Zygmunt Felczak

Zygmunt Felczak (2 May 1903 – 3 July 1946) was a Polish politician. He was a member of the State National Council and a deputy governor of Pomerania. As an activist of the National Workers' Party and the Labour Faction, he founded the daily paper "Ilustrowany Kurier Polski" and took part in the Warsaw Uprising.

Biography Youth years Zygmunt Felczak was the son of Antoni, a farmer, and Michalina, née Pałczyńska. He had seven siblings. His father was a local social activist. His mother came from an impoverished noble family, whose ancestors were sent by Tsarist authorities to Siberia after their participation in the uprisings of November 1830–1831 and January 1863.

Antoni and Michalina were owners of a domain in the village of Chorki, north west of Łódź, in then Russian-controlled Poland. Their children were brought up in the worship of the family insurgent tradition. Later, a communist judge would refer to Antoni Felczak as a kulak.

Zygmunt attended the elementary school of the Chorki before going from 1915 to a secondary school in Łęczyca.

Interwar Period In 1920, Zygmunt took part as a volunteer in the Polish–Soviet War, serving first in the 137th Infantry Regiment. Afterwards, he took part in the defense of Płock with the 21st Rifle Regiment of Kaunas. He kept having short breaks in his schooling till 1931, eventually completing 11 trimesters at this university.

In 1931, he moved to Toruń to work as the secretary of the NPR District Board in Pomerania and editor of the magazine "Obrona Ludu" (Defence of the People). His articles were then described as radically against Piłsudski's ruling Sanation and strongly anti-communist.

In one of his articles he stated for instance: leader of the then clandestine movement. On his initiative, in 1940, secessionist activists of the leftist party "NPR-Lewica" were re-integrated into the Labour Faction. During these years, Felczak, through Feliks Widy-Wirskifelt, was influenced by Jan Stachniuk, the leader of the neo-pagan group Zadruga. Zygmunt then began to drift away from his Christian-social beliefs.

After the arrest of Franciszek Kwieciński, he was designated on 29 March 1942, as the new representative of the Labor Party At the surrender, he escaped from the transport of prisoners and hid in Włochy district of Warsaw. In it, he exposed his vision of a "civilizational armament" of Poland, encompassing the following questions: a national industrialization; the reconstruction of the countryside combined with an intensification of agriculture; the assimilation of the Western Borderlands; the "marinization" of the country Poland, aiming at fully using national sea borders; the reconstruction of the spiritual structure of society. The book, supporting Jan Stachniuk's philosophical ideas, was heavily rejected by the Polish Catholic society.

Zygmunt Felczak died of a liver cirrhosis on 3 July 1946, at his home (6 Sielanka street, Bydgoszcz).

He was buried at the Nowofarny Cemetery in Bydgoszcz on 6 July 1946. The religious ceremony took place at the Saint Vincent de Paul Basilica and was attended by many notables (e.g. Karol Popiel), and in particular by Kazimierz Barcikowski and General Karol Świerczewski who flew from Warsaw for the occasion.