Waclav Wislicki, President of the Central Jewish Merchants Association and member of the Polish Sejm, died here suddenly today following a heart attack. He was 53 years old.
The death if Wislicki, who was the only Jew named to the Sejm in Warsaw in the last elections, leaves the Warsaw Jewish population unrepresented in the next Sejm. According to the new election laws new district elections can be held only when one-tenth of the seats in the Polish parliament remain vacant.
Wislicki, who was born in Warsaw of a half-assimilated family prominent in the commercial world, was active in Polish political circles even before he began to take a part in Jewish life. He was actively associated with the fight for Polish independence, and when Pilsudski’s army entered Warsaw, Wislicki was at the head of the local militia.
Wislicki remained close to the Pilsudski faction throughout, and was a prominent member of the Non-Partisan government party. He was a member in many important Government commissions, and in 1926 was sent to Rumania to cement relations between the two countries. In recognition of his services, Wislicki was decorated by the Rumanian Government, but a year later, when the anti-Jewish pogroms broke out in Rumania, he returned his decoration and denounced the pogroms.
Although frequently opposed by the Jewish national elements in Poland because of his assimilatory tendencies, this act, and his subsequent devotion to the cause of the boycott against Nazi Germany, won him recognition as an outstanding Jewish leader. Since the war he was also active in other Jewish fields, particularly in the Jewish Merchants Association, of which he was a founder.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
