He was killed by thugs speaking Polish and dressed in uniforms of the Polish Army – so about the death of the Brig-Gen. Augusta Emil Fieldorf "Nila" said Colonel Stanisław Dąbrowa-Kostka "Dzerzynski", historian of the National Army. These words were made in 2007 during the ceremony of unveiling the general's bust in Krakow. The legendary commander was killed on February 24, 1953.
The bust of the general in the avenue of the large Poles in the park of Dr. Henryk Jordan was dedicated to the chaplain of the AK by Fr Jerzy Pajak. Regarding the commander of Kediv AK, deputy chief of the AK and the commander of the NO organization, he said: “He deserves to be in the pantheon of the most prominent Poles. He deserves as a man of excellent reputation, a husband and father of a loving family, a skilled soldier, a large officer, a large commander and organizer.”
From Sagittarius to Brzeżan
Gen. Brig. August Emil Fieldorf "Nil" was born on 20 March 1895 in Krakow. As a 15-year-old boy, he joined the Krakow firearm Union. In 1912 he became a full associate of this organization. After graduating from her sub-office school on August 6, 1914, he volunteered for the First Brigade of the Polish Legions. With the legionaries he went to the Russian front. In 1916 he was promoted to sergeant, and a year later he was assigned to officer school. Fieldorf traveled with the 1st Brigade throughout the conflict trail, and for his bravery in the battles against the Russians in 1916 under the village of Hulewicze he was awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari.
In 1917, after so-called. oath crisisHe was incorporated into the Austrian army. In the 2nd Brigade of Imperial Rifles he fought on the Italian Front. In August 1918 he joined the Polish Military Organization in Krakow. He served in a branch commanded by Lieutenant Eugeniusz Wyrwiński "Koguta". In November 1918 he became a soldier of the Polish Army. He was incarnate into the 5th Infantry Regiment and took part in the battles of Przemyśl and Lviv with the Ukrainians. In March 1919 he was transferred to the 1st Legion Infantry Regiment. In the Polish-bolshevik War, he commanded the company and participated, among others, in the liberation of Dyneburg and Żytomierz. He was awarded the conflict Cross 4 times: for fighting for Vilnius, at Dyneburg, Białystok and Staworow.
After the Polish-bolshevik War, he remained active. In 1922, Lieutenant Fieldorf was promoted to captain. In 1928, he was promoted to major and appointed as battalion commander in the 1st Legion Infantry Regiment. In 1935, he became commander of the independent border battalion “Troki”, which is part of the “Wilno” Border defender Corps. He served in the rank of lieutenant colonel since 1936.
Prior to the outbreak of planet War II, Colonel August Emil Fieldorf became commander of the 51st Kresov firearm Infantry Regiment, which was stationed in Brzeżany (now a city in Ukraine in the Tarnopolski region). He commanded this unit during the 1939 September campaign. On the night of 8 to 9 September at the conflict of Ilza, his regiment suffered immense losses – 70% of soldiers were killed or injured. Prime Minister Fieldorf had to disband his unit, which was part of the 12th Tarnopolskia Infantry Division.
After the dissolution of the 51st Kresov firearm Infantry Regiment, Colonel Fieldorf attempted to break through to Lviv to take part in defending this city. He failed and yet broke into Krakow. He planned to enter the West, to be created in France Polish Army, however, he was detained at the Slovak border and subsequently interned. He did not make it to Paris until February 1940. After completing his staff officer course on May 3, 1940, he was promoted to Colonel. A period later (under changed personalities as Emil Wielowieyski) he was commissioned by the Polish Ministry of abroad Affairs as diplomatic courier. After the fall of France, Fieldorf sailed to Liverpool on 26 June 1940 and went to London. On 17 July 1940, he departed Liverpool via Cairo, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Yugoslavia and Budapest to Poland. As the first emissary of the Government and Chief Leader sent to Poland from England, he delivered shipments to Polish facilities in Cairo and Budapest. He reached Warsaw on September 6, 1940 and immediately entered into a conspiracy fight. His experience was utilized by Chief Commander General Stefan Grot-Rowecki.
