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Stanislaw Marusarz, an outstanding sportsman: ski jumper, combined skier, Alpine skier, Olympian and a Home Army soldier, was born on June 18, 1913. Marusarz took part in World Championships seven times, and four times in the Olympics. Relations with Hungary played an important role in Stanislaw Marusarz's life. During the war he trained Hungarian skiers and supervised the construction of a ski jump in that country. He was also a Home Army courier on the Zakopane - Budapest route. During the occupation he became famous for his spectacular escape from a Nazi prison. The circumstances of his death were... exceptional. He died of a heart attack during the funeral of his commander from the courier service and a friend from the occupation period – Waclaw Felczak.

              Stanisław Marusarz was born into a highlander family in Zakopane, then living in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He started his adventure with skis at the age of ten. A year later, he won his first competition, for which he received sports gloves as a prize. In 1927 he took part in a junior competition in Zakopane. At first the judges did not want to let him jump because of his young age. However, the young Stanisław insisted on taking part and eventually got his way. He finished in a high third place and even gave out autographs after the competition. A year later he won that same competition and was hailed as a great talent. He enrolled in the Polish Tatra Society Ski Club and joined a group of the best ski jumpers in Zakopane. At the age of seventeen, he won his first senior competition. He finished in fifteenth place in the Polish Championships held in Nowy Targ. A year down the line he finished in second place. In 1932 he went to Lake Placid in the United States for the Winter Olympics, where he won seventeenth place. At the end of the year, he was voted by readers as one of the top ten athletes of the country in a "Przegląd Sportowy" poll. Further successes in jumping, classic and Norwegian combined disciplines made him one of the most liked and recognizable athletes in Poland. In 1934 he was in fourth place in the annual plebiscite. A year later he broke the world record on a ski jump in Yugoslavia's Planica with the longest successful jump in history with 97 meters. In 1936 he took part in the second Olympic Winter Games in his career. Two years later, Marusarz won the silver medal at the World Championships in the Finnish Lahti and was selected in a poll as the best Polish athlete.

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             The outbreak of World War II put an end to his promising career. When the German army entered Poland, Marusarz was the manager of a tourist hostel on Hala Pyszna in the Kościeliska Valley in the Western Tatras. This place has become a transfer point for Tatra couriers. The ski jumper himself joined the Union for Armed Struggle in October 1939 and began his courier service on the Zakopane - Budapest route. As part of it, he led people across the border and carried conspiratorial materials and money. He was ideal courier material. Not only was he extremely fit and healthy, but he knew the Tatras like no one else. Wacław Felczak organized and supervised his work. The whole Marusarz family joined the fight against the occupant. Stanisław's brother, Jan, served in the Polish Army in the West. One of the sisters - Zofia - was arrested for her activity in the underground and sent to the camp in Ravensbruck, where she survived the war. Another sister, Helena, was not so lucky. While working as a runner, she was caught and then executed (in 1940 near Tarnów). In March 1940 Stanisław Marusarz was detained by the Slovak border guards from the Szczyrbskie Pleso outpost. During the search, he was found to be carrying one hundred thousand zlotys, intended for conspiracy purposes. The Slovaks called the Gestapo, but before the Germans arrived, the ski jumper stunned the soldier guarding him and fled to the forest. Afraid of being arrested, he and his wife decided to get through to Hungary. After the war he recalled in his book "On the Polish and World Ski Jumps": "I couldn't stay in Zakopane for too long. Living under constant threat became too difficult. Arrests continued, and sportsmen were also victims of the Gestapo's increasing terror. Many were sent to prisons and concentration camps. In this situation, me and my wife Irena (we got married in November 1939) decided to fee to Hungary." After crossing the Tatra Mountains and almost all of Slovakia just before the Hungarian border, the couple were caught by Slovak border guards who handed them over to the Gestapo. The Nazis offered him freedom in exchange for taking over the position of coach of the German ski jumping team, but Marusarz refused. He decided to escape during one of the transports between prisons. He jumped out of a moving car, but was quickly caught. In prison he was severely beaten and sentenced to death. He ended up in Kraków's Montelupich prison. He wrote in his memoirs: "SS officers almost constantly beat, prodded, spat at and abused the people crowded in the corridors. Even the slightest sign of opposition threatened to have incalculable consequences. The Nazis would shoot us without a pardon."  After a month of waiting for the sentence, he was transported to the execution site - to the artillery fort in Krzeszowice near Kraków. Together with other prisoners, he was stood along a wall that was dripping with fresh blood. SS officers with rifles ready to shoot stood opposite them. After a while the convicts were given shovels and ordered to dig graves for prisoners from neighbouring cells. After this event, Marusarz decided to escape from custody as soon as possible at all costs. He made friends with NCO of the Polish Army, Aleksander Bugajski. Together, they decided they'd get out through a window, and they would bend the bars with a stool leg. Then the plan was to jump from a second floor, climb over a four-meter wall, jump off it and run zigzagging to avoid being hit by a guard sitting in a guard tower. Preparations for the escape began soon. Bugajski broke the bars and was the first to squeeze through the window. Then the other prisoners from the cell threw rushed at the window. Marusarz was sixth to leave the cell. He landed the two meter long jump in telemark style, like he's done many times before on a ski jump. Approaching the four-metre high wall at a run, he passed a fellow inmate who paid for his jump with a broken leg. He climbed the wall and then got through the barbed wire. Then the shooting began. Only Bugajski and Marusarz, who was hit in the thigh, managed to escape. The other prisoners were shot dead. The ski jumper ran first to a market full of people, then through Wolski Forest along the Vistula. A local fisherman took care of him and fed him. A few days later he got to Zakopane, but because he was wanted he had to leave Poland.

