Historical Calendar: The anniversary of the arson by Valentine Badylak. A man committed suicide in protest of a Katyn lie.
Today in our calendar we will look at the circumstances of this event.
Valenty Badylak was born on 21 December 1904 in Krakow, in a large family. He was a baker, owned by PPS. He married a Silesian female with whom he had the boy of Boguslaw. During the war, he became a soldier of the National Army. At the same time, his wife signed Volkslista and sent her boy to Hitlerjugend.
Badylak divorced her in 1946, and after his kid was recovered, he left with him on alleged Recovered Earths. There, he ran a bakery in Mrowiny close Świdnik, which the communists nationalized in 1950. Man’s life proved to be a scope of worries and disappointments. His son, Bogusław, became a associate of the PZPR, and in December 1953 he took up work at the Public safety Office in Gliwice. From 1957 to September 1970, he was an SB officer at the MO Municipal Command in Gliwice.
In the early 1950s, Valentine Badylak married Irene Sławkowska. Her first husband, captain of the artillery regiment in Włodzimierz Volynski was shot by the NKWD in Katyn. Irena Słowikowska sustained her memory of her first husband. She told Badylak about the Katyn crime. As it turned out, this was crucial to his further fate.
In the mid-1950s. Badylaks moved to Krakow. They lived in a building on Kremerowska Street. Until his retirement in 1970, Valentine worked as an accountant in various institutions. In the mid-1970s he was affected by another tragedy. In 1975, his stepson died in a car accident. After Irena Badylak's funeral, she committed suicide. From then on, Valentine lived alone. He was visited only by his grandson Wojciech, who was educated in the Franciscan clergy seminary in Krakow. He didn't have it easy having a father in SB.
On March 21, 1980, at 7.30 a.m. Valentine Badylak tied himself with a chain to a pump on the Main marketplace Square in Krakow. He had a mask on his face, in the pocket of a gas bottle. erstwhile he set himself on fire, the passersby tried to save him. But he shouted, “Do not come near, for it will explode.” On his chests, on the wire, he had a copper tablet, measuring 15 by 40 centimeters, engraved: “The renegades paid by Katyn murderers expelled a 15 - year - old only kid from school. They made a restaurant out of a solid bakery. The only 1 got drunk. W. Badylak’.
As a consequence of injuries, a man lost his life. Authorities tried to conceal the fact about this event. SB was spreading news about Badylak's alleged intellectual illness. The following day, the Krakow press gave specified information. However, household members testified that he was not sick.
The ceremony was held on March 25, 1980, at Batowice Cemetery in strict secrecy and under the control of SB. Only the faithful organization was present, the boy of Bogusław and his wife. Valentine Badylak was buried as an John Doe. It was only after a year on the grave that the name plate was placed.
Despite attempts to conceal the truth, Krakow was moved by his death. Crowds gathered at the scene of tragedy, flowers folded, candles burned. At night, SB and MO took them, but fresh ones appeared the next day. A plaque dedicated to Valentine Badylak was unveiled at the well in March 1990. The inscription says: “He could not live in a lie. He preferred to die for the truth."
Previous entry from our calendar is available Here..
