Kazimierz Świtalski

Col. Kazimierz Stanisław Świtalski (4 March 1886, Sanok – 28 December 1962, Warsaw, Poland) was a Polish officer, politician, and a Prime Minister of Poland.

Before World War I he joined the Związek Walki Czynnej, an underground organisation formed by Józef Piłsudski. In 1914 Świtalski joined the Polish Legions and in 1918 the Polish Army, where he became one of the aides to Piłsudski. He remained in the army until 1923 and in the reserves until 1925, retiring with the rank of Colonel.

During the 1926 coup d'état in Poland Świtalski supported Piłsudski. Following 1926 he was given various political posts. In 1926 he was the Head of the Civil Chancellery of the President, between 1926 and 1928 he was the director of the Political Department of the Ministry of the Interior. In June 1928 Świtalski became minister of education and from April to December 1929 he served as Prime Minister. In 1930 he was elected to the Sejm and between 1933 and 1935 he was its Marshal. He was appointed by the President to the Senate in 1935, where he was also Vice-Marshal. In parallel, he was also the Voivode of Kraków from December 1935 until April 1936.

After the Polish Defensive War of 1939 Kazimierz Świtalski was taken POW and taken to Woldenberg camp, where he spent the entire World War II. His only child, Jacek Świtalski was killed on the first day of the Warsaw Uprising. In 1945 he returned to Poland and was imprisoned by the communist authorities from 1948 to 1956. He died in Warsaw in 1962, following injuries in a tram accident.

Honours and awards

Kazimierz Switalski was awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari, the Order of Polonia Restituta Classes I and IV, Cross of Independence, the War Memorial Medal 1918 – 1921 and the Decade of Independence Medal, as well as the Estonian Order of the Cross of the Eagle Class I (1934).