Stanisław August Poniatowski (also Stanisław II August; born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798) was the last King and Grand Duke of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1764–95).

A Polish noble of the Ciołek coat of arms, he was the son of Count Stanisław Poniatowski, Castellan of Kraków, and Princess Konstancja Czartoryska; brother of Michał Jerzy Poniatowski (1736–94), Primate of Poland; and uncle to Prince Józef Poniatowski, (1763–1813). While at the royal court in Saint Petersburg, Russia, he became romantically involved with the twenty-six-year-old future Empress Catherine Alexeievna (Catherine the Great), three years his senior. With her support, in 1764 he was elected king of Poland.

Against expectations, he attempted to reform and strengthen the ailing Commonwealth. His efforts met with external opposition from Russia and Austria, both interested in keeping the Commonwealth weak; and from internal conservative interests, which saw reforms as threatening their traditional liberties and prerogatives. The defining crisis of his early reign was the War of the Bar Confederation (1768–72), which led to the First Partition of Poland (1772).

Józef Hen originally Józef Henryk Cukier (born 8 November 1923 in Warsaw) is a Polish novelist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, and reporter of Jewish origin.

Born 8 November 1923 in Warsaw in the family home in Nowolipie Street. He completed secondary school at M. Krynski's Academy with the "small matura". As a child he also attended the school founded by Janusz Korczak.

He lived until September 1939 in Warsaw but left the capital in November 1939 to escape the German occupation. He spent the war in the Soviet Union. He first worked on construction of a highway from Lviv to Kiev, then went to Samarkand in Uzbekistan. Despite his good physical shape, he was not accepted into the Anders Army in exile there. In 1944, he joined the Polish Army in exile and also published his first professional (rowboat faithful?) writing, Voice of the Soldier. During the war, he lost his father, killed in 1945 in Buchenwald, his brother Moses (b. 1920), who disappeared in the Soviet Union, and his sister Mirka (1917-1942). His mother and sister Stella (b. 1915) survived the war. In 1944 he adopted the pen name "Hen", which in time began to serve as his public name. Immediately after the war he was editor of the weekly The Polish soldier. His military service ended with the rank of Captain in 1952.