Emil August Fieldorf
Encyclopedia
Emil August Fieldorf was a Polish
Brigadier General
. He was Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) or AK, after the failure of the Warsaw Uprising
(Oct. 1944 – Jan. 1945). Fieldorf was executed in 1953 by the Communist puppet regime installed by the Soviet Union
in Poland.
origin. He was born 20 March 1895 in Kraków
. There he finished men's college of St. Nicholas and later a seminary
. In 1910 he joined the Polish pro-independence paramilitary organization Riflemen's Association, becoming a full member in 1912. He also finished the school for non-commissioned officer
s.
under Józef Piłsudski. With them he set out for the Russian Front
, where he served in the position of second-in-command of an infantry
platoon
. In 1916 he was promoted to Sergeant
, and in 1917 directed to officer school.
After the oath crisis
he was pressed into the Austrian Army and moved to the Italian front
, which he abandoned to return to Poland. In August 1918 he volunteered at the Polish Military Organisation
in his home city of Kraków.
company. In 1919 and 1920 he took part in the campaign to join the Wilno
region to Poland proper. After the commencement of the Polish-Bolshevik War, as a company commander he participated in liberating Dyneburg
, Żytomierz
and in the 1920 Polish Expedition to Kiev.
Fieldorf married Janina Kobylinska in 1919, with whom he had two daughters, Krystyna and Maria. Remaining on active duty after World War I, he was promoted to Major
and posted to the 1st Polish Infantry Regiment, as a battalion
commander. In 1935 he was given command of the "Troki
" independent battalion of the Border Protection Corps. A year later, he became a Lieutenant Colonel
. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, he was made commander of the 51st Giuseppe Garibaldi
Rifle Regiment within the 12th Infantry Division on the eastern fringes of Poland (Kresy Wschodnie).
, but was stopped on the Slovak
border. He was interned in October 1939, but fled several weeks later from a camp and reached France via Hungary
, where he joined the newly-forming Polish Armed Forces in the West
.
In France he completed staff courses and was promoted to full Colonel
in May 1940. In September of that year, he was smuggled back to occupied Poland as the first emissary of the Polish government-in-exile, under the nom de guerre
"Nil" which he had chosen for himself. His circuitous route back to Poland took him through South Africa, and by air, over Rhodesia, Sudan, and Egypt, then on to Romania, and by train to Poland. His aeroplane's flight-path over Sudan and Egypt followed the Nile, hence his nom de guerre, "Nil" (Nile in Polish). He initially joined the Union of Armed Struggle in Warsaw and from 1941 in Wilno and in Białystok. A year later he was given command of the Kedyw
(special operations executive) of the AK, where he served until February 1944. It was on his order that the infamous SS and Police Leader
Franz Kutschera
was assassinated on February 2, 1944 in Operation Kutschera
by Szare Szeregi
.
Shortly before the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising
on September 28, 1944, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General with an order from the Supreme Commander Kazimierz Sosnkowski
. He became the deputy commander-in-chief of the AK under General Leopold Okulicki
in October 1944. He was also nominated for future command of the NIE Organisation
, which was formed from the cadre of the AK with the intention of resisting the new Polish Stalinist
government.
in the town of Milanówek
. Initially, he was misidentified under the name Walenty Gdanicki and sent to a forced labour camp
in the Ural Mountains
. Released in 1947, he returned to new Poland ruled by the communist government and the increasingly repressive Ministry of Public Security
. He settled in Biała Podlaska under his assumed name and did not return to underground activities. Moving between Warsaw and Kraków, he eventually settled in Łódź.
The Stalinist government, which was persecuting former resistance members loyal to the London
-based government-in-exile, offered an amnesty
to them, in 1948. Not knowing that the amnesty was a sham, Fieldorf outed himself to the authorities. He was then placed under investigatory arrest in Warsaw. In prison he refused to collaborate with the Communist security services, even under torture. General Fieldorf's brutal interrogations were personally supervised by Colonel Józef Różański
.
Fieldorf was accused by prosecutor Helena Wolińska-Brus
of being a "fascist-Hitlerite criminal" and having ordered an execution of Soviet partisans
while serving in the AK. After a kangaroo court
trial, he was sentenced to death on 16 April 1952 by the presiding judge Maria Gurowska. An appeal to a higher court failed, and the family's plea for a pardon was denied by then the Communist leader Bolesław Bierut who refused to grant clemency. The verdict was carried out, by hanging, on 24 February 1953 at 3:00 pm in the infamous Mokotów Prison
in Warsaw.