Fake Valentin Gdanicki
In the conspiracy activity, Colonel Fieldorf was known as “Lucy”, “Sylwester”, “Maya”, “Wales”, “Weller” and “Nil”. In the end, he accepted the last nickname he invented, flying a circular road to Poland over the Nile. On a regular basis, he utilized papers issued on Valentny Gdanicki, by the profession of railway worker.
In November 1942, a fresh fighting line of the current Home Army – Diversity Management (Kedyj) was established in place of the Union of Revenge. His first commandant was Colonel Fieldorf. His subordinates from early 1943 to February 1944 conducted hundreds of diversion and sabotage actions. Among another things in March 1943, they returned from German hands Jan Bytnar “Rudy”In June, they derailed a train carrying German soldiers to the front, and On 1 February 1944, they executed the death conviction on SS chief and Police Franz Kutscher.
"Nil" headed Kedyw until July 1944, and was subsequently appointed deputy commander of the AK. On 28 September 1944, he was promoted by Chief Commander-in-Chief General of the Weapons of Kazimierz Sosnkowski to the rank of Brigadier General and received a nomination for the post of Chief Chief of the fresh conspiracy organization independency by code name NO. Fieldorf was assigned to prepare the AK soldiers for action under russian business conditions. On September 29, 1944, Gen. Sosnkowski awarded General "Nila" with the Golden Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari IV class with the justification: "For the full conspiracy work on the most exposed management positions and for the outstanding attitude and willingness to take on the heaviest tasks he has always done". After the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, “Nil” managed to get many civilians out of the capital. The arks marched towards Częstochowa, where they were to establish a fresh Main 4th of the Polish underground. For respective consecutive months, the general tried to establish NO organization in the russian zone. The network of cells of the organization was established mainly in the Podwarszawskie areas: Podkowy Lesna, Milanówka and Brwinów.
From Milanówka to Ural and via Łódź to Mokotów prison
On March 7, 1945, an NKVD appeared at Fieldorf's home in Milanówek. Prior to an unexpected visit, the General managed to throw out any of the dollars he had at his disposal for conspiracy activity. However, an agent found American money. "The possession of abroad currency, especially dollars, was a criminal crime in the eyes of the Soviets. The man is so automatically classified as “speculators”.’ – this is how he described the detention of general historian Norman Davies in the book "The emergence of ‘44". Fieldorfa was arrested and sent to a camp in Rembertów. On March 25, 1945, he was taken to Russia – he was sentenced to 2 and a half years of hard work. Davies briefly described his further destiny as saying: “He had served judgement in respective camps in Ural and in the Kazan district. Thus, for all the years during which Poland was annexed to the communist camp, no 1 knew what had happened to the deputy commander of the National Army “The Bear”. His whereabouts were not known by the NKVD or his comrades from the Home Army, nor by the British who sent him to Poland. General “Nil” simply evaporated.’ On May 5, 1945, the NKVD arrested Janina Fieldorf, the wife of General “Nil”.
Fieldorf – as Valenty Gdanicki – returned to Poland in October 1947. First he stayed in Biała Podlaska and then in Warsaw, Krakow and yet in Łódź, where his wife and daughters lived. His wife urged him to go abroad, but the general refused to leave the country. He decided to usage amnesty to uncover yourself to the fresh authorities. He besides wanted to apply for a pension due to hard surviving conditions. Unfortunately, however, this movement proved fatal – in November 1950, “Nila” was arrested and imprisoned in Rakowiecka Street in Warsaw.
Kulisy of the capture of General Fieldorf described Norman Davies: “He was captured due to the fact that he entrusted his real individual data to the erstwhile 1939 divisional commander, General Gustav Paszkiewicz, in an effort to registry his erstwhile officers. He could not know that Paszkiewicz, an worker of the Ministry of Forestry, from 1944 to 1945 switched to the Communist side and as head (since 1946) of the Provincial safety Committee in Białystok directed actions of furious persecution against the armed underground in Podlasie. As a result, on Piotrkowska Street in Łódź Fieldorfa was put in a car that drove to Warsaw. On 21 November 1950, Lieutenant Colonel Helena Wolińska of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office signed a regulation on further detention of the General."
