Jan Stanisław Jankowski
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Jan Stanisław Jankowski (aliases: Doktor, Jan, Klonowski, Sobolewski, Soból) (born May 6, 1882 in Krasowo Wielkie , Gmina Nowe Piekuty , Podlaskie Voivodeship , Poland ; † March 13, 1953 in Vladimir , Russia ) was a Polish chemical engineer , activists of the labor party (SP) and politicians .
Life
education
Jankowski attended high school in Piotrków Trybunalski . He then studied physics and mathematics at the University of Warsaw and then chemistry at the Warsaw University of Technology . In 1906 he moved to the German Technical University in Prague , where he graduated as an engineer in 1908. From 1909 to 1912 he completed an agricultural education at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow . There he worked as an assistant in the Department of Agricultural Science.
Social Commitment
Historical background
The work of Jankowski can only be understood against the background of the situation in Poland during these years. Since the third partition of Poland , Poland no longer existed as an independent, closed state structure. The country of Poland was completely divided between Austria, Prussia and Russia. The Polish people did not accept this division of their homeland, but continued to fight for the restoration of Poland as an independent, independent state. The three strongest personalities and parties in this fight were:
- Józef Piłsudski (1867–1935), Polish Socialist Party ( Polska Partia Socjalistyczna , PPS), goal: an independent Poland including the areas annexed by the Russians (the red-brown and light-brown areas), a multinational and multiconfessional federal state. Socialist concerns such as: minimum wages, 8-hour days, nationalization of means of production, means of transport, land. Means of achieving the goals: raids on banks and mail trains, armed struggle, dictatorship.
- Roman Dmowski (1864–1939), National Democracy ( Narodowa Demokracja , ND, SND), goal: a Greater Slavic Empire under Russian domination, territorial borders of Poland in the east, the Curzon line , d. H. the Polish language border in the east, in the west an empire expanded to include Silesia and East Prussia (the red-brown and pink areas). He was an active anti-Semite. After the October Revolution in Russia, he abandoned his pro-Russian Pan-Slavism and now advocated a nationally homogeneous and monoconfessional Catholic Polish state. Dmowski was a bitter enemy of Piłsudski.
- Wincenty Witos (1874–1945), Polish Peasant Party ( Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe , Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe Piast , first SL, later PSL), goal: an independent Poland that was equally independent of Germany and Russia, Christian-oriented democracy, cautious land reforms.
All three operated mainly in Austria, especially in Krakow, because there was the greatest freedom for their activities.
Until the 2nd Polish Republic
During his studies Jankowski became a member of the conspiratorial youth organization Związek Młodzieży Polskiej “Zet”. He also became a member of the Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne (SND) party.
In 1901 and 1902 he participated in the establishment of a workers' youth organization Związek Młodzieży Robotniczej . He united the young workers and the young craftsmen in the national youth organization Jan Kiliński . This youth organization was active in the Warsaw Underground from 1901 to 1906. Their aim was to combat the Russification of Poland.
He also founded the National Workers 'Association ( Narodowy Związek Robotniczy , NZR), a national Christian workers' party that was active from 1905 to 1920.
In 1908 he became a member of the People's League ( Liga Narodowa , LN). The Liga Narodowa was a conspiratorial association that existed from 1893 to 1928 and fought for Poland's independence.
Jankowski was one of the founders of Frondy ND . This was an organization that turned more and more away from National Democracy ( Narodowa Demokracja , ND). The ND took over the Pan-Slavist ideas of Roman Dmowski , who aspired to a Russian-dominated Slavic empire. Jankowski, on the other hand, represented Poland's independence from Russia.
Threatened with arrest, Jankowski went to Krakow in 1909, which was under Austrian rule and offered greater freedom of political activity. In Krakow he was from 1912 to 1914 representative of the NZR and co-organizer of the Polish military union.
During the First World War , Jankowski served in the Pierwsza Kompania Kadrowa (1st Elite Company ) of Piłsudski in 1914 and in 1915 in the 1st Regiment of the Polish Legions of Uhlans ( 1 Pułk Ułanów Legionów Polskich ).
In 1915 he represented the NZR in the National Central Committee ( Centralny Komitet Narodowy , CKN). This Central Committee was founded in 1915 and was an association of groups fighting for Polish independence, including the PPS and PSL.
2. Polish Republic
In 1918 the Second Polish Republic was founded.
