BECK, JZEF

born Oct. 4, 1894, Warsaw died June 6, 1944, Stanesti, Rom. Polish army officer and foreign minister from 1932 to 1939, one of Jzef Pilsudski's most trusted confidants, who attempted to maintain friendly relations with both the Soviet Union and Germany while preserving alliances of Poland with France and with Romania. After service against tsarist Russia in World War I, Beck held various posts in the newly restored Poland, becoming Marshal Pilsudski's chef de cabinet in 1926 and foreign minister on Nov. 2, 1932. While maintaining a non-threatening attitude toward the Soviet Union and Germany, he attempted to improve the international position of Poland by strengthening its alliances. After the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Beck gained the disputed Teschen area for his country and on April 6 signed the alliance with Great Britain that was to bring Britain into World War II after the Germans invaded Poland in September of that same year. Upon the German-Soviet partition of Poland, Beck was interned in Romania, where he died in 1944.