Piotr Śmietański

Piotr Śmietański
Piotr Śmietański
Piotr Śmietański [1]
Born(1899-06-27)27 June 1899
Zawady, Poland
Died23 February 1950(1950-02-23) (aged 50)
CitizenshipPolish
OccupationExecutioner
Known forservice in Ministry of Public Security

Piotr Śmietański (27 June 1899 – 23 February 1950)[2][3] was a Polish non-commissioned officer and communist functionary in the Ministry of Public Security and executioner at Mokotów Prison.[4]

Śmietański was stationed at the Mokotów Prison in the Warsaw borough of Mokotów (Polish: Więzienie mokotowskie) known also as Rakowiecka Prison located at 37 Rakowiecka Street. From World War II until the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989, Mokotów Prison—where Śmietański conducted his deeds—was a place of detention, torture and execution of the Polish anti-communist opposition.[4]

Biography

Śmietański's grave in the Bródno Cemetery, Warsaw

Śmietański was born in Zawady to an ethnic Polish working-class family.[2]

Śmietański joined the Communist Party of Poland in 1923, using the pseudonym Mojżesz (Moses).[5]

Śmietański — nicknamed by the inmates as the "Butcher of the Mokotow Prison" — executed personally and supervised the executions of hundreds of opponents of the Stalinist regime in the Polish People's Republic. Among them were prominent politicians, social activists and Polish underground fighters, including Lieutenants Jerzy Miatkowski, Tadeusz Pelak, Edmund Tudruj, Arkadiusz Wasilewski, Roman Gronski, Captain Stanislaw Lukasik, Commandant Hieronim Dekutowski (killed by Śmietański in one day, on 7 March 1949).[6] and Adam Doboszyński (29 August). Those executed after Śmietański's apparent death in 1950 include Major Zygmunt Szendzielarz, Lieutenants Henryk Borowski, Antoni Olechnowicz, Lucjan Minkiewicz (8 February 1951), Captain Stanisław Sojczyński, Lieutenant Antoni Wodyński from AK, and countless others,[7] including victims of the notorious 1 March, 1951 Mokotów Prison execution, who were given five consecutive death sentences each.[8] As a humiliation, Brigadier General Emil August Fieldorf was hanged rather than shot. [6][9][10]

Certificate of Pilecki's execution signed by Śmietański (bottom, illegible), 25 May 1948 at the Mokotów Prison

The head of the Mokotów Prison, Alojzy Grabicki, was sometimes present at the executions.[10] The victims' dead bodies—often undressed and placed in empty cement bags—were wheeled out at night and buried in unmarked graves, leveled out afterwards in the vicinity of different Warsaw cemeteries: in Służew (till mid 1948), the Mokotów and the Powązki cemeteries, or in open fields, in around Pole Mokotowskie, Kabacki forest and Okęcie.[9]

On 25 May 1948,[4][11] Śmietański personally executed Witold Pilecki,[12] the founder of the Secret Polish Army and prominent member of the Armia Krajowa, famous for his daring mission to the Auschwitz concentration camp.[13][14] Śmietański is believed to have been paid 1,000 Polish złoty for each execution he carried out, a substantial amount of money under Stalinism.

According to historians Szymon Hermański and Tomasz Wróblewski, some pieces in Nasz Dziennik and Najwyższy Czas! falsely claimed he had emigrated to Israel in 1968, that he was born in the 1920s, was purposefully not listed in the population registry, and was possibly still alive in Israel. However he died from tuberculosis in the Korczak sanatorium on 23 February 1950 and was buried in Bródno Cemetery 4 days later.[15]

Historian Jacek Pawłowicz from IPN in his 2008 book about Pilecki claimed that Śmietański died of tuberculosis at the age of 50 in the year of his last known Mokotów executions.[3]

Śmietański is buried in section 8H, row 1, grave 4 at the Bródno Cemetery in Warsaw, together with his wife Eufemia (1899-1976) and daughter Zdzislawa Szablewksa (1933-1996).

Notes and references

  1. ^ Photograph of Piotr Śmietański was first published in photo anthology by Jacek Pawłowicz, Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki 1901–1948, published by Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, 2008–2009, Warsaw, ISBN 978-83-60464-97-7. Press release. (in Polish)
  2. ^ a b Polish Office of Births and Deaths (2011). "Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej". katalog.bip.ipn.gov.pl. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
  3. ^ a b Piotr Śmietański: Dane osoby z katalogu funkcjonariuszy aparatu bezpieczeństwa. Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej, 2007 Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Komisja Scigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu. Source: J. Pawłowicz, Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki 1901-1948, Warsaw 2008, p. 26, 265. (in Polish)
  4. ^ a b c Tadeusz M. Płużański, "Strzał w tył głowy." Archived 11 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine Publicystyka Antysocjalistycznego Mazowsza. 2010.
  5. ^ Hermański & Wróblewski 2012, Kat z Mokotowa, p. 512 (3 in PDF).
  6. ^ a b Józefa Huchlowa, Zrzeszenie "Wolność i Niezawisłość" w dokumentach, Zarzad Główny WiN, 2000, 420 pages. ISBN 83-902803-7-X. Page 407. (in Polish)
  7. ^ The Doomed Soldiers. Polish Underground Soldiers 1944-1963 - The Untold Story. DoomedSoldiers.com
  8. ^ The Doomed Soldiers. An Account of interrogation methods. Polish Underground Soldiers 1944-1963. The Untold Story. DoomedSoldiers.com (in English and Polish)
  9. ^ a b Płużański, Tadeusz M. (27 May 2004). "Strzał w tył głowy". Publicystyka Antysocjalistycznego Mazowsza. Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2012. Pluton egzekucyjny to był jeden funkcjonariusz UB [etatowy morderca, starszy sierżant Piotr Śmietański, sądząc z podpisów na protokołach wykonania KS - ledwo piśmienny - red.].
  10. ^ a b Małgorzata Szejnert, Śród żywych duchów, Aneks Publishers, London, 1990, 261 pages. ISBN 0-906601-81-9. Page 63. (in Polish)
  11. ^ Kon Piekarski, Escaping Hell: The Story of a Polish Underground Officer, Dundurn Press, 1989, 254 pages. ISBN 1-55002-071-4. Page 249. Google Books.
  12. ^ Stéphane Courtois, Mark Kramer, Livre noir du Communisme: crimes, terreur, répression. The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, Harvard University Press, 1999, 858 pages. ISBN 0-674-07608-7. Page 379.
  13. ^ Piekarski 1990, p. 249
  14. ^ Wyman 1976, p. 1148
  15. ^ Hermański & Wróblewski 2012, Kat z Mokotowa, p. 522 (13 in PDF).

Further reading