On May 5, 1939, Adolf Hitler officially demanded the Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor. A day after Hitler’s speech, the Polish daily "Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny" from Kraków published a letter written by a man from Warsaw named Władysław Bożyczko and also signed by his relatives, the brothers Edward and Leon Lutostański. Bożyczko together with the Lutostański brothers appealed to the Poles, asking them to sacrifice their lives. Also, as early as spring 1937 a man from Katowice, Stanisław Chojecki, had written a letter to Edward Rydz-Śmigły, offering a similar ultimate sacrifice.