- published: 28 Apr 2016
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Antoni Macierewicz (born 3 August 1948 in Warsaw) is a Polish Catholic politician, anti-communist activist, member of Sejm, journalist and a former internal affairs minister, former vice-minister of national defence in Jarosław Kaczyński's government, and current parliamentary representative.
Youngest son of Zdzisław and Maria Macierewicz, one of their three children. His father, a scientist and noted researcher in chemistry, was a soldier of Home Army during World War II and a member of Labour Party (Poland), committed suicide under the pressure from the communist Secret Police soon after his youngest son had been born. After getting his master degree in history from Warsaw University Macierewicz had begun doctoral studies in history of South America at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, but due to his involvement in the 1968 Polish political crisis he was arrested and his studies terminated. In the years 1968-1989 he was a prominent member of the democratic opposition to communist rule and one of the founders of the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR), working together with Jacek Kuroń and Adam Michnik, and together they started publishing monthly Głos in 1977. He was one of the organizers of Solidarity (Polish trade union) in Warsaw. He was arrested and interned after the Wojciech Jaruzelski's junta had imposed the martial law in Poland on December 13, 1981. He escaped from the prison in Nowy Łupków and was in hiding until 1984. In 1988 he was a member of Solidarity Citizens' Committee.