Adolf Fierla

Who was Adolf Fierla?

Adolf Fierla was a Polish writer and poet from the region of Cieszyn Silesia.

He was born 16 January 1908 in Orlová to a coal miner's family and graduated from the local Juliusz Słowacki Polish Gymnasium. Fierla later studied Polish studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and Slavic studies in Prague. He later worked as a teacher of Polish language in Polish elementary schools in Zaolzie and eventually in Polish Gymnasium in Orlová.

When World War II broke up Fierla fled like many other Poles to the east. After his return German Nazi authorities jailed him in 1940 and incarcerated in Dachau and later in Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camps. Released from the camp worked as a worker in Pietwałd and in 1944 was forced to join the German Army and was captured in France by the British forces. Fierla then stayed in the Western Europe, initially in Italy, where he taught in lyceum for Polish girls in Porto San Giorgio; in France where he taught in one of Polish gymnasiums, and then from 1958 in the United Kingdom. He continued his literary life there cooperating with Polish press and several other organizations of which he was a member, e.g.