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Jerzy Zakulski

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Jerzy Zakulski
Zakulski, nom de guerre 'Czarny Mecenas'
Born(1911-06-28)June 28, 1911
Wadowice, Galicia, Austria-Hungary
DiedJuly 31, 1947(1947-07-31) (aged 36)
Mokotów Prison, Warsaw, Polish People's Republic
Cause of deathExecution by shooting

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]

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.[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]

Zakulski was sentenced to death and shot in prison on 31 July 1947.[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]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ a b Krakow-Poland.com, History of the Krakow Ghetto with photographs. Archived 2019-12-03 at the Wayback Machine (in English) Accessed 9 April 2014.
  3. ^ Jewish Krakow, Krakow Ghetto, complete with gallery of contemporary photographs. (in English) Accessed 9 April 2014.
  4. ^ "Jerzy Zakulski". Narodowe Siły Zbrojne: Introduction. National Armed Forces.com. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  5. ^ Rita Pagacz-Moczarska (2004). "Okupowany Kraków - z prorektorem Andrzejem Chwalbą rozmawia Rita Pagacz-Moczarska" [Occupied Kraków - Rita Pagacz-Moczarska talks to Vice-Rector Andrzej Chwalba]. Alma Mater (in Polish) (4). Jagiellonian University. Archived from the original on May 24, 2008. Retrieved January 5, 2014. Note: 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 (1947). "Zakulski, Jerzy. Kwestionariusz osoby represjonowanej" [Zakulski, Jerzy. The Data Sheet of the Persecuted Person] (PDF). Indeks Represjonowanych w PRL z Powodow Politycznych (in Polish). Institute of National Remembrance. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF file, direct download 24.8 KB) on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
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