Witold Jerzy Kieżun (6 February 1922 – 12 June 2021) was a Polish economist, soldier of the Home Army (the Polish resistance movement against German occupation during WW2), a participant of the Warsaw Uprising and prisoner in the Soviet Gulags.

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During the Uprising Witold Kieżun was decorated with the Cross of Valor, he also received the Virtuti Militari.

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In October 1946 Witold Kieżun re-enrolled in the Law Program of Jagiellonian University in Kraków and started working for the National Bank of Poland. In 1948 Kieżun was arrested again for 48 hours by Ministry of Public Security due to his former membership in the Polish Resistance. Kieżun graduated in Law in June 1949 and moved from Krakow to Warsaw in August of that year. In 1950, Witold married Danuta who had been a paramedic during the Warsaw Uprising.

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Over the course of the 1950s and 1960s Witold Kieżun worked at the National Bank of Poland in Warsaw and pursued an academic career in Economics at the Main School of Planning and Statistics. Kieżun completed his doctorate studies in Economics in 1964.  In 1971 Kieżun became the head of the Institute of Praxeology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1973 he was fired from the post due to a request of the Institute's communist party unit. Over the next years he was employed as a lecturer at Warsaw University. He was granted the title of professor in 1975.

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From 1974 onwards Witold Kieżun was invited to hold a series of guest lectures in the United States and Canada: Seton Hall in 1974, Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in 1977 and University of Montreal in 1978, while still residing full-time in Poland.

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On 1 September 2014 the Polish Post issued a postage stamp bearing Kieżun's original picture to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising. 92-year-old Witold Kieżun continued writing articles and delivering lectures to various audiences, until his death in 2021.

 

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Source: Institute of National Remembrance Facebook post

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