Jankowski worked from 1919 to 1921 in the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property. In 1921 he became Minister of Labor and Social Affairs in the government of Wincenty Witos. In 1925 he became State Secretary in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
After Józef Piłsudski had seized power by a coup d'état in 1926, Jankowski worked at the Social Insurance Institute. From 1926 to 1936 he was vice president of the Polish employers' liability insurance association. For the NPR he was a member of the Sejm from 1928 to 1935 and a city councilor for the capital Warsaw from 1927 to 1934.
In 1920 Jankowski was a co-founder of the National Workers' Party ( Narodowa Partia Robotnicza , NPR), where he held various leadership positions. In 1935 he left the NPR because of a dispute with Karol Popiel. In 1937 he joined the Workers' Party ( Stronnictwo Pracy , SP), which was created in the same year as an association of NPR with the Christian Democracy ( Chrześcijańską Demokracją , ChD).
1939 to 1944
In 1939 the Second World War began with the German invasion of Poland . A Polish government-in-exile was formed , initially in Paris , later in Angers , and from 1940 in London . This government in exile was represented in Poland by the Polish Underground State and the Polish Home Army . A government agency in the country ( Delegatura Rządu na Kraj ) was formed, which “doubled” the institutions of the occupying powers through parallel Polish institutions that followed Polish law.
Jankowski joined the Polish underground. He was a member of the leadership of the SP underground. From 1941 he was director of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the government agency in the country. In addition, until 1943 he was a member of a three-member advisory board of the commissioner of the capital Warsaw. In addition, Jankowski worked for the 6th Information and Propaganda Office of the ZWZ-AK headquarters (ZWZ = Związek Walki Zbrojnej = Association of the Armed Struggle, AK = Armia Krajowa = Polish Home Army).
From 1942 Jankowski was the deputy delegate of the government representative in the country for Jan Piekałkiewicz . When he was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 , Jankowski took his place. From 1944 he held the post of Deputy Prime Minister of the government in the country.
Warsaw Uprising
The Germans as well as the Soviets murdered tens of thousands of political, military and intellectual Polish leaders in the Polish territories they occupied in order to secure their respective power in these areas. The Polish Home Army fought together with the Red Army against the German Wehrmacht . But wherever these two armies successfully liberated Polish cities from the Germans, the Polish soldiers were subsequently disarmed by the Soviets and the Polish officers imprisoned, partly deported and partly murdered. The deportation of Poles to the Soviet Union was directed by General Ivan Alexandrowitsch Serow , commander of the NKVD in Poland. Therefore, when the German army withdrew, the Poles endeavored to gain power over the areas that had become free before the Soviets. But in view of the great German and Soviet superiority, that was a hopeless undertaking.
In July 1944, Red Army units under Marshal Konstantin Konstantinowitsch Rokossowski were already in the vicinity of the Vistula. Rokossovsky had an operation plan that called for the capture of Warsaw on August 10, 1944. However, he was prevented from carrying out this plan by Josef Stalin and was ordered to wait.
In July 1944, Jankowski received permission from Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk, who was sitting in London, to proclaim the start of the Warsaw Uprising . Jankowski should choose the time for this himself. On July 31, 1944, Jankowski and General Tadeusz Komorowski decided to start the Warsaw Uprising on August 1, 1944. Commander in chief was the commander Antoni Chruściel . After initial successes on the Polish side, the Germans gained the upper hand and, on Heinrich Himmler's orders, murdered a large part of the civilian population of Warsaw, including women, children and the elderly.
“Then Reinefarth drew my attention to Himmler's clear order. The first thing he told me was that no prisoners should be taken and that every inhabitant of Warsaw should be killed. I asked: women and children too? To which he replied: Yes, women and children too. "
Part of the civilian population was deported to the 121 Pruszków transit camp. In addition, the Germans almost completely destroyed the city of Warsaw .
End of the Warsaw Uprising until arrest in 1945
After the Warsaw Uprising was over, Jankowski came to Pruszków with Kazimierz Moczarski and a few civilians . Here he continued his underground activity.
In January 1945, attempts were made by the London government in exile to negotiate with the Soviets about the participation of representatives of the government in exile in the future Polish government. Jankowski was authorized to conduct these negotiations.
As a result of the occupation of ever larger areas of Poland by the Soviets, the tasks of the Home Army changed. Leopold Okulicki was appointed its commander by the London government in exile in December 1944. On November 22, 1944, Jankowski and Okulicki received instructions from Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk from London to convert the Home Army into a top secret organization that was supposed to protect the population against acts of violence by the Red Army. General Leopold Okulicki announced his last order as Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army on January 19, 1945, officially dissolving the Home Army and releasing its soldiers from the oath. With that, the Home Army went underground. It was directed by General August Emil Fieldorf . But as early as March 3, 1945, Jankowski reported to London that the Home Army had been completely infiltrated by the NKVD, which was evident in house searches and mass arrests of its members. In view of this situation, Jankowski pleaded that only representatives of the top management should go to talks.