The Communist Prosecuting Attorney Wiktor Gattner described General Fieldorf's last moments as follows:
I asked the condemned if he had any wishes. Fieldorf responded: - 'Please notify my family'. I stated that his family would be notified [...] The condemned persistently looked straight into my eyes. He stood erect. No one was holding him. He made an appearance of a very strong man. One would almost admire his composure amidst such dramatic events. He neither screamed, nor made any gestures. I said: Carry out [the execution]! The executioner and one of the guards approached the condemned […] I went to see the warden afterwards, and then by my own hand I prepared the protocol of the execution.
General Fieldorf's body was was never returned to his family, and remains buried in an unknown location to this day. In 2009, an article in a British newspaper suggested that Fieldorf was buried in a mass grave in a Warsaw cemetery, together with the remains of 248 other murdered Polish patriots.
In 1958 the prosecutor's office discontinued any further investigations.
In 1972 a statue was erected on his symbolic grave. In 1989, following the collapse of Communist Poland
, Fieldorf was officially rehabilitated. In 2006 President Lech Kaczyński
posthumously awarded him the Order of the White Eagle.
, England until her death in 2008), to be brought to face justice in Poland. Wolińska, a military prosecutor in the 1950s, was accused of aiding in the investigation and trial that resulted in Fieldorf's execution. Wolińska signed Fieldorf's arrest warrant and extended his detention several times, although she was allegedly aware of his innocence. A 1956 report issued by the Communist authorities concluded that Wolińska had violated the rule of law and was involved in mock investigations and show trials that frequently resulted in executions. The charges against her were initiated by the Commission for Investigating Crimes against the Polish Nation
, which claimed that Wolińska was an "accessory to a court murder", classified as a Stalinist crime, and is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The case attracted international attention. Wolińska-Brus died on 26 November 2008.
Speaking about other individuals who have had complicity in the court-sanctioned murder of her father, she said:
I can neither allow the investigation [into the murder] of my father to be closed, nor to allow the following individuals to escape justice: the Deputy Director of Justice at the General Prosecutors' Office, Alicja Graff, the Prosecuting Attorney, Wiktor Gattner, and the Interrogator, Kazimierz Gorski. They could have refused [to take part in my futher's murder]. No one forced them either physically or psychologically [to do it]. I demand that the people who murdered my father be brought to justice [...] I dream of Poland, whose institutions of justice are transparent and worthy of true respect and confidence. These types of institutions ought to be the foundation of a sovereign nation. I would want us, Poles, so much, to be able to choose our own examples to follow, and not those promoted by others.
based on Fieldorf's life premiered in Poland to generally positive reviews. It was directed by Ryszard Bugajski
with Olgierd Łukaszewicz
in the title role.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
. He was Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) or AK, after the failure of the Warsaw Uprising
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
(Oct. 1944 – Jan. 1945). Fieldorf was executed in 1953 by the Communist puppet regime installed by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in Poland.
Biography
General Fieldorf's ancestors were partially of GermanGermans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
origin. He was born 20 March 1895 in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
. There he finished men's college of St. Nicholas and later a seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
. In 1910 he joined the Polish pro-independence paramilitary organization Riflemen's Association, becoming a full member in 1912. He also finished the school for non-commissioned officer
Non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
s.
World War I
On 6 August 1914, Fieldorf volunteered for the newly-formed 1st Brigade of the LegionsPolish Legions in World War I
Polish Legions was the name of Polish armed forces created in August 1914 in Galicia. Thanks to the efforts of KSSN and the Polish members of the Austrian parliament, the unit became an independent formation of the Austro-Hungarian Army...
under Józef Piłsudski. With them he set out for the Russian Front
Eastern Front (World War I)
The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...
, where he served in the position of second-in-command of an infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
platoon
Platoon
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two to four sections or squads and containing 16 to 50 soldiers. Platoons are organized into a company, which typically consists of three, four or five platoons. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer—the...
. In 1916 he was promoted to Sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
, and in 1917 directed to officer school.
