Janek Wiśniewski

Zbigniew Eugeniusz Godlewski (3 August 195217 December 1970) was a Polish man shot dead by security forces during the 1970 Polish protests in the city of Gdynia. The event was popularized across the country in the poem and song, known by the name of .

Biography

On 17 December 1970, during Poland's demonstrations against the Communist regime, the army fired into the crowd of workers emerging from a commuter train in Gdynia, under the pretext of preventing an industrial sabotage action. At least 11 innocent people were killed by the military there, and more then 40 people were killed by the police and the military during the December protests overall. The image of an anonymous young man's body carried on a door panel through the cordons of police and tanks inspired author Krzysztof Dowgiałło to write the poem about him. The name Janek Wiśniewski was invented by Dowgiałło for the ballad to symbolize an 18-year old worker killed by the military or the militia. Not knowing his real name, the author gave him a symbolic name sounding typically Polish; it proved quite enduring. Later it was established by the opposition that the man shot dead was named Zbigniew Godlewski and had lived in nearby Elbląg.

Remembrance The event was popularized across the country in the poem and song, known by the name of ; the work is also sometimes known as Pieśń o Janku z Gdyni (Song about Janek from Gdynia). The text was written by Krzysztof Dowgiałło and music for the song by Mieczysław Cholewa. The song, along with the story of Janek Wiśniewski, was popularized when it was performed at the end of the 1981 movie Man of Iron (by actress Krystyna Janda along with Jacek Kaczmarski).