Grotowski Marian

(1898–1968), father of Jerzy and Kazimierz. Born in Rzeszów, where he also completed his secondary education. As a schoolboy he participated actively in the work of the Sokół Society before joining the Legions in 1914. Between 1918 and 1921 he fought in the Ukrainian campaign and in the Polish-Bolshevik war. He also began university studies at the Hochschule für Bodenkultur in Vienna, which he had to abandon. In 1923 he was awarded the diploma in forestry by the Agricultural and Forestry Department of Poznań University. In the following years he regularly changed his place of work and also spent a year as a unenrolled student at the Nancy Forestry School (1926/7). In 1929, he married Emilia Kozłowska and soon became father to Kazimierz (b. 1930) and then Jerzy (b. 1933). From 1933, he was based in Przemyśl, where he dedicated increasing amounts of time to his passion for painting. As an employee of a military office he was separated from his family following the outbreak of war and evacuated from Przemyśl. Following Poland’s military defeat he was interned in Hungary. He quickly escaped the internment camp and made his way via Italy to Scotland where he served in the military until the end of 1942 before being employed the following year at the Polish Ministry of Military Affairs. During this time, he developed his artistic interests, particularly sculpture, something to which he dedicated his entire time once he moved to London in 1945. He even acquired a certain level of popularity as a sculptor. Throughout this time he maintained a close interest in the fate of his family and planned to bring his wife and sons to the United Kingdom, although he did not succeed in doing so. In 1949 he decided to move to Argentina in the hope that he would achieve success as an artist there. His hopes were short-lived, though. After spending a period of time living in poverty, he found work as a factory manager on the Parana River thanks to the assistance of Polish acquaintances. After a few years he moved to the Paraguayan capital Asunción where he taught English at the British Council offices. He died of a heart attack on 10 December 1968.