Chemist, scientist, university teacher, professor at Riga University of Technology, University of Latvia and University of Warsaw.
Born in Warsaw, he came from a Jewish intelligentsia background: his father, Gabriel Centnerszwer, was a bookseller and writer, while his grandfather, Jakub Centnerszwer, was a mathematician and educator. Following family tradition, he attended secular schools from childhood. After graduating from high school in Warsaw, he moved to Leipzig, where he began studying bibliology, with the goal of eventually managing his father's bookstore. After a year of study, he decided he was sufficiently prepared for this role and decided to focus on his passion, the natural sciences.
While studying biology, he worked in the laboratories of zoologist Rudolf Leuckart and botanist Wilhelm Pfeffer. It soon became clear that his fascination with chemistry had outweighed biology, prompting him to change his major. In 1898, he defended his doctoral thesis on physical chemistry, prepared under the supervision of Wilhelm Ostwald. Two years after earning his doctorate, he married a German woman, Franziska Anna Beck, in Berlin, who converted to Judaism for him.
In the following years, Mieczysław Centnerszwer's academic career developed successfully. From 1917 to 1919, he was a professor at the Riga Polytechnic University, and from 1919 to 1929, a professor at the University of Latvia in Riga. In 1932, he became head of the Department of Physical Chemistry at the University of Warsaw. He was also a member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, and held honorary doctorates from the University of Latvia and the University of Madrid. In 1928, he received the Officer's Order of Academic Palms, a high French state decoration awarded to the most outstanding scientists and university lecturers. He co-authored two patent applications: "A method for obtaining potassium and alkaline metals by electrolysis" (1932) and "A galvanic cell, or alternatively, an electric battery" (1935). He co-authored over 100 scientific publications in Polish, German, Russian, and Latvian; He wrote in "Wszechświat," "Wiedza i Życie," "Gazeta Polska," and "Chemik Polski." He shared socialist views; he was the chairman of the Jewish trade union "Achdut" – "Unity."
After the outbreak of World War II and the establishment of the ghetto, the Centnerszwer family decided to formally divorce so that Francizka could remain with her daughter Jadwiga in the privileged Aryan group. Centnerwszer settled within the ghetto at 5 Ogrodowa Street. He supported himself by lecturing on chemistry and physics to dyer craftsmen and medical personnel at the Juliusz Zweibaum Sanitary Training Courses. Before the Germans launched the so-called Grossaktion, he managed to obtain false documents in the name of Wierzbicki, which he used to cross over to the Aryan side. He was shot by the Gestapo on March 27, 1944, in his ex-wife's apartment in Saska Kępa.
We encourage you to read the article by Professor Halina Lichocka , published as part of the series "Portraits of Scholars. Professors of the University of Warsaw. 1915–1945" [University of Warsaw Publishing House].
