Wiktor Szeliński

Wiktor Andrzej Szeliński (until 1946 Wiktor Erwin Krauze ), pseudonym Andrzej Pol , Tomasz Jar (born March 22, 1921 in Warsaw ; † July 17, 1984 there ) was a Polish scout leader , Podporutschik in the Polish Home Army and a member of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 of the Zośka Battalion .

Life

Youth and apprenticeship

His father Zygmunt Krauze (1889 or 1890–1985) was an officer in the reserve of the Imperial Russian Army , and later of the Polish Army . His mother was Anna (1900–1990), b. Szeliński. His sister, Irene Krause-Wyczyński, her pseudonym "Ika", was the reporter of the 2nd company of the Zośka battalion.

From 1929 to 1932 Szeliński attended elementary school, then the evangelical Mikołaj Rej grammar school at the Trinity Church , where he passed the small Abitur. From 1938 he studied at the Niklewski High School in Warsaw. As a ten year old boy he joined the 8th General Kazimierz Pułaski Scout Group.

The second World War

He experienced the outbreak of World War II in the region around Lublin . He was drafted into the Polesian Independent Operations Group under General Franciszek Kleeberg (1888-1941). In October he came to Warsaw and took illegal lessons there. From 1940 he studied illegally at the State Technical University for Construction Machinery and Electrical Engineering H. Wawelberg and S. Rotwand in Warsaw. In the same year he took part in conspiratorial actions. He was a member of a group under Mieczysław Słoń (pseudonym Juran , Kobuz ). Together with a group from Praga they belonged to the Szare Szeregi (German: gray rows). Szeliński was part of the organization of the small sabotage "Wawer". He was the deputy commander of the Praga Center Scout Unit in Warsaw. At the same time he graduated from the "Agricola" college for officers of the reserve and infantry. In October 1943, after the arrest of Mieczysław Słoń, he took over the leadership of the scout unit Praga of the combat school. In 1944, after the organization of the Warsaw military unit had changed, he was appointed commander of the Bazylika squad. He later left "Bazylik" and joined the new storm troops belonging to the 3rd Company of the Zośka Battalion, where he was elected to deputy to Jan Wuttke.

In the Warsaw Uprising he was adjutant in the 3rd Company under Władysław Cieplak ( Giewont ). On August 5th he took part in the attack on the Gęsiówka concentration camp and on the night of August 31st, after the unsuccessful attempt to break through from the old town to the city ​​center , he went with Porutschik's group "Orsza" - the leader of the Szare Szeregi group - through the sewers to the city center.

On September 5, 1944, Szeliński married Zofia Jarkowska (1910–1944), who was a nurse during the Warsaw Uprising. After the fall of the fighting in the Czerniaków district, he and his wife tried to get into the city center with other soldiers and the reporters. His wife was killed in this attempt. Wiktor Szeliński was arrested and sent to the Pruszków camp, but he escaped from the transport. He hid with the family in Sochaczew and later went to Krakow . The soldiers who arrested him in Warsaw were very surprised at his knowledge of German and did not even know who they were talking to.

Wiktor Szeliński's first wife - Zofia Jarkowska-Krauze

After the war

The tomb of Wiktor Szeliński in the Evangelical Augsburg Cemetery in Warsaw

From 1945 Szeliński lived in Gdańsk and worked there in the transport department of the office for the reconstruction of the port.

On September 9, 1946, he changed his name to Wiktor Andrzej Szeliński (many people in Poland had to change their name or first name after the war). In Pomerania he was involved in scouting activities. 1945–1946 he was in command of the Scout Unit of the Gdańsk Region (Danzig), 1946–1947 he was deputy commander and head of the department of the Fahnkommando Marine-Danzig Organization (pol. Wydziału Organizacyjnego Komendy Chorągwi Gdańsko-Morskiej).

In 1946 he married Krystyna Janina Murzynówna (1921-2009), who was also a participant in the Warsaw Uprising. They had three sons: Andrzej (* 1948), Piotr (* 1950) and Jan (* 1955).

In 1947 he was in a car accident and never recovered from it. In 1950 he went to Warsaw, where he worked as the head of the technical directorate of the grain factories.

From October 1956 was again active in the scout movement. He taught the staff of the Warsaw department and worked in the scout unit Warsaw - Mokotów . From 1980 he was part of the commission for research into the Szare Szeregi at the Warsaw State Archives. He conducted the documentation and organized meetings with the former members of the Zośka battalion . He retired in July 1982. In 1984 he had another car accident that worsened previous injuries.

Wiktor Szeliński died on July 17, 1984. His grave is in the Evangelical-Augsburg Cemetery in Warsaw (59b - 4).

Awards

• Silver Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1957)
• Cross of Valor (1969)
• Order of Polonia Restituta 5th grade (1982)
• Home Army Cross (1983)
• Krzyż "Za Zasługi dla ZHP" (Cross for Merit in the Scout Movement) (1984)

literature

• Zygmunt Głuszek: Szare Szeregi. Słownik biograficzny. Tom I. Wierni braterstwu i służbie . Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza RYTM , 2006, pp. 333-342. ISBN 978-83-7399-213-9 .
• Anna Borkiewicz-Celińska: Batalion "Zośka". Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy , 1990. ISBN 83-06-01851-6 .
• Włodzimierz Trojan: C i, którzy przeżyli… biography żołnierzy batalionu “Zośka” Armii Krajowej . Warsaw, 2002.