He was a hero of three nations – Polish, Jewish and Hungarian; during the Second World War he ended up in Hungary. There, he became the head of the Citizens’ Committee for Care of Polish Refugees and, along with Józef Antall, a high ranking official of the Hungarian Ministry of Interior, he saved thousands of people, including many Polish Jews.
Insurgent
In 1939, Sławik had already been an experienced social worker and political activist connected, since the days of his early youth, with the Polish Socialist Party (or PPS). Since 1918, he actively fought for Upper Silesia to be rejoined with Poland. During the first Silesian uprising he fought at Pszczyna. Then, among other things, he organised troops and delivered weapons to the Koźle municipality (due to that reason the German militia assaulted him twice).
It was also there, where in August of 1920, during the second Silesian uprising, he took part in military operations. Following the end of the fighting, he engaged in a political campaign before the plebiscite which was to determine whether the region would belong to Poland or Germany. During the third Silesian uprising, Sławik enlisted for the rybnicki regiment. He was then appointed by the Regional Workers’ Committee of the PPS in Katowice to work at the Executive Branch of the General Insurgent Authorities, where he served as a liaison officer at the region where the fighting was taking place.
Editor
This nomination was not accidental, since Sławik had already been an associate of the socialist “Workers’ Newspaper” for almost a year. His talent was quickly recognised and, only two years later, he was appointed as the editor responsible for the papers, which meant that he had to sign off on everything that was printed in them and take responsibility in front of the courts if any cases were lost, pay the appropriate fines or go to jail. He had a lot of work because the socialist journalists in an uncompromising way defended the workers, which led to Sławik appearing in front of the court already in 1926 as the responsible editor.