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Prison Montelupich w Krakowie 

 

Marusarz tried to get through to Hungary again. This time successfully. There he lived under an assumed name: Przystalski. In Budapest, he met a friend from pre-war competitions, Gyule Belloni.[1] Thanks to this acquaintance he got a job in the Hungarian Ski Association as a ski jumping and downhill coach, as well as a consultant and a ski jump builder. Marusarz first supervised the construction of a ski jump facility in Košice, then the ski jump in Borsafüred in the Rodna Mountains[2]. During the opening ceremony of the latter facility the Pole was recognized by Sepp Weiler, one of the German ski jumpers. But he didn't give him away to the security service. At the end of the war, in 1945, Marusarz, who was in Budapest, was caught by the Germans and sentenced to death again. When he was led to be executed, an artillery shell exploded in close proximity. In the confusion, the athlete escaped from the site of the planned execution.

After the end of the war, Marusarz returned to Zakopane and took looked after the mountain refuge in Ornak. In 1946 he became the Nordic combined and ski jumping Polish champion. However, soon, officers of the Security Office appeared in his family home and searched for him because he belonged to the Home Army. The athlete was forced to hide for two years. It was only thanks to the positive opinion of the Director of the Management Board of the State Health Resorts of Lower Silesia that he returned to work. In Karpacz he marked out the ski slope and built two ski jumps. One of them, Orlinek, still bears his name. At the same time, true to his oath, he was smuggling people persecuted by the security forces across the border. In 1948 he won another gold medal at the Polish Ski Jumping Championships. He represented Poland at the Winter Olympics in Sankt Moritz (1948) and in Oslo (1952), where he carried the Polish flag at the opening ceremony of the Games. He ended his sporting career in 1957. He became a coach and manager of the Zakopane ski resort team. He led the construction of a medium ski jump and a conversion of Wielka Krokiew. In 1966 he was invited to the opening of the 4-Hills-Tournament in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. He came up with a brave idea to make the opening jump of the competition. In a suit and under a tie Marusarz made a beautiful 66 meter jump. Years down the line he would say: "I had two goals: to make our contestants happy with my jump, and to show the Germans, those who sentenced me to the death penalty, that I'm still alive, that I'm jumping here." He made his last jump in 1979, at the age of sixty-six. Nine years later Wielka Krokiew in Zakopane was named after him. At that time, the seventy-year-old Marusarz was ready to make another jump, but the weather conditions prevented him from doing so.

