Witold Wilkosz was born on 14 August 1891 in Kraków to parents Jan , a Polish teacher , and Józefa née Vopalko . He showed a considerable talent for mathematics and languages since early childhood . He passed his final school-leaving '' Matura '' exam at the John III Sobieski High School ( known in Poland as '' Gimnasium '' ) . He was a friend of fellow mathematician Stefan Banach . Before graduating from high school , he had written an article on semitology for which he was offered a scholarship and membership from Morgenländische Gesselchaft Scienctific Society , which enabled him to study at the University of Beirut . After a few months , he returned to Kraków and took up philology studies at the Jagiellonian University . After two years , he decided to change the course to mathematics , which he studied in Kraków and Turin . He received his doctoral degree on the basis of his dissertation on Lebesgue integrals and started to work as an academic teacher at his alma mater . In 1920 , he obtained a habilitation and in 1936 he became a professor . He was arrested on 6 November 1939 by Nazi Germans alongside other prominent intellectuals and professors of Kraków in the infamous '' Sonderaktion Krakau '' . However , due to a serious illness , he was soon released together with nine other professors on 9 November . He returned home and began to work as a teacher . To supplement his income , he accepted another job at the '' Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń Wzajemnych '' insurance company . In the following years , his health seriously deteriorated . He died of pneumonia on 31 March 1941
Sonderaktion Krakau
Sonderaktion Krakau
Witold Wilkosz