Jerzy Zakulski

Jerzy Zakulski

Zakulski, nom de guerre 'Czarny Mecenas'
Born (1911-06-28)June 28, 1911
Wadowice, Congress Poland
Died July 31, 1947(1947-07-31) (aged 36)
Warsaw, Poland

Second lieutenant Jerzy Zakulski (28 June 1911 – 31 July 1947) was an attorney in interwar Poland, and World War II member of the National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, NSZ) in German-occupied Poland. He was sentenced to death and executed by Stalinist officials in Soviet-controlled postwar Poland, on trumped-up charges of being an enemy spy.[1]

A Jewish Holocaust survivor from Kraków, Maria Błeszyńska née Bernstein, attempted to save Zakulski's life in gratitude for his rescue of her and her daughter during the Holocaust in Poland; however, she was unsuccessful. The certified letter she sent to the Regional Military Court in Warsaw was thrown out, along with his plea for presidential mercy.[1]

Biography

Jerzy Zakulski was born to a family of a high-school teacher, Ludwik Zakulski. The Zakulskis settled in Kraków, at St. Kinga Street 7 in the district of Podgórze. Jerzy enrolled at the Jagiellonian University and graduated with a degree in law in 1936. Two years later he passed the bar. On 1 September 1939 Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany. Zakulski was conscripted into the Polish Army with the reserve military rank of Podporucznik (lieutenant) and took part in the September campaign.[1]

After Poland's defeat Zakulski joined the underground Military Organization Lizard Union (Związek Jaszczurczy) due to his prewar contacts in the Organizacja Polska.[1] In the Podgórze district where he lived, on 3 March 1941 the Nazis created Kraków Ghetto on the orders of Gauleiter Hans Frank.[2] Some 15,000 Jews were removed from their homes in the district of Kazimierz – the main spiritual and cultural centre of Kraków Jewry – and crammed into an area of Podgórze previously inhabited by 3,000 people.[2][3]

Just before the liquidation of the Ghetto in the course of the murderous Operation Reinhard in Kraków under Holocaust perpetrator Amon Göth, Maria Błeszyńska Bernstein escaped from there at night with her three-year-old daughter. They were rescued by Jerzy Zakulski.[1] He engaged his whole family in the rescue mission including his father-in-law Jan Bahr, hiding Maria and her child in both households by turns. Eventually, they took them out of the city to a safer place of a cousin Zofia Strycharska in Myślenice. Both Maria and her daughter survived the war and returned to Kraków afterwards. In her letter to the Stalinist military court in Warsaw dated 23 June 1947, Maria, living at 32 Długa street at the time, insisted that the Zakulskis had all risked their lives to save theirs.[1]

Execution

Monument at the Powązki Cemetery featuring the commemorative plaque to Jerzy Zakulski on the mass grave of Cursed soldiers executed in Stalinist Poland in 1945–1956

After the takeover of Kraków by the Red Army, Zakulski continued his clandestine work with the anticommunist Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj,[4] collecting data on the Soviet crime wave and looting of the city.[5] He was betrayed and captured by the security forces a year later along with several others. His trial began on 29 May 1947 in Warsaw and concluded after two weeks on 16 June 1947. Zakulski was sentenced to death and shot in prison on 31 July 1947. Nothing is known about the Jews he saved.[1] The Volume 3 of his court case concerning brutal interrogation by the Department of Ministry of Public Security (Poland),[1][pg.55] headed by Col. Józef Różański, was destroyed.[6]

The Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (National Armed Forces), to which Zakulski belonged, was one of the largest underground organizations of World War II, resisting the Nazis as much as the Soviets. It was wrongfully but purposely accused by the Stalinist officials in postwar Poland of collaborating with the Nazis.[7]

Long after the end of the Soviet domination in Central Europe, the Polish Parliament Sejm passed a bill in 2012 commemorating the 70th anniversary of the creation of Narodowe Siły Zbrojne in 1942, acknowledging its massive contribution to the fight for Poland's sovereignty.[8] The Sejm pointed out that NSZ members became the most obstinate target of repressions and hate propaganda by security apparatus under Stalinism.[9] The crimes attributed to NSZ were made up by the Soviet-installed government with logistical help from the NKVD, which in itself was a criminal organization according to legal definition passed by the Polish Sejm in 1998.[7][10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Wojciech Jerzy Muszynski, IPN Warsaw (March 2009). "Jerzy Zakulski, Czarny Mecenas" (PDF file, direct download 2.82 MB). Biuletyn Nr 3/98. Institute of National Remembrance. pp. 53–56. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  2. 1 2 Krakow-Poland.com, History of the Krakow Ghetto with photographs. (English) Accessed 9 April 2014.
  3. ↑ Jewish Krakow, Krakow Ghetto, complete with gallery of contemporary photographs. (English) Accessed 9 April 2014.
  4. ↑ NSZ. "Jerzy Zakulski". Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (National Armed Forces, NSZ): Introduction. National Armed Forces.com. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  5. ↑ Rita Pagacz-Moczarska (2004). Okupowany Kraków - z prorektorem Andrzejem Chwalbą rozmawia Rita Pagacz-Moczarska [Prof. Andrzej Chwalba talks about the Soviet-occupied Kraków]. Alma Mater, No 4 (in Polish) (Jagiellonian University). Retrieved January 5, 2014. An interview with Andrzej Chwalba, Professor of history at the Jagiellonian University (and its prorector), conducted in Kraków by Rita Pagacz-Moczarska, and published by an online version of the Jagiellonian University's Bulletin Alma Mater. The article concerning World War II history of the city ("Occupied Krakow"), makes references to the fifth volume of History of Krakow entitled "Kraków in the years 1939-1945," see bibliogroup:"Dzieje Krakowa: Kraków w latach 1945-1989" in Google Books (ISBN 83-08-03289-3) written by Chwalba from a historical perspective, also cited in Google scholar.
  6. ↑ Jan Zaryn (Repertorium, 1947). "Zakulski, Jerzy. Kwestionariusz osoby represjonowanej" [Zakulski, Jerzy. The Data Sheet of the Persecuted Person] (PDF file, direct download 24.8 KB). Indeks Represjonowanych w PRL z Powodow Politycznych (in Polish). Institute of National Remembrance. pp. 3 of 3. Retrieved 10 April 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. 1 2 Paweł Wieczorkiewicz (20 Sep 2012), Żołnierze wyklęci (The Cursed soldiers) Polskie Radio. (Polish)
  8. ↑ The Sejm (9 November 2012), Uchwała Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w związku z 70. rocznicą powstania Narodowych Sił Zbrojnych (An Act of Parliament on the 70th Anniversary of the Creation of National Armed Forces) by Marshal of the Sejm Ewa Kopacz. PDF file, direct download 20.0 KB. (Polish)
  9. ↑ Piotr Babinetz, Member of Parliament, Sprawozdanie Komisji Kultury i Środków Przekazu o poselskim projekcie uchwały w związku z 70. rocznicą powstania Narodowych Sił Zbrojnych (Report of the Commission of Culture and Media on the new bill proposal) Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, Kadencja VII, Sprawozdanie Stenograficzne z 25. posiedzenia Sejmu, pp. 123–125. PDF file, direct download 1.07 MB.
  10. ↑ Genowefa Rajman, Zbrodnie komunistyczne w koncepcji polskiego prawa karnego (Communist crimes in Poland's criminal law), Wojskowy Przegląd Prawniczy, Number 1, 2006. (Polish)
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