Wincenty Hermanowski

Wincenty Hermanowski (born April 3, 1875 - November 19, 1947) was a Polish pharmacist and local government politician who served as the mayor of Białystok from 1928 to 1932.

Biography Born in 1875 in Radule near Tykocin, in 1895 he was exiled to Vologda in the Russian Empire for organizing illegal Polish youth groups in a Łomża grammar school. In Russia he completed his pharmaceutical studies and in 1912 he moved to Białystok into Jankiel Rachites's tenement house on the corner of Aleksandrowska and Instytucka Streets (now Warszawska and Pałacowa Streets). He became involved in public life and in August 1915 in his apartment, the Society for the Aid of Polish Schools was established, thanks to which the first Polish primary school in the city was established in November 1915.

On September 7, 1919, in the first local government election following the regaining of independence and the establishment of the Second Polish Republic, he was elected to the Białystok City Council.

During the Battle of Białystok, in August 1920, he was in the city. Dring the onslaught of Bolshevik savagery and various bloody excesses, Hermanowski was oftenon the streets of the city, defending the lives and property of our fellow citizens, preventing robbery, rape, pogroms, and bloodshed, exposing himself to danger.

Being a fierce opponent of the chairman of the city council Feliks Filipowicz, he resigned from the city council in 1925 and didn't take part in the 1927 local election. Yet, in 1928, following the resignation of Michał Ostrowski the city council chose him to be the next mayor.

His tenure was overshadowed by difficulties, both financial and political. Hermanowski was unable to control his associates. Political divisions fueled by personal animosities increasingly paralyzed the work of the local government.

Little is known about the fate of Wincenty Hermanowski in the years 1939-1944. In 1942 he was taken hostage. He escaped death, but was ordered to leave Białystok. He then moved to Bielsk Podlaski, where he lived until the end of the war and owned a pharmacy at 7 Rynkowa Street. On July 21, 1945, he became a member of the State National Council, remaining non-partisan. He was nominated by the Voivodeship National Council based on his position as chairman of the District National Council, but was dismissed at its request on April 26, 1946. He died in November 1947 and was buried in the Farny Cemetery in the city.