 

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After the end of the war, Marusarz returned to Zakopane and took looked after the mountain refuge in Ornak. In 1946 he became the Nordic combined and ski jumping Polish champion. However, soon, officers of the Security Office appeared in his family home and searched for him because he belonged to the Home Army. The athlete was forced to hide for two years. It was only thanks to the positive opinion of the Director of the Management Board of the State Health Resorts of Lower Silesia that he returned to work. In Karpacz he marked out the ski slope and built two ski jumps. One of them, Orlinek, still bears his name. At the same time, true to his oath, he was smuggling people persecuted by the security forces across the border. In 1948 he won another gold medal at the Polish Ski Jumping Championships. He represented Poland at the Winter Olympics in Sankt Moritz (1948) and in Oslo (1952), where he carried the Polish flag at the opening ceremony of the Games. He ended his sporting career in 1957. He became a coach and manager of the Zakopane ski resort team. He led the construction of a medium ski jump and a conversion of Wielka Krokiew. In 1966 he was invited to the opening of the 4-Hills-Tournament in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. He came up with a brave idea to make the opening jump of the competition. In a suit and under a tie Marusarz made a beautiful 66 meter jump. Years down the line he would say: "I had two goals: to make our contestants happy with my jump, and to show the Germans, those who sentenced me to the death penalty, that I'm still alive, that I'm jumping here." He made his last jump in 1979, at the age of sixty-six. Nine years later Wielka Krokiew in Zakopane was named after him. At that time, the seventy-year-old Marusarz was ready to make another jump, but the weather conditions prevented him from doing so.

On 29 October 1993, Wacław Felczak's funeral ceremony took place. Among the participants were the founder and leader of the Union of Young Democrats, later Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán. Stanisław Marusarz gave a speech at the funeral of Felczak – his friend and commander from the courier times. At the cemetery in Pęksowy Brzyzek in Zakopane he recalled: "I'm walking over to the Slovakian side, winter, the wind blows, a backpack full of some papers. I'm terribly tired, I'm glad I'm going to get to the hut soon, start a fire and spend the night. As I get close, I stick my head out of the woods and see that there are ski tracks going to the hut. That's bad! But I have to spend the night in the hut to survive. So I unfasten my skis, take out the gun from behind my belt, kick in the door, jump in and scream: "Hände hoch!" And there was Wacek Felczak, asleep, who was going from Budapest to Zakopane. I am sorry Wacek". After these words, Marusarz had a heart attack – he fell onto Akos Engelmayer, the Hungarian ambassador to Poland, present at the ceremony – and died. The death of Stanisław Marusarz had a symbolic dimension. He was buried in the same cemetery as his commander. The funeral participants noticed that during the ceremony, Wielka Krokiew, located one kilometre away was reflected in the glass door of the Holy Cross church.

       

     

In 1998, a documentary film about Marusarz's experiences during the Second World War was made, entitled "Escape from Montelupich". The athlete had been decorated thirteen times, including for his wartime achievements with the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari. On 12 February 2010, President Lech Kaczyński posthumously awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for his outstanding contribution to Poland's independence and sports achievements. The award was received by the athlete's daughters. Primary schools in Wojciechów and Tokarnia, a kindergarten in Miłków and the Sports Excellence School Complex in Zakopane were named after the jumper. Also, since 1989 Wielka Krokiew in Zakopane has been known as the Stanisław Marusarz Ski Jump. In 2001 his star was unveiled in the Sports Stars Avenue in Władysławowo. In August 2013, his son Piotr founded the Stanisław Marusarz Foundation, which aims to promote winter sports among young people, to organize financial support for young athletes and schools that have winter sports in their program and to promote cross country skiing, downhill skiing and ski jumping.

 

 

Michał Kawęcki, urodzony w 1987 roku. Politolog, założyciel i prezes Stowarzyszenia Sympatyków I. Lwowskiego Klubu Sportowego Czarni Lwów. Autor  monografii najstarszego polskiego klubu piłkarskiego

 

Bibliography

Bujak Wojciech, Dziadek w czerwonej czapeczce – o Stanisławie Marusarzu, www.skokipolska.pl

Gawkowski Robert, Sport w II Rzeczpospolitej, Warsaw 2012.

Marusarz Stanisław, Na skoczniach Polski i świata, Warsaw 1974.

Marusarz Stanisław, Skok, który uratował mi życie, Warsaw 1974.

Szatkowski Wojciech, Stanisław Marusarz król nart, Zakopane 1999.