Marshal Józef Piłsudski.
Poland has trembled from border to border: "Marshal Piłsudski is no more!"
For he was the builder and creator of a liberated, independent Poland. For he, as if with a secret magic hand, formed and shaped the country and the foundations of its life. For he was the bold dreamer who, even in the time of Poland's complete oppression, courageously dreamed not only of an independent Poland, but also of a mighty and proud state! With an iron will he achieved his dream and himself lived to see it come true.
The generation that itself lived through the oppression and still remembers its subjugation regards the liberation as a miracle. And from this comes the particular zeal, the particular tenderness for independence. Piłsudski, who personally forged the liberation of the Polish people, zealously and heroically-faithfully watched over his life's work. He subordinated everything to independence and the pride of the state, and when the stormy times of historical transition threatened it, he left all other ideals behind him, not sparing even his finest ideals of youth... because he was the granite that created and sustained Polish steadfastness.
In the fiery era of war, blood and revolt, strong personalities were forged. And although not by inheritance, these individuals, as if by the magic of their personality, won rule and power over millions. Certainly the historical factors that bring forth the bearers and creators of power play no small role here. But of very great importance too is the moral force that leads the heroes out onto the arena of rule. Among heroes, too, there are those who have declined, those who have arrived, and those who have risen. Piłsudski won the trust of his followers because he himself bore on his own skin and lived through, with active deeds, all the stages of the liberation of Poland, and he became for them the living legend of the liberation, because he was above all the great connoisseur of his people, which was mirrored in his soul with all its fine nuances and parts, and was therefore suited to his form and shape.
And whatever dissonances may appear in the rainbow-bright life of a true national hero, the truly heroic personality nevertheless creates its own distinctive moral stability. This stability does not permit lawlessness or wild outbursts, and in our mad time of wild racism and the expression of bestial instincts this stability served as a certain guarantee and protection against the evil spirits of destruction and the annihilation of culture, which now run riot in Europe, and particularly in this country, where the population is strongly differentiated in its national composition.