Karol Wojtyła senior

Much about the character of Karol Wojtyla senior is told in military documents. They paint a picture of an honest, reliable and competent man who enjoyed the respect and affection of his colleagues. It was not only his colleagues who had such a good opinion of him. His son's friends also held him in high esteem. Eugeniusz Mróz remembered him as follows: ‘He was a wonderful man and I think that the main merit that Lolek was just like that is the merit of the father, that he raised his son so wonderfully (...). He was his father and his friend (...). When I would come to Lolek's place, I would often see my father (...) girded with an apron, washing the dishes, cleaning the flat, because father made breakfast and supper for both of them by himself’. Another colleague added that Karol's best qualities were inherited from his father. Besides, the Pope himself emphasised that his dad was a role model and an authority for him.

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Looking through archive photographs of the Wojtyła family, the father can most often be seen posing in his uniform - first Austrian, then that of the 12th infantry regiment - and wearing his characteristic glasses, known as cwikierami. He was a tall and slim man with a gentle expression on his face adorned with a moustache. He was characterised by calmness, composure and a kind of rigidity in his behaviour. However, it is worth mentioning that it was often emphasised that, on closer acquaintance, he turned out to be an exceptionally kind and warm man. And although he ended his military career with the rank of lieutenant, he was commonly addressed as ‘Mr Captain’.

Karol Wojtyła senior accompanied his youngest son, replacing his mother and elder brother. He himself passed away in February 1941 in Krakow, where he and Karol had lived for a year before the outbreak of the Second World War.