Born: March 20, 1895, Cracow, Austro-Hungarian partition of Poland (presently Poland)
Died: February 24, 1953 in Warsaw, Poland
Early days. General Fieldorf's ancestors were partially of German origin. He finished men's college of St. Nicholas in Cracow and later the Men's Seminary. In 1910 he joined the Shooters' Union (Strzelec), becoming a full member in 1912 and finished a non-commissioned officer school there.
WWI. In 1914 Fieldorf volunteered for the newly formed 1st Brigade of the Legions. With them he set out to the Russian Front, where he served in the rank of second-in-command of an infantry platoon. In 1916 he was promoted to a sergeant, and in 1917 directed to an officer school. After the oath crisis he was inducted into the Austrian Army and moved to the Italian front. He deserted and in August 1918 volunteered at the Polish Military Organization in his home city of Cracow.
Formation of a New Polish State. From November 1918 he served in the ranks of the Polish Army, initially as a platoon commander, and from March 1919 commanding a heavy machine gun company. During the years 1919-1920 he took part in the Vilnius campaign. After the commencement of the Polish-Bolshevik war as a company commander he participated in liberating Daugavpils, Zhitomir and in the Kyiv expedition. In 1919 he married Janina Kobylinska, with whom he had two daughters: Krystyna and Maria.
Interwar Years. Remaining on active duty after the war, he was promoted in 1928 to Major and transferred to the 1st Infantry Regiment, as a battalion commander. In 1935 Fieldorf was given command of the independent battalion of the Border Protection Corps "Troki". A year later he was promoted to Lt. Colonel. Shortly before the outbreak of World War 2 he was made the commander of the 51st Rifles Regiment on the eastern borderlands of Poland. He commanded the unit during the September 1939 Campaign.
World War II. He fought along the war path of the 12th Infantry Division. After the Division's defeat, in the night of 8-9th September he broke through in civilian dress to his native Cracow. From there he attempted to escape to France, however was stopped on the Slovak border and interned. Several weeks later he fled the internment camp and made it to the West through Hungary, where he joined the newly formed Polish forces in-exile. In France he completed staff courses and was promoted to Colonel in May 1940. In September 1940 he was smuggled back to the now occupied Poland as the first emissary of the forces-in-exile. Initially he operated in the ZWZ (Armed Combat Union) in Warsaw and then, from 1941, in Vilnius and Bialystok. In 1942 he was given command of the Kedyw (Special Forces) of the Home Army, where he served until 1944 when he was promoted to a Deputy of General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski , commander of the entire Home Army. It was by Fieldorf’s order that the infamous SS General Franz Kutschera was assassinated on February 2, 1944 by Grupy Szturmowe of Szare Szeregi. Shortly before the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising he was promoted to Brigadier-General by an order from the Supreme Commander General Kazimierz Sosnkowski. He was also nominated for the command of the NIE Organization, formed from the cadre of the Home Army with the intention of fighting against anticipated future Soviet occupation.
Postwar Years and Death. On March 7, 1945 Fieldorf- who lived under the name Walenty Gdanicki- was arrested by NKVD (which didn’t know his real identity) in Milanowek, Poland . He was sent to a Gulag in the Urals. After serving his penalty he returned to Poland, now irretrievably under firm Communist control. He settled in Biala Podlaska under his assumed name and did not return to conspiratorial activities and eventually settled in Lodz. The Communist government, which was persecuting former fighters loyal to the Government-in-exile, offered them an amnesty in 1948. Not knowing that this was a sham, Fieldorf came out to the authorities. He was arrested in 1950 and placed under investigatory arrest in Warsaw. Later transferred to UB prison on Rakowiecka St. in Warsaw, he refused collaboration with the UB (Security Office), even under torture. He was accused by prosecutor Helena Wolinska of having ordered the shooting of Soviet partisans while serving in the Home Army. After a kangaroo court, with participation of the jurors Michał Szymański and Bolesław Malinowski, he was sentenced to death on 16th April 1952 by the presiding judge Maria Gurowska. Among others implicated in the trial and execution of General Fieldorf are (according to a Solidarity document): Lutoslaw Stypczynski, Zygmunt Krasinski, Wladyslaw Fabiszewski, Mieczyslaw Widaj, Zygmunt Wizelberg (died), Paulina Kern (died), Witold Gatner, Alicja Graff, Gustaw Auscaler (wanted by Interpol), Emil Merz (died), Henryk Podlaski, Ludwik Serkowski, Jozef Rozanski (died), Kazimierz Gorski. An appeal to a higher court failed, and the family's plea for a pardon was denied. The then President Boleslaw Bierut refused clemency. The verdict was carried out by hanging on February 24,1953 in the Mokotow prison in Warsaw. The remains were buried in a to-this-day unknown location. In 1972 a statue was erected on his symbolic grave. In 1989 following the collapse of Communism Fieldorf was rehabilitated.
Medals. Cross of Merit of the Central Lithuanian Army; Cross of Valour (four times) ; Silver Cross of the Order Virtuti Military V Class (1923); Cross of Merit (1929); Independence Cross (1932); Cavalier’s Cross of the Order Polonia Restituta (1937); Order of White Eagle (posthumously (2006).
Search for Justice. General Fieldorf’s daughter, Maria Fieldorf-Czarska, have pushed for the prosecutor being responsible for the murder of her father, Helena Wolinska-Brus (now living in England), being brought to justice in Poland. On December 3, 1999 a military district court ruled that Helena Wolinska be remanded in custody. Wolinska signed Fieldorf's arrest warrant and extended his detention several times, although she was perfectly aware- claim the prosecutors- of his innocence. (A 1956 report issued by the communist authorities concluded that Wolinska had violated the rule of law and was involved in biased 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 claims that Wolinska is an "accessory to a court murder," classified as a Stalinist crime and a crime of genocide, and is punishable by up to ten years in prison. The extradition request was denied by the British Government. Recently (November 2007) a renewed attempt for extradition is made using the fact that Poland is now a member of EU which changes the extradition procedure.
Sources:
Wikipedia (Polish version)
Scotsman: Gerald Warner about extradition
Jewish News Weekly about extradition
Tygodnik Solidarnosc about Fieldorf's murderers (in Polish)
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