Franciszek Kawa

Even though Franciszek Kawa came from the now Ukrainian city of Lviv, he joined the Polish Legions at a very early age. Later he served in the Polish Army in the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Soviet wars until 1921. After completing school, he studied at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Technical University of Lviv. In 1925, he became a reserve officer and in World War II served as lieutenant. As a POW he was interned in the officers’ camps in Gross-Born and Woldenberg, where he participated in “Olympic Games” in the Olympic year 1944. After the war, he worked for construction companies in Poland, specializing in heating and ventilation. In 1959 he emigrated to Norway, where he got a job in a company dealing with sanitary installations.

As an athlete, he was a middle distance runner winning the 1.500 m at the 1923 Polish Championship, when he also came second in the 800 m. In 1925 he set a national record for the 1.000 m. As a skier, he was national runner-up in the 50 km in 1930.