Stanisław Estreicher (26 November 1869 – 28 December 1939) was a Polish

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

of Law and

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

; professor of the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

in 1906. Following the 1939

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

, he was briefly offered to form a puppet quasi-government by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. He paid with his life for his refusal to do it.

Life

Stanisław Estreicher grew up in the intellectual atmosphere of an influential professorial dynasty at the

. His father,

Karol Józef Teofil Estreicher Karol Józef Teofil Estreicher (22 November 1827 in Kraków – 30 September 1908 in Kraków) was a Polish bibliographer and librarian who was a founder of the Polish Academy of Learning. While he is known as the "father of Polish bibliograph ...

, was a leading historian of literature and the University's head librarian. His brother Tadeusz was a chemist and pioneer in

cryogenics In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington DC in 1971) endorsed a universal definition of “cryogenics” and “cr ...

. His sister Maria was one of the first women in Poland to earn a doctorate (in English philology). Stanisław Estreicher’s son, Karol Estreicher, Jr., was one of the most important historians at the University and founder of the

Jagiellonian University Museum The Jagiellonian dynasty (, pl, dynastia jagiellońska), otherwise the Jagiellon dynasty ( pl, dynastia Jagiellonów), the House of Jagiellon ( pl, Dom Jagiellonów), or simply the Jagiellons ( pl, Jagiellonowie), was the name assumed by a cad ...

. His daughter, Krystyna Grzybowska, was a children's book writer and historian. After studying at Kraków and Vienna, Estreicher earned his “habilitation” in 1894 and became a professor at the Jagiellonian University in 1906. Among his circle of associates was a young doctoral candidate,

Bronisław Malinowski Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (; 7 April 1884 – 16 May 1942) was a Polish-British anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography, social theory, and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of anthropol ...

. In 1911, 1918 and 1926, Estreicher was the Dean of the Faculty of Law. In 1919 he was elected Rector of the University and served until 1921. After the death of his father Karol Józef in 1908, he attempted to complete his father’s unfinished ''Bibliografia Polska'' (begun in 1870), a massive reference work on all significant Polish authors from the 15th to the 19th century. Estreicher was offered by the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

to form a puppet Nazi government in Poland, but he refused. Consequently, he was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

on 6 November 1939, along with his brother Tadeusz, and sent to the

Sachsenhausen Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

concentration camp. Stanisław Estreicher died on 28 December 1939 of

uremia Uremia is the term for high levels of urea in the blood. Urea is one of the primary components of urine. It can be defined as an excess of amino acid and protein metabolism end products, such as urea and creatinine, in the blood that would be nor ...

caused by the difficult conditions in the camp. His family was not informed until 13 January 1940, and his funeral was not held until 28 July 1940. His wife, Helena née Longchamps, died in March 1940. His son, Karol Jr., would later complete the Bibliografia Polska.

References

*Banach, A.K., Dybiec, J. & Stopka, K. The History of the Jagiellonian University. Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press, 2000. *Burek, Edward (ed.) “Estreicher, Stanisław” in Encyklopedia Krakowa. Kraków: PWM, 2000. *Estreicher, Karol Jr. Dziennik wypadków (Journal of Events), Vol I: 1939-1945. Kraków: Pałac Sztuki, 2001. ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Estreicher, Stanislaw 1869 births 1939 deaths 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Jagiellonian University alumni Jagiellonian University faculty University of Vienna alumni Burials at Rakowicki Cemetery Rectors of the Jagiellonian University People who died in Sachsenhausen concentration camp 19th-century Polish historians

Life

See also

References