After the oath crisis
Oath crisis
The Oath crisis was a World War I political conflict between the Imperial German Army command and the Józef Piłsudski-led Polish Legions.Initially supporting the Central Powers against Imperial Russia, Piłsudski wanted to defeat one of the partitioning powers with the hands of the two remaining...
he was pressed into the Austrian Army and moved to the Italian front
Italian Campaign (World War I)
The Italian campaign refers to a series of battles fought between the armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy, along with their allies, in northern Italy between 1915 and 1918. Italy hoped that by joining the countries of the Triple Entente against the Central Powers it would gain Cisalpine Tyrol , the...
, which he abandoned to return to Poland. In August 1918 he volunteered at the Polish Military Organisation
Polish Military Organisation
Polish Military Organisation, PMO was a secret military organization created by Józef Piłsudski in August 1914, and officially named in November 1914, during World War I. Its tasks were to gather intelligence and sabotage the enemies of the Polish people...
in his home city of Kraków.
Formation of a new Polish state
From November 1918 Fieldorf served in the ranks of the Polish Army in the newly forming Second Republic, initially as a platoon commander, and from March 1919 commanded a heavy machine gunHeavy machine gun
The heavy machine gun or HMG is a larger class of machine gun generally recognized to refer to two separate stages of machine gun development. The term was originally used to refer to the early generation of machine guns which came into widespread use in World War I...
company. In 1919 and 1920 he took part in the campaign to join the Wilno
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
region to Poland proper. After the commencement of the Polish-Bolshevik War, as a company commander he participated in liberating Dyneburg
Daugavpils
Daugavpils is a city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. Daugavpils literally means "Daugava Castle". With a population of over 100,000, it is the second largest city in the country after the capital Riga, which is located some...
, Żytomierz
Zhytomyr
Zhytomyr is a city in the North of the western half of Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Zhytomyr Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Zhytomyr Raion...
and in the 1920 Polish Expedition to Kiev.
Fieldorf married Janina Kobylinska in 1919, with whom he had two daughters, Krystyna and Maria. Remaining on active duty after World War I, he was promoted to Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
and posted to the 1st Polish Infantry Regiment, as a battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
commander. In 1935 he was given command of the "Troki
Trakai
Trakai is a historic city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies 28 km west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Because of its proximity to Vilnius, Trakai is a popular tourist destination. Trakai is the administrative centre of Trakai district municipality. The town covers 11.52 km2 of...
" independent battalion of the Border Protection Corps. A year later, he became a Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, he was made commander of the 51st Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...
Rifle Regiment within the 12th Infantry Division on the eastern fringes of Poland (Kresy Wschodnie).
World War II
Fieldorf commanded his regiment during the Polish September Campaign. After the Division's defeat, on the night of September 8–9, he fled in civilian clothes to his native Kraków. From there he attempted to get to FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, but was stopped on the Slovak
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
border. He was interned in October 1939, but fled several weeks later from a camp and reached France via Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, where he joined the newly-forming Polish Armed Forces in the West
Polish Armed Forces in the West
Polish Armed Forces in the West refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies...
.
In France he completed staff courses and was promoted to full Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
in May 1940. In September of that year, he was smuggled back to occupied Poland as the first emissary of the Polish government-in-exile, under the nom de guerre
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Nil" which he had chosen for himself. His circuitous route back to Poland took him through South Africa, and by air, over Rhodesia, Sudan, and Egypt, then on to Romania, and by train to Poland. His aeroplane's flight-path over Sudan and Egypt followed the Nile, hence his nom de guerre, "Nil" (Nile in Polish). He initially joined the Union of Armed Struggle in Warsaw and from 1941 in Wilno and in Białystok. A year later he was given command of the Kedyw
Kedyw
Kedyw , was an underground movement - Armia Krajowa organization during World War II, which specialized in active and passive sabotage, propaganda and armed action against Nazi German forces and collaborators.-Operations:...
(special operations executive) of the AK, where he served until February 1944. It was on his order that the infamous SS and Police Leader
SS and Police Leader
SS and Police Leader was a title for senior Nazi officials that commanded large units of the SS, of Gestapo and of the regular German police during and prior to World War II.Three levels of subordination were established for bearers of this title:...
