On the evening of 1 March 1951, in a prison on Rakowiecka Street in Warsaw, the communists carried out death sentences on seven members of the Fourth Executive Board of the Freedom and Independence Association (WiN), headed by Colonel Łukasz Ciepliński “Plough”. Among those murdered was also Major Adam Lazarowicz “Buckle” – a participant in the struggle to regain independence, a teacher, an officer of the Polish Army, the Home Army (AK) and the independence underground.
Adam Lazarowicz was born on 14 October 1902 in Berezovica Mała near Zbarazh (today’s Ukraine). He came from an intellectual and patriotic family. In 1919, he interrupted his education and joined the army, taking part in the fight against the Ukrainians in Volhynia. After they had finished, he returned to school, but had to leave it to enlist again as a volunteer in the army. This time he took part in the Polish-Bolshevik war in 1920. He was wounded in fighting in the Ostrołęka region.
After the war, he began studying history at Jagiellonian University. He and his wife began their careers as teachers in schools near Kraków. At the same time, in 1931, he graduated from a reserve officer cadet school and was promoted to the first officer rank. In the 1930s, the Lazarowicz family and their three children settled in Gumniska near Dębica, where Adam became principal of the local school.
When the Second World War broke out, he took part in the war effort in 1939. He managed to escape both German and Soviet captivity. After returning to his family home, he joined the nascent underground, adopting the pseudonym “Buckle”. He became commander of the Home Army district in Dębica. One of the achievements of the unit under his leadership was the uncovering of a German training ground in the village of Blizna, near Dębica, where the Germans were conducting experiments with V-1 and V-2 weapons. In the summer of 1944, he took part in Operation Tempest. After the entry of the Soviets and the installation of native communist rule, Lazarowicz, like many other Home Army soldiers, remained in the underground.
In December 1946, he became the deputy of Colonel Łukasz Ciepliński “Plough”, the chairman of the 4th WiN Main Board. He served in this capacity until his arrest on 5 December 1947. He was imprisoned in a prison in Warsaw, where he underwent a long and brutal investigation conducted by communist security officers, which ended with a trial in which he was sentenced to death on 14 October 1950. He was executed together with the other members of the WiN Board IV on 1 March 1951.