Henryk Jasiczek

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Henryk Jasiczek (2 March 1919 – 8 December 1976) was a Polish-C Czech journalist, poet, writer and activist. He is remembered as an important postwar writer from the Trans-Olza region and as one of the most popular Polish poets there.

He was born in Kottingbrunn, Austria, and grew up in Oldrzychowice near Třinec. He studied horticulture in Třinec and Chrudim and worked as a gardener before returning to Trans-Olza in 1938. In 1939 he started working at the Třinec Iron and Steel Works.

During World War II he joined the Polish leftist resistance and worked in underground press under the name Wiktor Raban. After the war he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and became editor-in-chief of Głos Ludu, a role he held until 1957. He finished a journalism degree at Charles University in Prague in 1960 and contributed to Polish children’s magazines and Zwrot, a Polish cultural magazine. He was active in the Polish Cultural and Educational Union, directing its Literary-Artistic Section from 1945 to 1968.

In 1968 he supported the reformers during the Prague Spring. Because of his views, he was expelled from public life in May 1970 and was not allowed to publish. He spent his last years working in a printing house as a proofreader for half his usual pay. He died in Český Těšín in 1976, and his obituary was not allowed by the authorities. He was exonerated in 1990.

After World War II his poetry dealt with social issues and, later, with folk and the natural beauty of his region, especially the Beskydy mountains. His poems often feel melancholy and love the landscape around him. A notable line is Nie zdradzę (I Will Not Betray) from the Obuszkiem ciosane collection.