally of Older Scouts (Rovers) in Kantersteg, Switzerland.

In April 1931 he chaired the 4th sailing conference in Warsaw, devoted to the issues of sailing development and establishing the work program for the nearest future [11].

... it was evident that this new branch of scout training aroused great interest and attracted many, especially older scouts, with its peculiar charm of a sailing journey, full of adventures and dangers ... [12].

He was the initiator of a fundraiser for a large, 100-tonne scout sailing ship:

... the adjutant Janusz Wolski read in front of the team the appeal of the Head of Scouts, Tomasz Piskorski, scoutmaster, regarding the submission of donations by scouts to the created Sailing Fund, from which a large 100-ton scout sailing ship is to be purchased, used for travel purposes and a sailor's school [13].

In August 1932 he was the commandant of the 6th Congress of Elderly Scouting in Garczyn. In 1933 he was appointed the head of the Senior Scouting Department at the Headquarters of Scouts [14]. In April this year, during a rally in Stara Miłosna, he was elected to the Senior Scouting Council. As its delegate, he participated in the Rovers conference in Jamboree in Gödöllő, Hungary, where he gave a key note lecture on the old-fashioned scouting movement in Poland. Also in 1933 he was the chairman of the Personnel Committee at the Main Headquarters of Scouts.

During this period, he participated in the protection and recovery of the ZHP from nationalist influence [2]. Including along with Jan Mauersberger, he belonged to the leadership of the Scouting Union to a group with a Piłsudski orientation, whose aim was to reduce clericalism in the Polish Scouting Association and allow children and youth of national minorities to participate in the organization [15].

He was a member of the organizing committee of the Jubilee ZHP Rally in Spała in 1935. In autumn this year, he chaired an expedition of over a hundred senior scouts and instructors to the 2nd International Rovers Rally on the island of Ingarö in Sweden [16].

He was the vice-chairman of the Warsaw Circle of Scouts from the Times of Fights for Independence.

In 1936, he prepared a commentary on the scout law for older scouts, which was adopted at the 8th Congress of Scouting Elders on August 24-30, 1936 at Lake Narocz [11].

At the end of 1936 he became the acting Chief of Scouts in Poland. He held this position until the beginning of 1937.

On August 5–28, 1938 Tomasz Piskorski was the deputy commander of the post-scoutmaster course of the Warsaw Banner on the Wigry River. This course was attended, among others, by Jan Bytnar, the protagonist of Aleksander Kamiński's book Kamienie na szaniec. Jan Bytnar recalled very interesting, heated discussions on topics related to social, economic, and political issues. There he obtained the rank of scout of the Republic of Poland [17].

Activity in OMN, "PET", the Polish Youth Association "ZET" and ZPMD
At Chrzanowski's school, he was accepted into the National Youth Organization (OMN) and shortly thereafter to "PET".

During his studies, he was admitted to the Association of the Polish Youth "Zet". After the split in 1923 (as a result of opposition to the takeover of control over the Association by the nationalist All-Polish Youth (Mlodzziez Wszechpolska), the Association of Polish Academic Youth was established, which convened the first congress in April 1923. At this congress, a 7-person Central Academic Committee was established, which included, inter alia, Piskorski [2].

In 1924, he took part in the 3rd General Congress of the OMN of Higher Schools in Lublin, where he was elected chairman of the presidium [18]. After several organizations merged in 1927, the Association of Polish Democratic Youth (ZPMD) was established. During the First General Congress of ZPMD in Warsaw in December 1927, he was elected to the Presidium of the Union [18].

In 1925, Piskorski - together with his later wife - Maria Podgórska, reactivated "PET" (after the liquidation of this organization in 1921) [2]

In the same year he initiated the establishment (in 1926) of the Association of Seniors of the National Youth Organization (Związku Seniorów Organizacji Młodzieży Narodowej). The name was changed the following year to the Association of Seniors OMN and ZPMD. He also entered the first Provisional Board. Before the organization's II Congress (in 1934), he was the secretary of its board.

