Franciszek Dusik (pseud. „Powstań”) was born in 1919 in Bielany near Kęty.
During the occupation, at the turn of 1939 and 1940, he joined the Home Army’s Union of Armed Struggle and in 1941, he joined the Peasants’ Battalions. After the consolidation of the armed underground, he became a soldier of the „Sosienki” Home Army Division and was promoted to the rank of ensign (standard bearer). Many residents of his hometown joined the underground activities.
He helped KL Auschwitz prisoners, primarily by supplying them with food. To this end, among other methods, he used falsified food ration cards. He also took part in organising escapes from the camp. He led escapees to safe places and provided them with clothing and fake documents.
He and Konstanty Jagiełło (a camp fugitive who joined the struggle after his escape) helped a Soviet pilot who had been shot down near Libiąż in 1944.
On 27 October 1944, together with his uncle Julian and his daughter Wanda, he was arrested after having been betrayed. He was first incarcerated at the Gestapo prison in Oświęcim, then in the „Death Block” at KL Auschwitz, where he was subjected to a cruel interrogation. He was held in the camp until the evacuation that began on 18 January 1945. He managed to escape during the evacuation, and despite being shot, wounded, and extremely exhausted, he survived to see the arrival of the Red Army thanks to the help he received from Brzeszcze locals.
After the war, he was decorated for his underground activities with the Sphinx Cross of the Interallied Military Organization, the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Oświęcim Cross.
He died in 1972 and is buried at the cemetery in Kęty.
Photograph: Collection of Remembrance Museum of Land of Oświęcim Residents / private archive of Barbara Brzuska