Franz Kutschera
Franz Kutschera
Franz Kutschera was an SS General and Gauleiter of Carinthia...
was assassinated on February 2, 1944 in Operation Kutschera
Operation Kutschera
Operation Kutschera was the code name for the successful assassination of Franz Kutschera, SS and Reich's Police Chief in Warsaw, executed on 1 February 1944 by the Polish Resistance fighters of Home Army's Anti-Gestapo unit Agat...
by Szare Szeregi
Szare Szeregi
"Gray Ranks" was a codename for the underground Polish Scouting Association during World War II.The wartime organisation was created on 27 September 1939, actively resisted and fought German occupation in Warsaw until 18 January 1945, and contributed to the resistance operations of the Polish...
.
Shortly before the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
on September 28, 1944, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General with an order from the Supreme Commander Kazimierz Sosnkowski
Kazimierz Sosnkowski
Kazimierz Sosnkowski was a Polish independence fighter, politician and Polish Army general.-Life:Sosnkowski served successively as founder and first commander of Związek Walki Czynnej , chief of staff of the 1st Brigade of the Polish Legions, Polish minister of military affairs, vice-president of...
. He became the deputy commander-in-chief of the AK under General Leopold Okulicki
Leopold Okulicki
General Leopold Okulicki was a General of the Polish Army and the last commander of the anti-German underground Home Army during World War II. He was murdered after the war by the Soviet NKVD....
in October 1944. He was also nominated for future command of the NIE Organisation
NIE (resistance)
NIE, short for Niepodległość , "NIE" means also "NO" in Polish - was a Polish anticommunist resistance organisation formed in 1943 in a case of a Soviet occupation of Poland. Its main goal was the struggle against the Soviet Union after 1944. NIE was one of the most well hidden structures of Armia...
, which was formed from the cadre of the AK with the intention of resisting the new Polish Stalinist
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
government.
Arrests and execution
On 7 March 1945, Fieldorf was arrested by the Soviet NKVDNKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
in the town of Milanówek
Milanówek
Milanówek is a town and a seat of a separate commune in Poland. Located in the Grodzisk Mazowiecki County near Warsaw, it is often considered an outlying suburb of the capital of Poland but is in fact an independent entity administratively and culturally. Milanówek is however part of wider Warsaw...
. Initially, he was misidentified under the name Walenty Gdanicki and sent to a forced labour camp
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
in the Ural Mountains
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
. Released in 1947, he returned to new Poland ruled by the communist government and the increasingly repressive Ministry of Public Security
Ministry of Public Security of Poland
The Ministry of Public Security of Poland was a Polish communist secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage service operating from 1945 to 1954 under Jakub Berman of the Politburo...
. He settled in Biała Podlaska under his assumed name and did not return to underground activities. Moving between Warsaw and Kraków, he eventually settled in Łódź.
The Stalinist government, which was persecuting former resistance members loyal to the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
-based government-in-exile, offered an amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
to them, in 1948. Not knowing that the amnesty was a sham, Fieldorf outed himself to the authorities. He was then placed under investigatory arrest in Warsaw. In prison he refused to collaborate with the Communist security services, even under torture. General Fieldorf's brutal interrogations were personally supervised by Colonel Józef Różański
Józef Rózanski
Józef Różański was a communist in prewar Second Polish Republic, member of the Soviet NKVD and later, colonel of the Stalinist Ministry of Public Security of Poland. Born into a Jewish family in Warsaw, Różański became active in the Communist Party of Poland before World War II...
.
Fieldorf was accused by prosecutor Helena Wolińska-Brus
Helena Wolinska-Brus
Lt. Col. Helena Wolińska-Brus born Fajga Mindla Danielak, was a military prosecutor in Poland with the rank of lieutenant-colonel , involved in Stalinist regime show trials of the 1950s. She has been implicated in the arrest and execution of many Polish anti-Nazi resistance fighters including key...
of being a "fascist-Hitlerite criminal" and having ordered an execution of Soviet partisans
Soviet partisans
The Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II....
while serving in the AK. After a kangaroo court
Kangaroo court
A kangaroo court is "a mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted".The outcome of a trial by kangaroo court is essentially determined in advance, usually for the purpose of ensuring conviction, either by going through the motions of manipulated procedure or...
trial, he was sentenced to death on 16 April 1952 by the presiding judge Maria Gurowska. An appeal to a higher court failed, and the family's plea for a pardon was denied by then the Communist leader Bolesław Bierut who refused to grant clemency. The verdict was carried out, by hanging, on 24 February 1953 at 3:00 pm in the infamous Mokotów Prison
Mokotów Prison
Mokotów Prison is a prison in Warsaw's borough of Mokotów, Poland, located at Rakowiecka 37 street. It was built by the Russians in the final years of the foreign Partitions of Poland...
in Warsaw.
