Professor Henryk Samsonowicz passed away at 91

Henryk Samsonowicz was born in 1930. He studied at the Humanities Department at the University of Warsaw. In 1954 he completed his PhD, and his post-doctoral degree - in 1960. Over a decade later, in 1971, he became associate professor, and 9 years later - professor.

His academic career was connected with the Institute of History at the University of Warsaw. "He was an outstanding historian, expert on medieval history and an important to us member of the University" - the Faculty of History of the University of Warsaw wrote on its website.

In 1980, professor Samsonowicz was involved in the activities of the "Solidarity" trade union. For two following years he served as the Rector of the University of Warsaw, until he was forced to resign in April of 1982. He took part in Poland's Round Table Talks.

After the partially-free parliamentary election of June 1989, he became minister of education in Tadeusz Mazowiecki's cabinet. One of his decisions was to introduce religion classes to schools. He remained in office until 1991.

Samsonowicz was also a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and the Polish Academy of Learning (PAU). In 2010 he was decorated with the Order of the White Eagle by the then president Bronisław Komorowski. In 2015, he resigned as member of the order's chapter in a protest against president Andrzej Duda's pardoning of the current interior minister Mariusz Kamiński.

He published around 800 academic research papers, mainly on the history of Poland during Middle Ages, including 16 books and university handbooks.

Born in Warsaw, Henryk Samsonowicz had a brother - Andrzej - who was a soldier of the Grey Ranks Assault Groups. He fought in the Warsaw Uprising, he was killed at night between 14 and 15 September in Czerniaków.