70 years ago, on 24 February 1953, General August Emil Fieldorf, a.k.a. “Nil”, soldier of the Polish Legions, participant in the struggle for Poland’s independence, professional military officer, founder and head of the Kedyw of the Home Army (AK), was murdered in the communist prison on Rakowiecka Street in Warsaw.
August Emil Fieldorf, who usually used his second name, was born in Kraków on 20 March 1895. His father, Andrzej, was initially a locksmith and then a railway engine driver. His mother, Agnieszka (née Szwanda), raised four children.
Despite his versatile talents, the young Emil was very unruly and caused problems with his upbringing, which resulted in him changing the grammar school he attended. He spent a lot of time playing with his peers, which often ended in fights. At the age of fifteen, he started to work occasionally, initially as a seasonal labourer, and later got a well-paid job in Austrian military warehouses in the Krakow area.
During this time, he was greatly influenced by his close acquaintance with Professor Odon Feliks Bujwid, a well-known bacteriologist and social activist who lived nearby. Fieldorf, who was friends with the scientist’s children, was influenced by this acquaintance and tried to supplement his education himself, while also attending meetings with members of the Fighting Organisation of the Polish Socialist Party. It was also there that he learned about Polish literature and history, which shaped his patriotism.
Crucial to the future general’s future was his entry in December 1912 into the ranks of the “Strzelec” Sports and Gymnastics Association, where he completed a recruit and non-commissioned officer course. The military skills he acquired soon proved extremely useful. After the outbreak of the First World War, Józef Piłsudski ordered a concentration of the organisation’s members in Kraków. He formed them into units, the nucleus of the future Polish army, under Austrian authority. As early as the first days of August 1914, Fieldorf joined their ranks, later being assigned to the First Brigade of the Legions. He took part in most of the battles fought by the squads in which he served. He particularly distinguished himself in the Battle of Hulewicze in August 1916, for which he was awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari in 1923.
In 1917, Emil completed a lower officer’s course. In the same year, as a result of the oath crisis in the Legions, and his subsequent refusal to serve in the Polish Regular Corps, he was conscripted into the Austrian army and sent to the Italian front. In September 1918, he was granted leave of absence and came to his native Kraków. Here, at the end of October, he took part in the disarming of Austrian troops, joining the ranks of the nascent Polish Army.
At the end of December 1918. Fieldorf was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. He soon took command of a machine gun company in the elite 1st Legion Infantry Division. With this unit he liberated Vilnius and took part in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921, including the Kyiv expedition in April 1920, the Battle of Warsaw, and later the Battle of Białystok. For his meritorious service he was promoted to the rank of captain and was twice awarded the Cross of Valour. Taking advantage of a short period of leave, in October 1919 in Vilnius he married Janina Kobylińska, whom he had met a few months earlier there.
After the end of war operations, Fieldorf decided to dedicate his further life to the army. For many years, he was stationed in Vilnius, serving in the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Legions. In 1926, during the May Coup launched by Marshal Józef Piłsudski, he supported his former commander. The fratricidal fighting was a personal tragedy for him.
In 1935, he was transferred to serve in the Border Protection Corps (KOP), taking command of the KOP “Troki” battalion, and later was deputy commander of the KOP “Wilno” regiment. In 1937, he was appointed commander of the 51st Border Rifle Regiment, which was stationed in Brzeżany.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, he and his unit took part in battles against the Germans in September 1939, which unfortunately ended with the regiment’s defeat in the vicinity of Iłża (8-9 September 1939). Following the Soviet Union’s aggression against Poland on 17 September 1939, he decided to break through to France and then Great Britain. Here he was ordered to return to occupied Poland, as an emissary of Commander-in-Chief General Władysław Sikorski.
When he reached Poland in September 1940, he joined the underground, acting in the Headquarters of the Union for Armed Struggle (ZWZ). After the ZWZ was renamed the Home Army, he became commander of Area II of the Home Army Białystok. In November 1942, he was ordered to organise the Directorate of Diversion (Kedyw) of the Home Army. He proved to be an excellent organiser and commander. The units under his command carried out several operations against the Germans, the most spectacular of which was the assassination of the commander of the SS and the police in Warsaw, General Franz Kutschera.
As a skilful organiser, he was soon given a new responsible task, namely to create the structure of the new organisation “NIE” (Independence) in view of the threat of Soviet occupation. In September 1944, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.
After the dissolution of the Home Army in January 1945, he initiated activities to launch underground work by new anti-communist structures. Unfortunately, at the beginning of March 1945, he was accidentally arrested by the Soviet security apparatus – NKVD under the false name of Walenty Gdanicki. He was sent to the gulags deep inside the Soviet Union, where he spent two years, working in deadly conditions. On his return to Poland in autumn 1947, he found his wife, who was living in Łódź. In February 1948, he revealed his true personal details to the communist authorities.
In November 1950, Fieldorf was arrested by security officers. He was taken to Warsaw, where he underwent a brutal investigation. The communists, based on false evidence, accused him of collaborating with the Germans during the occupation and giving orders to the Kedyw AK units to liquidate Soviet partisans and communist activists.
In April 1952, the Provincial Court for the Capital City of Warsaw sentenced him to death. The sentence was carried out by hanging on 24 February 1953. Gen. Fieldorf was one of the highest-ranking officers of the Home Army who was murdered by the communists in Poland.