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Stefan Rowecki

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Stefan Paweł Rowecki (pseudonym: "Grot", hence the alternate name, Stefan Grot-Rowecki,December 25, 1895 - august 2, 1944) was a Polish general, journalist and the leader of the Armia Krajowa.

Biography

Rowecki was born in Piotrków Trybunalski. In his home town he was one of the organizers of a secret scouting organization. During World War I he was conscripted to the Austro-Hungarian army and then to the First Brigade of the Polish Legions. He was interned in August 1917 after most of his unit had refused to pledge loyalty to the Emperor of Austria. In February 1918 he was released from the internment camp in Beniaminów and joined first the Polnische Wehrmacht, then the Polish Army.

Rowecki fought in the Polish-Soviet war (1919-1920). After the war, he remained in the army and organized the first military weekly periodical (Przegląd Wojskowy). From 1930 to 1935, he commanded the 55th Infantry Regiment in Leszno. From June 1939, Rowecki organised the Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade (Warszawska Brygada Pancerno-Motorowa, 7TP, TKS tanks). While the unit did not reach full mobilization, it did take part in the September Campaign.

After the Polish defeat, Rowecki managed to avoid capture and returned to Warsaw. In October 1939, he became one of the leaders, then in 1940 commander, of the Związek Walki Zbrojnej. From 1942, he was commander of the Armia Krajowa (Home Army).

In 1941 Rowecki organised sabotage in the territories east of the pre-war Polish borders Wachlarz. On June 30, 1943 he was arrested by Gestapo in Warsaw and sent to Berlin, where he was questioned by many prominent Nazi officials (including Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Heinrich Himmler and Heinrich Müller). He was offered an anti-bolshevik alliance, but refused. He was probably murdered in August 1944 in Sachsenhausen.

Rowecki was arrested because of the betrayal by Lieutenant Ludwik Kalkstein ("Hanka"), Major Eugeniusz Swierczewski (“Genes”), and Blanka Kaczorowska (“Sroka”). All of them were members of the Home Army and Gestapo agents. Swierczewski, Kalkstein, and Kaczorowska were sentenced to death for high treason by the Secret War Tribunal of the Polish Secret State. The sentence on Eugeniusz Swierczewski was carried out by troops commanded by Stefan Rys (“Jozef”). They hanged Swierczewski in the basement of the house on Krochmalna 74 street in Warsaw. Kalkstein received protection from the Gestapo and avoided the execution. He fought in a Waffen SS unit during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 under the name Konrad Stark. After the war, he worked in Polish Radio in Szczecin and was later recruited as an agent by Urzad Bezpieczenstwa. In 1982, he immigrated to France. Blanka Kaczorowska also survived the war. Her death sentence was never carried out because she was pregnant. After the war, she worked as a secret agent for Urzad Bezpieczenstwa and later for Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa. She immigrated to France in 1971.

There have been claims that the arrest of Rowecki on Jun 30, 1943 was a result of a wider intelligence operation against the Polish Underground State with the goal of eliminating top commanders and political leaders of the Polish resistance. During the same time period, the Gestapo arrested the commander of NSZ (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne), Colonel Ignacy Oziewicz who was arrested on Jun 9, 1943. On July 4, 1943, General Władysław Sikorski died in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances. Within a period of two months, the Polish Army had lost three top commanders.

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Last updated on Wednesday January 09, 2008 at 11:20:54 PST (GMT -0800)
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