Fieldorf, August Emil

August Emil Fieldorf ps. "Nil"
(20.3.1895 - 24.2.1953)


Brigadier General of the Polish Army, fighter for independence, commander of the Kedyw AK , deputy commander-in-chief of the Home Army .
He was born on 20.3.1895 in Kraków. In 1910 he joined the Strzelec organization, in which he graduated from the non-commissioned officers' school in 1912.


During the First World War he volunteered for the newly formed 1st Legionary Brigade with which he went to the Russian front. In 1917 he graduated from officer's school.
From 1919 to 1920 he participated in the Polish Army in the Polish-Bolshevik War.
After the war he remained in the army and was gradually promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel . Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, he was appointed commander of the 51st Rifle Regiment.


In September 1939, after his regiment was broken up on the night of 8-9 September in the Battle of Iłża, he fought his way to Kraków in civilian clothes. From there he tried to escape to France, but was captured and interned in Slovakia. After a few weeks he managed to escape and made his way west through Hungary, where he immediately reported to the Polish army.


In France, he attended staff courses and was promoted to colonel in May 1940. In September of that year he was sent back to his homeland.
He served in the Warsaw Union of Armed Struggle ZWZ and from 1941 he worked in Vilna and Bialystok. In August 1942, he was appointed commander of the Kedyw Headquarters of the Home Army. In November of the same year he issued an order to liquidate the Warsaw executioner - Franz Kutschera (you can read the article HERE ) . He remained as commander of the Kedyw until July 1944, when he was appointed deputy commander of the Home Army, Gen. Tadeusz Bora-Komorowski.


Shortly before the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General by order of Commander-in-Chief Kazimierz Sosnkowski and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the NIE organization. This organization was a cadre branch of the Home Army, prepared to operate under the conditions of Soviet occupation.


On March 7, 1945, he was imprisoned under a false name by the NKVD and sent unrecognized to a labor camp in the Urals. After the end of his sentence, he returned to Poland in October 1947 and again stayed in Kraków and Warsaw under a false name.
Under the promise of an amnesty in February 1948, he registered with the local authorities, giving his real name and general rank, yet he was registered under a false name. In 1950, again under his real name, he applied to the Ministry of Defence to resolve his military classification. With confirmation of his military service during the war, he presented himself at the military administration in Lodz, where he was detained by state security when he left on 10 November 1950. He was charged with giving orders to liquidate Soviet partisans by members of the Home Army. Despite torture, Fieldorf refused to cooperate with state security.
During a mock trial on 16.4.1952, General Fieldorf was sentenced to death by hanging - he himself demanded death by shooting. The family's pleas for clemency were rejected and on 24.2.1953 the general was hanged in Warsaw's Mokotow prison. His body was secretly buried in an unknown place.


Brigadier General August Emil Fieldorf ps. "Nil" was a recipient of many high military decorations, among others he was a recipient of the Silver and Gold Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari. In 2006, he received Poland's highest decoration, the Order of the White Eagle.


In 2008, the film "General Nil" was based on the life story of General August Fieldorf.


Source: wikipedia.pl

Symbolic grave of Brigadier General August Emil Fieldorf ps. "Nil" at Military hřbitově Powązki in Warsaw.

Source:
Own photo

Fotografie v uniformě





Zdroj: http://www.zwoje-scrolls.com/zwoje34/text02p.htm