Process of Sixteen
At the Yalta Conference in February 1945 it was decided to replace the Stalin-loyal Provisional Polish Government with a "Government of National Unity", which should be obliged to "hold free elections on the basis of universal suffrage and secret ballot". This government should be placed on a broader basis and include democratic leaders from among the Polish government in exile .
In March 1945 Stanisław Mierzwa , Kazimierz Bagiński and Adam Bień were members of a delegation of the Polish People's Party (SL), which was supposed to lead negotiations with the Soviets on the formation of a "government of national unity". Wincenty Witos, who lived in Piotrków Trybunalski , knew about this company and agreed to it. The three other parties ( Polish Socialist Party , National Party (SN), Party of Labor (SP)) also appointed delegates for such negotiations.
However, Stalin was not interested in other parties participating in the Polish government. Rather, his plan was to eliminate the entire Polish political leadership that was not loyal to Stalin. He subsequently implemented this plan very skilfully.
On March 18 and 20, 1945, the delegates from SL, SP and SN negotiated with a Soviet Colonel Pimienow in a villa in Pruszków near Warsaw . At these meetings they were treated so kindly and courteously by the Soviets that they felt optimistic. This led them to persuade the actual leaders of the underground government, Leopold Okulicki , Jankowski and Kazimierz Pużak , to take part in the negotiations. They suspected a Russian trap, but finally gave in.
On March 27 and 28, 1945, the sixteen Polish delegates attended the negotiations. They were all kidnapped by the Soviets, brought by plane to Moscow, where the NKVD -Gefängnis Lubyanka imprisoned. In the Sixteen Trials , they were sentenced to prison terms on June 21, 1945. Jankowski received 8 years in prison. All three executives, Okulicki, Jankowski and Pużak, were murdered by the Soviets in prison in the following years. Jankowski was murdered in Włodzimierz nad Klaźma two weeks before the end of his sentence. The place of his burial is unknown. The already weak and half-hearted protest by the Western powers, brought forward by British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and American Foreign Secretary Edward Stettinius junior , against this treatment by legitimate representatives of the government of a sovereign country was completely ignored by the Soviets.
recognition
- 1995: Order of the White Eagle , posthumously
- 1944: Orden Virtuti Militari 5th grade (Silver Cross)
- 1925: Order of Polonia Restituta
- 1933: Independence Cross
- 1938: Independence Cross with Swords
Relationship to Polish anti-Semitism
Jankowski was a supporter of bipartisan Polish anti-Semitism. Like representatives of other parties, he criticized the Polish government's "exaggerated philosemitism " in 1944 . In a report to the Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile, Stanisław Mikołajczyk , he emphasized that Jews in Poland are not liked.
literature
- S. Kopf, S. Starba-Bałuk: Armia Krajowa. Kronika Fotograficzna. Warszawa 1999
- N. Davies: Powstanie '44 , Kraków 2004
- W. Grabowski: Delegatura Rządu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na Kraj. Warsaw 1995
- Joanna Szewczyk (Ed.): Bohaterowie Historii Polski. Chorzów 2007
- Słownik biograficzny działaczy polskiego ruchu robotniczego , Warszawa 1987.
- Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert: Słownik biograficzny konspiracji warszawskiej 1939–1945. Instytut Wydawniczy “Pax”, Warszawa 1987, ISBN 83-211-0758-3 , pp. 88-90.
Web links
- Literature by and about Jan Stanisław Jankowski in the bibliographic database WorldCat
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Jan Stanisław Jankowski at 1944.pl. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
- ↑ a b c Proces Szesnastu: z Warszawy do Moskwy at historia.org.pl. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
- ↑ Biography JAN STANISŁAW JANKOWSKI at chrobry1lo.pl. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
- ^ Piotr Kołakowski: The Polish Home Army: History and Myth of the Armia Krajowa since the Second World War. R. Oldenburg Verlag, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-486-56715-2 , pp. 212-215, (books.google.de , accessed December 8, 2019)
- ↑ Joanna Beata Michlic : Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present. University of Nebraska Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8032-3240-3 , p. 154. (books.google.de , accessed December 8, 2019)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jankowski, Jan Stanisław |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Polish chemical engineer, Labor Party activist (Stronnictwo Pracy, SP) and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 6, 1882 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Krasowo Wielkie, Gmina Nowe Piekuty , Podlaskie Voivodeship , Poland |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 13, 1953 |
| Place of death | Vladimir , Russia |