Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Polish survivor of Auschwitz, 1922-2015

Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, a Polish survivor of Auschwitz who protected Jews during the Holocaust and later rebuilt relations with Germany as his country's foreign minister, has died at the age of 93.

A colossus of Polish public life since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Bartoszewski was venerated across Poland, Israel and central Europe for his heroic actions during the second world war, fighting to defend Warsaw from Nazi invasion, working to protect the city's Jews, and battling the city's occupation as a member of the underground resistance.

His death has prompted an outpouring of grief in Poland, where the social activist, writer, historian, diplomat and politician is heralded as a national treasure and a symbol of the country's resistance throughout the adversity of the 20th century.

Bartoszewski, who lived through the darkest days in Poland's modern history but remained unbowed and sanguine throughout, was hailed as "an absolute model patriot" by Donald Tusk, the Polish president of the European Council.

"This is one of the saddest days in recent years, not only for me, but I think for all Poles," said Mr Tusk, who made Bartoszewski one of his top foreign policy advisers during his time as Prime Minister of Poland.

A chevalier of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest state distinction, he is a central figure in Polish culture thanks to his work as a historian and author of over 40 books, mainly focused on the second world war.

Remembered for his charisma and zeal, Bartoszewski was a public figure until the very end of his life, and only five days before his death made an energetic and impassioned speech at an event to mark the 72nd anniversary of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto.

One of his most famous quotations: "It's worth being honest, although it doesn't always pay off. It pays off to be dishonest, but it isn't worth it," was broadcast prominently by Polish media and shared widely on social media on Friday evening. 

Born in February 1922 in Warsaw to a Catholic family that lived in a lively Jewish quarter of the city, Bartoszewski fought as a teenager in the defence of the city against the invading German troops.

Captured in 1940 by the city's Nazi occupiers, he was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, assigned prisoner number 4427.

Released in 1941 thanks to the efforts of the Polish Red Cross, Bartoszewski became a member of Zegota, a resistance group set up to protect Jewish people, for which he was granted the title of Righteous among the Nations by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial authority and made an honorary citizen of Israel.

He also joined the Polish resistance, the underground Home Army that was co-ordinated by the government-in-exile in London, and again fought against the Nazi occupiers during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.

Viewed with suspicion by Poland's new communist rulers at the end of the War, he was imprisoned for almost 10 years during the Cold War on espionage charges that were ultimately overturned. 

After working as a journalist and lecturer, he joined the anti-communist Solidarity trade union that brought down the Soviet regime in Poland in 1989.

Finally living in a free Poland, and at the ripe age of 68, Bartoszewski then embarked on a career in diplomacy, starting as Poland's ambassador to Austria.

It was a career he excelled in. An integral figure in the rebuilding of relations with and Germany and Israel, he served as foreign minister in 1995 and between 2000 and 2001, before serving as a diplomatic adviser to Poland's prime ministers since 2007.

He died on Friday evening after being taken to a hospital in Warsaw earlier in the day. He is survived by his second wife Zofia and his son, Wladyslaw Teofil Bartoszewski.

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