Grzegorz Przemyk

Who was Grzegorz Przemyk?

Grzegorz Przemyk was a young, aspiring Polish poet from Warsaw, who was murdered by members of the Communist People's Milicja Obywatelska. His killing was one of many such politically motivated murders perpetrated against democratic opposition by the Communist regime of Poland.

A few days before Przemyk's death, his mother, Barbara Sadowska, a poet and a member of the anti-Communist opposition, was severely beaten by unknown perpetrators, who most likely were members of the Polish secret police, the Służba Bezpieczeństwa. On May 12, 1983, while celebrating graduating from High School with his friends, Grzegorz Przemyk was arrested by members of the Milicja Obywatelska on Warsaw's Castle Square. He was severely beaten at the Milicja station, located at Jezuicka Street in Warsaw. After sustaining severe injuries of the stomach, Przemyk died two days later.

Przemyk's funeral, which took place at the Powązki Cemetery, and which was witnessed by Jerzy Popiełuszko, turned into a spontaneous demonstration against the Communist regime. Meanwhile, the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs tried to protect those responsible for his murder, by stating that Przemyk died because of negligence of the paramedics, who took him to hospital. This flawed version of events was repeated during the 1984 trial, and the two suspects, both of whom were Milicja functionaries, were acquitted, despite these facts that their testimonies were refuted in the UK trial by Dr. Marek Bagniewski, the doctor who operated on Przemyk before his death.