social activist
He was born on 25th January 1879 in Królewska Huta. After finishing his education, he worked as a miner in the “Król” mine (Prinz Karl von Hessen, Königsgrube). He married Maria Lubojańska. In 1897 he was a co-founder of Saint Stanisław Kostka Youth Society of which he became a secretary. Three years later in 1900 after having left Social Circle in Królewska Huta, he opened the Polish-Catholic Casino with his friends which took up propagating Polishness by organising cultural and patriotic events as well as running a library. He was a member of the board of “Sokół” nest to which his wife and her sister Julia belonged as well. He took an active part in the Miners’ Union of Polish Professional Association, he was a chairperson of ZPP in Królewska Huta. In December 1902 his son Paweł Mikołaj was born, later he was a social activist and a long-term member of Parliament. In 1910 due to taking the role of the secretary of Gliwice–Zabrze district, Paweł Dubiel moved to Zabrze and with time he became the vice-chairman of the miners’ unit ZPP and the member of the board of Upper Silesia ZPP. His activities were the reason for harassing him by the German authorities, in 1913 he was in court for organising “ Święta pieśni polskiej”.
After the outbreak of the First World War, he was called up and from July 1915 he served with Konstanty Wolny in the Prussian Army in the field hospital for horses in Biała Podlaska. After the end of the war and coming back to Zabrze he continued his pro-Polish activity. Grandfather stayed in Zabrze after being co-opted onto Arbeiter und Soldatenrant [Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council] and he was chosen a vice-chairman of Polish People’s Council. In his flat the outstanding leaders: Wojciech Korfanty, Józef Rymer, Wojciech Sosiński, Adolf Ligoń visited him and conferred – his great grandson Paweł recalled.
During the Polish Seym of the District of the former Prussian Poland in December 1918, he was chosen a representative of Opole Regency in the Supreme People’s Council in Poznań. He still worked in Polish Vocational Union, later he also became a member of Supreme National Council of Worker’s Party. In the Polish Plebiscite Committee in Bytom he became a section leader in the Trade Union and he took over the Faculty of Socio-Political.
After the annexation of Upper Silesia into Poland in 1922, Paweł Dubiel, because of the attacks from the Germans, moved to Królewska Huta where he worked as a manager of “Zjednoczenie” Consumers’ Co-operative. After an unsuccessful attempt to become a senator of Republic of Poland on behalf of the National Workers’ Party, he became a member of Silesian Voivodeship Council. In March 1927 he was chosen a vice mayor, and then a vice president of the city which changed its name to Chorzów in 1934. In May 1939 he retired.
At the beginning of April 1940 his younger son – Józef Dubiel was arrested by the Germans, and on 22nd May 1940 he and his older son, also Paweł, were arrested. First they were kept in Chorzów, and then transported to the Dachau concentration camp. His daughter-in-law and the wife of the former president of Chorzów – Wincent Spaltenstein (who was also sent to Dachau) undertook an intervention to release the detained members of both families. The intervention was a success, first Wincenty Spaltenstein was released from the camp, then Paweł Dubiel’s sons – Józef and Paweł. Unfortunately Paweł Dubiel senior was not released, he was killed with a phenol injection in the Dachau camp on 5th August 1940.