Konrad Guderski

Plaque in Saska Kępa , Warsaw

Konrad Guderski (born February 19, 1900 in Piotrków Trybunalski , † September 1, 1939 in Danzig ) was a Polish lieutenant and engineer. He died in the battle for the Polish post office in Danzig .

Life

Guderski studied engineering at the polytechnic universities in Warsaw and Lwów . He was a lieutenant in the reserve and from 1934 worked as an expert in hydraulic engineering at the Polish Ministry of War and on the General Staff of the Polish Army .

In the spring of 1939 he was sent to Gdynia to secretly prepare the defense of the extraterritorial Polish post office in the Free City of Danzig . He gave the employees military training and also brought the weapons into the building. A depot was set up in the post office: 40 pistols , three Browning type light machine guns from 1928, and three boxes full of hand grenades . According to the defense plan of the Westerplatte , the possibility was to be created to defend oneself until the regular Polish army arrived for relief . Since the Polish corridor was close by, it was estimated at six hours. When the foreign policy situation escalated at the end of August 1939, Guderski with the code name Konrad was appointed commandant of the post office defense.

At the beginning of the Second World War on September 1, 1939, he headed the resistance in the Polish post office as such. He died in the attack of the SS Heimwehr and police forces of the Free State on the post office.

Guderski is buried in the Zaspa Memorial Cemetery in Gdansk. In the Zakoniczyn district of Gdańsk (formerly Zankenzin ) ul. Guderskiego was named after him. A memorial plaque at 68 Saska Street in Warsaw has also been commemorating the officer since 1981. In the Gocław settlement in the Praga-Południe district in Warsaw, a street was also named after him.

See also

• Defender of the Polish military depot on the Westerplatte (port area)
  • Henryk Sucharski (Major, Commander Westerplatte, 1898–1946)
  • Franciszek Dąbrowski (Deputy Commanding Officer, 1904–1962)

literature

• Adam Bartoszewski, Wiesław Gomulski: Żołnierze w pocztowych mundurach . Wydawnictwo Morskie, Gdańsk 1969 (Polish; soldiers in post office uniforms).
• Franciszek Bogacki: Poczta Polska w Gdańsku . Książka i Wiedza, Warsaw 1978 (Polish; Polish Post in Danzig).
• Tadeusz Jurga: Obrona Polski 1939. Warszawa: Instytut Wydawniczy PAX, 1990, p. 771. ISBN 83-211-1096-7
• Dieter Schenk : Danzig 1930–1945. The end of a free city . Ch.links, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86153-737-3 .

Web links

• Marek Andrzejewski: Short biography and picture of Konrad Guderski at Gedanopedia (Polish)