Association of Formers Soldiers of the 5th Infantry Division. Currently, the remains of Walery Sławek are buried in the new spot, while his old tomb remains empty. Reasons Polish writer and air-force pilot Mieczysław Pruszyński, in his book "The Secret of Piłsudski" ("Tajemnica Piłsudskiego") claims that Sławek's suicide was directly linked to the Anglo-Polish military alliance, and British guarantee to Poland, accepted by Józef Beck: "Sławek killed himself after British guarantee to Poland had been announced and accepted. This guarantee was developed into an alliance, which Adolf Hitler saw as casus belli. Sławek was of the opinion that such an alliance, aimed at the Third Reich, would end in a Polish-German war. The war against which Józef Piłsudski had warned until the last days of his life (...) When on April 2 Sławek found out that Beck had left for London, he committed suicide in the evening of the same day. For him, Beck's trip meant the war with Germany and the end of Poland" (Mieczysław Pruszyński, Tajemnica Piłsudskiego, Warszawa 1997). A few hours before his death, Sławek met with a man named Bogdan Podoski, to whom he said: "I know it, I feel that they are leading Poland to destruction, and I do not know how to react against it". In 2004, in a Polish Newsweek article, historian Dariusz Baliszewski wrote that in early spring of 1939, a group of leading Polish political figures, such as General Kazimierz Sosnkowski, former Premier Leon Kozłowski and Kazimierz Puzak, planned a putsch, in which they wanted to get rid of Józef Beck, Ignacy Mościcki and Edward Śmigły-Rydz, whose recent change to anti-German and pro-British policies would lead to the destruction of Poland. Walery Sławek was to be elected new President of Poland, but the plot was revealed, and to avoid embarrassment, Sławek either killed himself or was murdered. Honours and awards Order of the White Eagle Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari Independence Cross with Swords Cross of Valour - four times Order of the Cross of the Eagle, 1st Class (Estonia, 1934) See also Prometheism References External links Włodzimierz Suleja: Walery Sławek. In: Polski słownik biograficzny. 1997–1998. 1879 births 1939 suicides People from Vinnytsia Oblast People from Bratslavsky Uyezd Ruthenian nobility Polish Socialist Party politicians Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government politicians Prime Ministers of Poland Marshals of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic Members of the Sejm of