Book description:
Wojciech Korfanty is the most important representative of the Polish national movement from Upper Silesia. He opposed the Germanisation policy of the German authorities towards the Polish population and fought for the improvement of the situation of the lower social strata. He spoke in parliament and at rallies, was active as a journalist and press publisher, and created the newspapers “Polak” and “Górnoślązak”. In November 1918, he became a member of the Supreme People’s Council in Poznań and headed its military department during the Wielkopolska Uprising. When the Treaty of Versailles stipulated that the fate of Upper Silesia was to be decided in a plebiscite, he headed the Polish Plebiscite Commissariat and directed its propaganda campaign. In May 1921, he triggered the Third Silesian Uprising and became its dictator, enjoying military and political success. As a result of Józef Piłsudski’s resistance, he did not become Prime Minister, but remained a leading politician in the Silesian Voivodeship. He was one of the founders and leaders of the Polish Christian Democrats, publisher and columnist of the daily “Polonia”. After the May coup of 1926, he opposed the Sanation camp, for which he faced harassment, including imprisonment in Brest. In 1935, he emigrated to Czechoslovakia. He returned to Poland in April 1939 and was arrested. He died shortly after his release from prison. In Upper Silesia, he became a legend already during his lifetime. Today, his monument graces one of the central squares of Katowice.