At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, he edited the ZPMD body - the Sunrise (Brzask quarterly [19].

At the 2nd Congress of Seniors of OMN and ZPMD in 1934, a resolution was adopted to organize in 1936 the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first meeting of the Warsaw ZET Circle. Piskorski became the organizational clerk of the Congress and a member of the Main Organizing Committee (there were over 1000 participants of the Congress).

“One of the great activists of the organization, Tomasz Piskorski, revealed his great organizational talents during the Jubilee Congress of the 50th anniversary of ZET” [2].

He managed the work of the organizing committee, including several subcommittees. In 1935, the Senior Board of Seniors adopted Piskorski's organizational guidelines [18]. For the Congress, Piskorski prepared a list of the fallen and deceased participants of the Polish independence movement of the National Youth in the period 1886–1936. He collected the ZET archive and prepared a report on the Jubilee Congress. The entire archive (along with over a dozen volumes of his journals) was burned down during the Warsaw Uprising.

Participation in other organizations

Board of the Brotherly Help Association in 1921. Seated: on the left Tomasz Piskorski - president and on the right - Stanisław Dubois - vice president

president of Brotherly Help during his studies president of the National Youth Organization (OMN) during his studies member of the Patriotic Union member of the Union for the Repairs of the Republic of Poland chairman of the Society of Free Polish University editor of the ZPMD Sunrise "Brzask" body deputy director of the Office of the Association of Poles from Abroad (1933) work in the Maritime and Colonial League in 1935–1938, where, together with Wiesław Czermiński, he organized the Youth Department and became its director. As part of the work of this department, he conducted training in camps by the sea that he organized (he was a sea lifeguard himself). In 1936, he compiled a report of the Main Executive Committee of the Festival of the Sea in 1935 after the Congress of Participants in the Fight for the Polish School in 1936, he organized - together with Zofia Wańkowicz and Stefan Szwedowski - a committee that collected quite a significant sum for Polish schools in Bytom and Cieszyn

Books

Poles in Dżembori. Memories of the International Scout Rally in Arrowe Park near Birkenhead England 1929. Collective publication edited by a committee composed of: chairman Tomasz Piskorski, members - Eugeniusz Ryszkowski and Eugeniusz Konopacki. Warsaw 1931. Published by the Command of the Polish Expedition to Dżembori. Printing. St. Niemiry Syn i S-ka [20]

On the eve of the scout offensive against youth. Guidelines for the work of the Scouts' Headquarters for 1934 (1933) Committee for National Education of Polish Youth from abroad at the Organizational Council of Poles from Abroad (1933) [21] A book about Poland for Polish youth abroad (1934) Elderly Circle. Organizational, methodological and program guidelines (Biblioteczka Starszoharcerska 1935) The 1935 Constitution, the so-called family titles (1936) 15th anniversary of Senior Scouting (Katowice 1936) Scout Press Catalog (1937, published in 3 languages) On the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of "Zet". Report from the Congress of Participants of the Independence Movement of the Polish Youth Union ("National Youth") on September 28 and 29, 1936 in Warsaw (1937).

Other

Lublin Congress of the OMN in 1924, in: Academic Democratic Youth in Lublin in the years 1920–1930, Lublin, May 11, 1930. On the scout bibliography, in: Harcerstwo. Authority of the Polish Scouting Association, Warsaw, Year I, No. 4 (December 1934) Report of the Main Board of the Association of Seniors of the Democratic Youth Organization of Universities 1926-1934 (1934) Editing and introduction to the work Ingarö - Brotherhood Island: Memories of the Polish expedition to the 2nd World Rovers Rally on Ingarö in Sweden in 1935 by Wacław Błażejewski (1936) [22] List of fallen and deceased participants of the independence movement of the National Youth (members of the National Youth Union "Zet"), the "Future-Pet" organization and other organizational levels in the period 1866-1936 (Warsaw 1936) Posthumous memory of Kazimierz Stańczykowski (1901–1937) (Warsaw 1937) Incomplete list of members of the Polish Youth Union ZET and the Patriotic Union and organizations derived from older society, "Przyszłość" - ZET, Organization of National Youth of Higher and Secondary Schools OMNSW, OMNSŚ, National Groups, Union of Young Poland, Union of People's Councils and other external organizations in the period 1889 –1966 (together with Z. Dłużewska-Kańska and S. Szwedowski), typescript in the possession of Tadeusz W. Nowacki [23] Dictionary of the Z-Movement (together with S. Szwedowski and Z. Dłużewska-Kańska), typescript in the possession of Tadeusz W. Nowacki [23].

