ABSTRACT
A historian deprived of his right to teach for his political views, Jacek Kuron, born in Lwow, was a tireless activist and spokesman for human rights and national independence in the PRL, during which time he was repeatedly arrested, interned and imprisoned. He was later given broad recognition for his role in helping to bring down the communist government, and was four times elected posel to the Sejm. As minister of labour and social services in the early 1990s, Kuron personally handed out free meals, or kuroniowki, to the needy of Warsaw, a word which still exists as a general name for handouts to the poor. A town in west-central Poland housing the Zaklad Karny Wronki, the country's largest penal facility, holding over 1400 prisoners. It was founded in 1889 under the Prussian partition, and has historically been used to incarcerate political prisoners.
