Polish professor is fined for lecturing

A POLISH professor who was prevented from coming to lecture in England earlier this year by his own government has been fined after giving a lecture on the work of the Resistance in Poland during the Second World War.
Professor Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, of the Catholic University of Lublin, was fined 5,000 zloty (about 180) on November 20 for "organising an illegal gathering" by giving his lecture on November 2.
An attempt to give another lecture on November 12, on Polish-Jewish relations, was prevented by the police. who photographed those who had conic to hear it.
The owner of the flat where the first lecture took place, Mr Piotr Naimski, was also fined. This move against the professor is the latest in a series of harassments reported to Keston College, the English centre for the study of religion in Communist countries.
In August, the professor was relused a visa to visit Italy. He has been secretary of the Polish PEN club since 1972, but had his passport withdrawn in 1976 when he planned to go to an international PEN congress.
Professor Bartoszewski is a recognised authority on JewishChristian relations. He sent reports of Jewish persecutions to London during the Nazi occupation of Poland and worked to save their lives during the war. As a result he was one of the first prisoners to be sent to Auschwitz. He was awarded a decoration by Israel in 1963.
After the Second World War he was again imprisoned, this time by the Communist government of Poland. Since 1957, he has been a regular contributor to the Catholic weekly Tygudnik Powszechnv. He has been active in the 'Flying University' which provides an alternative source or information to students, especially in the heavily-censored humanities.