Abstract
Felicjan Sławoj-Składkowski was a Polish physician, General and politician who served as Polish Minister of Internal Affairs and was the last Prime Minister of Poland before the Second World War. The lack of basic sanitation in many of Poland’s villages caused him to issue a decree that every household in Poland must have a latrine in working order. Wooden sheds were built in the backyards, subsequently named ‘sławojkis’.
Felicjan Sławoj-Składkowski was a Polish Prime Minister/Lieutenant General. Dr Sławoj-Składkowski’s career was impressive: Inspector of Sanitary Section (1921–1923), General Staff (1924–1926), Head of Medical Department, Ministry of War (1926–1929), Minister of the Interior (1928–1936), Head of Army Administration (1929–1930), Vice Minister of War (1930–1931), Minister of the Interior (1931–1933), Second Vice Minister of War (1935–1936), Vice Minister of War (1936–1939), Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior (1943–1945) and Chief Medical Officer, Army of the East.
However, he is also remembered today in a very peculiar way: first, for the economic crusade against the Jews after he declared in the Sejm that, while the government was against the attacks, the economic battle was ‘owszem’ (acceptable). In a speech in the Sejm in June 1936, shortly after an anti-Jewish riot in Minsk-Mazowiecki, Prime Minister Felicjan Sławoj–Składkowski declared: economic boycott, yes, by all means. But no violence! It was officially announced yesterday that Premier Felicjan Składkowski visited on Tuesday the town of Minsk-Mazowieck thirty miles from Warsaw which was the scene of recent anti-Jewish disorders. The announcement said fourteen persons would be tried for arson and fifty-six would receive administrative punishment for minor offences. The disturbances occurred after a Jew had killed a Polish sergeant in a drunken brawl.
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Felicjan Slawoj-Skladkowski
Footnotes
Author biography
Avi Ohry, MD, was born in Israel in 1948 and studied medicine at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. He is Head of the Section of Rehabilitation Medicine, Reuth Medical Center, Tel Aviv and a Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.