Juszczak Franciszek "Przemysław"

Juszczak Franciszek 49

Franciszek Juszczak, son of Michał and Maria née Politańska, born August 14, 1907, in Biała, Brzeziny County. Father was a mason.

In 1923, he moved to Łódź on a permanent basis.

While working, he completed 6 classes of evening grammar school in 1926.

From 1926 to April 1943, he worked at the Łódź Health Fund.

In March 1939, while on vacation in Poronin, he met Bogusław Stępiński, who introduced him to the ideas of Zadruga. After returning to Łódź, he established contact with the local Zadruga circle, organized by Stępiński (including Ewa Kwiecińska-Szajner "Dobroniega" and Lucjan Kieszczyński). Occasionally, this group met at his home. In the summer of 1939, he met Jan Stachniuk during his visit to Łódź.

In September 1939, he found himself in Warsaw, where, due to not being accepted into the military (he was not trained), he joined one of the Volunteer Labor Battalions, where he served until the city's capitulation, and then returned to Łódź, continuing to work at the Sick Fund.

From autumn 1939, he participated in the clandestine group of the Stronnictwo Pracy (a faction of former NPR activists, later „Zryw”) led by Bogusław Stępiński, along with Kieszczyński Lucjan, Kwiecińska Ewa (Szajner, „Dobroniega”), and Szczepaniak Stanisław („Dobrowiest”). The group conducted, among other things, radio monitoring (using a radio hidden by Stępiński) and collecting information useful to the underground, including listing the addresses of Volksdeutsch. This activity continued even after the arrest of Bogusław Stępiński (1940), and was led by Szczepaniak. The distribution of „Zryw” also took place, with copies from Warsaw being brought by Szczepaniak, and the theses of „Zadruga” were discussed using, among other things, copies of „Dzieje bez dziejów” brought by Szczepaniak. Contact was also established (in 1940) with a small group of workers sympathizing with the SP grouped around Zbigniew Kucharski, a worker at the Łódź Eisert factory („Unidróg”), who became a supporter of „Zadruga”.

In April 1943, due to the threat of arrest (following the compromise of a Łódź PPR activist acquaintance), he reported to the "Kruempelmen" company (subordinate to the Todt Organization), with which he went to work in the Volhynia region, from which he escaped during the front chaos. After returning to Łódź and (due to information that the Gestapo was looking for him) reporting again to the Todt Organization under a false name, he was sent along with a group of forced laborers to Italy, where he worked on fortification construction. From there, he escaped in March 1944 with a group of Poles and returned to Łódź.

In January 1945, he was employed in the Militia (MO) in Łódź as an administrative worker, where he served until June 1946. He then worked as a white-collar employee.

In January 1946, he was re-admitted to the Military Police.

Since 1945, a member of the PPR, then the PZPR.

After 1945, he contacted the Zadruga circle in Łódź. In 1946 and 1947, several meetings of this circle took place in Łódź, devoted to the prospects of activity in the new conditions, in which Jan Stachniuk participated (who came to Łódź several times in 1946), the Kucharski brothers Edmund and Zbigniew, Bolesław Stępiński (brother of Bogusław), and Bogusław Stępiński after returning to Łódź in September 1946. Juszczak was aware of this and did not report to his superiors.

In light of the disclosure of these facts and also the concealment of involvement in Zadruga in his personal questionnaire, J. was interrogated on this occasion in 1949, explaining that the environment was just a self-educational group. In December 1949, he sent a request for release from the ranks of the MO.

In February 1950, he was suspended and then, in April 1950, dismissed from service for disciplinary reasons.

He then worked in various cooperative enterprises at middle management positions, as of June 1959 at the Electrical Construction Company “Elektromontaż” in Łódź as an economist.

Married to Helena, née Sztark, children Urszula and Samuel.

No further data available.

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