The Communist Prosecuting Attorney Wiktor Gattner described General Fieldorf's last moments as follows:
I asked the condemned if he had any wishes. Fieldorf responded: - 'Please notify my family'. I stated that his family would be notified [...] The condemned persistently looked straight into my eyes. He stood erect. No one was holding him. He made an appearance of a very strong man. One would almost admire his composure amidst such dramatic events. He neither screamed, nor made any gestures. I said: Carry out [the execution]! The executioner and one of the guards approached the condemned […] I went to see the warden afterwards, and then by my own hand I prepared the protocol of the execution.
General Fieldorf's body was was never returned to his family, and remains buried in an unknown location to this day. In 2009, an article in a British newspaper suggested that Fieldorf was buried in a mass grave in a Warsaw cemetery, together with the remains of 248 other murdered Polish patriots.
In 1972 a statue was erected on his symbolic grave. In 1989, following the collapse of Communist Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
, Fieldorf was officially rehabilitated. In 2006 President Lech Kaczyński
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
posthumously awarded him the Order of the White Eagle.
Search for justice
Fieldorf's daughter Maria Fieldorf Czarska called for the prosecutor responsible for the execution of her father, Helena Wolińska-Brus (who lived in OxfordOxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, England until her death in 2008), to be brought to face justice in Poland. Wolińska, a military prosecutor in the 1950s, was accused of aiding in the investigation and trial that resulted in Fieldorf's execution. Wolińska signed Fieldorf's arrest warrant and extended his detention several times, although she was allegedly aware of his innocence. A 1956 report issued by the Communist authorities concluded that Wolińska had violated the rule of law and was involved in mock investigations and show trials that frequently resulted in executions. The charges against her were initiated by the Commission for Investigating Crimes against the Polish Nation
Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...
, which claimed that Wolińska was an "accessory to a court murder", classified as a Stalinist crime, and is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The case attracted international attention. Wolińska-Brus died on 26 November 2008.
Speaking about other individuals who have had complicity in the court-sanctioned murder of her father, she said:
I can neither allow the investigation [into the murder] of my father to be closed, nor to allow the following individuals to escape justice: the Deputy Director of Justice at the General Prosecutors' Office, Alicja Graff, the Prosecuting Attorney, Wiktor Gattner, and the Interrogator, Kazimierz Gorski. They could have refused [to take part in my futher's murder]. No one forced them either physically or psychologically [to do it]. I demand that the people who murdered my father be brought to justice [...] I dream of Poland, whose institutions of justice are transparent and worthy of true respect and confidence. These types of institutions ought to be the foundation of a sovereign nation. I would want us, Poles, so much, to be able to choose our own examples to follow, and not those promoted by others.
Feature film
In (2009) a historical drama movie entitled Generał NilGenerał Nil
Generał Nil is a Polish historical film, based on the life of Emil August Fieldorf. Directed by Ryszard Bugajski, it was released in 2009.- Awards :* Special Jury Award, 43rd WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival...
based on Fieldorf's life premiered in Poland to generally positive reviews. It was directed by Ryszard Bugajski
Ryszard Bugajski
Ryszard Bugajski is a Polish film director and screenwriter. He has directed 23 films and television shows since 1972. His film Interrogation was entered into the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.-Selected filmography:...
with Olgierd Łukaszewicz
Olgierd Łukaszewicz
Olgierd Łukaszewicz is a Polish film actor. He has appeared in over 60 films since his 1969 graduation from the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków...
in the title role.
Honours, Decorations and Citations
- Order of the White Eagle (2006)
- Gold Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari, previously awarded the Silver Cross (1923)
- Cross of IndependenceCross of IndependenceCross of Independence was one of the highest Polish military decorations between World Wars I and II. It was awarded to individuals who had "fought heroically for the independence of Poland," and was released in three versions.- History :...
(1932) - Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1937)
- Cross of Valour - four times
- Gold Cross of Merit (1929)
- Merit Forces Central Lithuania