Military Promotions corporal - April 25, 1920 second lieutenant of cavalry - with seniority on July 1, 1925 [5] [24] lieutenant - posthumously, October 5, 2007 [25] [26].

Awards
Orders and decorations
 * Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari (no. 14384) - collective, posthumous decoration of Polish soldiers murdered in Katyn and other unknown places of execution awarded by the President of the Republic of Poland in Exile Professor Stanisław Ostrowski (11 November 1976)
 * September Campaign Cross - a collective posthumous commemoration of all victims of the Katyn massacre (1 January 1986)

Medal of Independence [27], then converted into the Cross of Independence for work in the work of regaining independence [28] Cross of Valor [29] Golden Cross of Merit - for merits in the field of social work [30] Silver Cross of Merit [31] Commemorative badge of the Polish Military Organization No. 1589 Legion's Cross No. 206 Honorary Cross of Scouts from the Times of Fights for Independence (No. 22) - by the decision of the Main Committee of Scouts from the Times of Fights for Independence at the Headquarters of the Polish Scouting Association on December 15, 1938 1939 September Campaign Cross No. 7761 - awarded posthumously on August 15, 1985 in London.

Family life

He married Maria née Podgórska (1906–1980) in 1928. They moved to ul. Nowy Zjazd 3, apartment 5 in Warsaw [32], tel. 2-53-97 [33]. They had 2 daughters:

Anna (1929–1983, buried in the same grave as her father); Anna was a chemist, she lived in Warsaw, she married Cezary Chlebowski and had 2 children with him: Tomasz Chlebowski, husband Elżbieta Regulska-Chlebowska and Weronika Chlebowska-Dziadosz, Katarzyna (1937–2010), a sculptor from Warsaw; She died on April 10, 2010 in the crash of the Polish Tu-154M aircraft in Smolensk.

After death

A symbolic grave

In the 1960s, a symbolic grave of Tomasz Piskorski (section 18-1-1) was created in Warsaw's Stare Powązki cemetery [34]. The following were also buried in this grave:

in 1980 - Maria Piskorska in 1983 - Anna Piskorska-Chlebowska in 2010 - Katarzyna Piskorska. a sculptor from Warsaw; She died on April 10, 2010 in the crash of the Polish Tu-154M aircraft in Smolensk.

After death

A symbolic grave

In the 1960s, a symbolic grave of Tomasz Piskorski (section 18-1-1) was created in Warsaw's Stare Powązki cemetery [34]. The following were also buried in this grave:

Scout teams dedicated to Tomasz Piskorski

Senior Scout troop of 10 DSH Concordia in Sejny [35] dissolved on December 18, 2008 [36].

Memorial Plaques dedicated to Tomasz Piskorski

A plaque in the wall of the fence of the church of St. Antoni of Padua in the Czerniaków district of Warsaw

Plaque on the wall of St. Charles Borromeo in Powązki in Warsaw.

On the premises of the primary school name after Maciej Rataj in Karviná on September 18, 2012, the Memorial Oak was planted in honor of Tomasz Piskorski.


 * Golden Cross of Merit with Swords (25 July 1944)
 * The Cross for Merit for the ZHP (1992, posthumously)