Antoni Purtal (1895-1943) (pseudonimy "Szczerba", "Janek") - działacz łódzkiej PPS

Abstract

Antoni Purtal was born on 12th June 1895 in Radzyń administrative district as a son of a worker. At the age of ten he came to Łódź with his family where he was educated as a carpenter. From the end of 1915 or from the beginning of 1916 he became a member of Polish Socialist Party (PPS). From 1916 he ran an illegal PPS printing house in Łódź. In July 1918 the printing house was accidentally discovered by German police. During their escape Purtal and his comrade killed two policemen. Mter that event he was hiding in Warsaw. Following the order of PPS Central Division of Combat Readiness he made an assassination attempt on Erich Schulzte, the chief of secret German political police in Warsaw. In November 1918 he returned to Łódź. In 1919 he got married. Being a member of PPS party he fought in Silesia uprisings. In 1921 he was awarded the Virtuti Militari Cross. From 1927 he held many positions in the town council of Łódź, among others he was a councillor. In February 1939 he was elected a Vice President of Łódź. During the Second Republic of Poland he was a member of local and central authorities of PPS. During the Nazi occupation he was hiding in Warsaw, using the pseudonym Jan Bogon. He was a member of PPS-WRN party. He was arrested on 3rcl June 1942. Until January 1943 he was kept in Pawiak Prison. Then he was a prisoner of Majdanek and Oświęcim Camps. He died in Oświęcim in 1943.