Stefan Rowecki
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Stefan Paweł Rowecki (pseudonym: Grot, hence called Stefan Grot-Rowecki, 1895-1944?) was a Polish general, journalist and the leader of the Armia Krajowa.
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Biography
Stefan Rowecki was born December 25, 1895 in Piotrków Trybunalski. In his home town he was one of the organizers of a secret scouting organization. During World War I he was conscripted to the Austro-Hungarian army and then to the First Brigade of the Polish Legions. He was interned in August 1917 after most of his unit refused to pledge loyalty to the Emperor of Austria. In February 1918 he was released from the internment camp in Beniaminów and joined the Polnische Wehrmacht, and then the Polish Army.
He fought in the Polish-Soviet war (1919-1920) and after the war remained in the army and organized the first military weekly (Przegląd Wojskowy). From 1930-1935 he was the commander of the 55th Infantry Regiment in Leszno. From June 1939 Rowecki organised the Warsaw Armoured-Motorised Brigade (Warszawska Brygada Pancerno-Motorowa). While the unit did not reach full mobilization it did, however, take part in the September Campaign.
After the Polish defeat Rowecki managed to avoid capture and returned to Warsaw and in October 1939 he became one of the leaders, then in 1940 commander, of the Związek Walki Zbrojnej. From 1942 he was commander of the Armia Krajowa (Home Army).
In 1941 Rowecki organised sabotage in the territories east of the pre-war Polish borders Wachlarz. On June 30, 1943 he was arrested by Gestapo in Warsaw and sent to Berlin, where he was questioned by many prominent Nazi officials (Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Heinrich Himmler, Jürgen Stroop and Heinrich Müller). He was offered some sort of an anti-bolshevik alliance, but he refused. He was probably murdered in August 1944 in Sachsenhausen.