For Wolińska, the pretext for this decision was Article 86(2) of the Polish Military Penal Code: “He who tries to forcefully change the state of Poland is subject to imprisonment for not little than 5 years or death penalty.” "The list of unwarranted accusations are the most shameful and lying papers you can imagine. No 1 would have been able to prove that Fieldorf was utilizing force against anyone, but the Nazis," Davies stressed.
Hearings and secret trial
Between December 1950 and July 1951, 24 long hearings of “Nil” were held. Most of them were carried out in a prison in Mokotów. The last was led by Deputy Prosecution of the General Prosecutor of Beniamin Wajsblech. "The general did not erstwhile yield to those who tortured and tempted him with flattery. After his final interview [...] Fieldorf stated that he was not guilty of any of the alleged acts," Norman Davies wrote.
A secret trial, or fundamentally a farce of trial against the general, was held on April 16, 1952. After 8 hours of trial, despite the fact that “Nil” did not plead guilty, the Provincial Court of Warsaw sentenced him to death punishment by hanging. The convict was besides forever deprived of all public rights and honours and was ordered to confiscate property. The Judicial Commission was chaired by Maria Gurowska and Fieldorf's defender was Jerzy Mering – both were appointed by the safety services. Wajsblech's deputy prosecutor demanded the death punishment on the basis of Article 1 of the PKWN Decree of 31 August 1944 "about penalties for Nazi-Fascist criminals". The conviction of the lower instance was upheld by the ultimate Court of the Republic of Poland in autumn. The State Council rejected the request of the wife and daughters to pardon. On February 24, 1953, at 3 p.m. in the Warsaw-Mokot prison on Rakowiecka Street, the general was hanged like a common criminal. The body of “Nila” rested in an unknown place. His remains have not yet been recovered. The General's symbolic grave is located on the Military Cemetery in Powązki, Warsaw.
Review process and restoration of hero memory
Four years later, the review process began. The main witness of Władysław Konarski “Mścisław” dismissed the evidence incriminating the accused, declaring that they had been forced. On July 4, 1957, the ultimate Court overturned both judgments handed down on Fieldorfa and ordered the Provincial Court to reconsider the case. On July 4, 1958, the lawyer General dismissed the investigation due to deficiency of evidence of guilt.
Fieldorf was not rehabilitated until 1989. On 7 March, the decision of the lawyer General of the Polish People's Republic of Poland, Józef Żyta changed the formula, which was utilized in 1958 as a justification for the dismissal of the case against the General. It was clear that "August Emil Fieldorf did not commit the alleged act". This change, as Davies stressed, had far-reaching consequences. "On September 1, 1989, a memorial plaque was built on Piotrkowska Street in Łódź, where “Nila” was arrested in 1950. The next 1 was unveiled on 11 November 1989 by the president of Krakow – it was placed on the wall of a home on 32 Lubicz Street. It reads: “In this home was born 20 III 1895 Brig. Gen. August Emil Fieldorf “Nil”. Participants in Legions, 1920 and 1939 wars, organizer and head of Kedyw K.G. Home Army. Convicted innocently, executed 24 II 1953, rehabilitated 1989".
In Krakow, the hometown of General Fieldorfa, 2 another plaques were besides unveiled: in 1988 in the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Loretańska Street, and 20 years later in the building at 22 Topolowa Street, for commemoration of the place where “Nil” was taught from 1901 to 1905. Moreover, in the capital of Małopolska, Gen. August Emil Fieldorf "Nil" is the patron of the National Army Museum, the Nil Military Unit, the street on Krowodrza Górka Settlement and among others, the Mechanical School Complex No. 4.
The first monument to Gen. “Nil” was unveiled in the Dr. Henryk Jordan Kraków Park on the 89th anniversary of Poland's regaining independence. The sculpture was performed by Wojciech Siek
