Antoni Olechnowicz (1905–1951) was a Polish military officer. A Lieutenant Colonel of the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stre ...

, he took part in the

September Campaign The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...

. Arrested by the Soviets, he escaped and returned to his native

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

, where he soon joined the Polish underground: the

Service for Poland's Victory Służba Zwycięstwu Polski (''Service for Poland's Victory'', or ''Polish Victory Service'', abbreviated SZP) was the first Polish resistance movement in World War II. It was created by the order of general Juliusz Rómmel on 27 September 1939, w ...

, the

Union of Armed Struggle Związek Walki Zbrojnej ( abbreviation: ''ZWZ''; Union of Armed Struggle;Thus rendered in Norman Davies, ''God's Playground: A History of Poland'', vol. II, p. 464. also translated as ''Union for Armed Struggle'', ''Association of Armed Strug ...

and finally the

Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) est ...

. He took part in the

Operation Ostra Brama , Second Polish Republic) , coordinates = , result = Failure of the operation , combatant1 = Polish Secret State (Armia Krajowa) , combatant2 = , combatant3 = , commander1 = Aleksander KrzyżanowskiAntoni Olechnowicz , comman ...

as commanding officer of the East group attacking the city of Vilnius from the direction of Naujoji Vilnia and

Belmontas Belmontas (originally Belmont) is a suburb of Vilnius. It is located in the area of Rasos, on the right bank of Vilnia River, to the east of Užupis Užupis ( yi, זארעטשע, be, Зарэчча, russian: Заречье, pl, Zarzecze) is ...

. After the success of the operation and the arrest of most of the commanders of the Polish forces by the Soviet

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

, Olechnowicz was one of the few officers to evade capture and assumed the role of the new commanding officer of the Wilno Home Army Area. In the summer of 1945 he evacuated his headquarters to Central Poland. Arrested by the communist authorities, he was sentenced to death in a show trial and buried in an unmarked grave. During his service in the underground, he used a variety of

noms de guerre A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...

, including "Meteor", "Kurkowski", "Pohorecki", "Lawicz", "Krzysztof", "Roman Wrzeski" and "Kurcewicz".

Early life and Interwar

Antoni Olechnowicz was born 13 June 1905 in , a small hamlet near Švenčionys, then in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

and now in modern Lithuania. He graduated from a local gymnasium in Naujoji Vilnia in 1926 and immediately afterwards joined the

. A graduate from the Infantry Officers' School, on 15 August 1929 he was promoted to the rank of Second lieutenant and attached to the Vilnius-based 5th Legions Infantry Regiment. A promising NCO, in 1935 he was allowed to join the Higher War School and in 1937 he was promoted to the rank of Captain and attached to the 20th Infantry Division's headquarters.

World War II

During the 1939

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

he served as a

quartermaster Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In ...

of the 33rd Infantry Division. Taken prisoner by the Soviets in early October, he managed to escape and returned to his native

,PAP, p. 1 where he soon joined the Polish underground: the

, the

and finally the

. He took part in the

as commanding officer of the East group attacking the city of Vilnius from the direction of Naujoji Vilnia and

. After the operation ended and most of the commanders of the Polish forces were arrested by the Soviet

, Olechnowicz was one of the few officers to evade capture and assumed the role of the new commanding officer of the Wilno Home Army Area. Following the arrest by the NKVD of Home Army's commander for the Vilnius region, Col. Wileńczyk, Olechnowicz became his successor on 27 March 1945.Krzywicki, pp. 88-89 In contact with the

Armed Forces Delegation for Poland The Armed Forces Delegation for Poland (''Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj'') was a Polish anti-communist resistance organization formed on May 7, 1945, by the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces, General Władysław Anders, as a contin ...

, he decided to limit the losses among his men, disband the remaining partisan groups and transfer most of them across the

Curzon Line The Curzon Line was a proposed demarcation line between the Second Polish Republic and the Soviet Union, two new states emerging after World War I. It was first proposed by The 1st Earl Curzon of Kedleston, the British Foreign Secretary, to ...

to the areas controlled directly by the new communist authorities of Poland. However, by May, the new Polish-Soviet border, which separated Vilnius from Poland, became more heavily guarded by the NKVD and further evacuation became impossible.

Post-WWII

Also, in early June the local Government Delegate was arrested and it became clear that even remaining in Vilnius was dangerous. In mid-June Olechnowicz fled to

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

. By that time it is estimated that there were still around 400 armed partisans in the Soviet-occupied

Vilnius region Vilnius Region is the territory in present-day Lithuania and Belarus that was originally inhabited by ethnic Baltic tribes and was a part of Lithuania proper, but came under East Slavic and Polish cultural influences over time. The territor ...

, mostly in small self-defence units, with additional 1,000. The resistance in that region continued until the end of the decade, but on an ever smaller scale. While in "Lublin Poland", Olechnowicz continued his resistance activities. Together with some of the former partisans evacuated from Vilnius region he formed the "Mobilisation Centre of the Wilno Home Army Area", a communications network intended to keep former soldiers of the Vilnian resistance in contact, should the situation in Europe change. However, due to the

Yalta Conference The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...

it never did. In December 1945 the partisan units of Maj. Zygmunt Szendzielarz joined Olechnowicz's organisation. In February 1947 Olechnowicz went to Paris, where he met with the Polish commander-in-chief, by then no longer recognised by Poland's former Allies. Ordered to return to Poland, he continued his resistance activities. However, in 1948 the Ministry of Public Security forces managed to arrest all members of the Mobilisation Centre. Olechnowicz himself was arrested on 26 June 1948 in

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

. The others arrested included and his wife , Captain Henryk Borowski, Zygmunt Szendzielarz and Lidia Lwow-Eberle. After a show trial, Olechnowicz was sentenced to death on 2 November 1949. He was executed on 8 February 1951 at

Mokotów Prison Mokotów Prison ( pl, Więzienie mokotowskie, also known as ''Rakowiecka Prison'') is a prison in Warsaw's borough of Mokotów, Poland, located at 37 Rakowiecka Street. It was built by the Russians in the final years of the foreign Partitions of ...

. His body was interred in an unmarked grave at the outskirts of the

Powązki Military Cemetery Powązki Military Cemetery (; pl, Cmentarz Wojskowy na Powązkach) is an old military cemetery located in the Żoliborz district, western part of Warsaw, Poland. The cemetery is often confused with the older Powązki Cemetery, known colloquial ...

. On 28 February 2014 the

Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...

announced, that Olechnowicz's body had been identified following archaeological excavations and a successful identification.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Olechnowicz, Antoni Polish military personnel 1905 births 1951 deaths Home Army officers Executed military personnel Executed Polish people People executed by the Polish People's Republic Polish Army officers Cursed soldiers Burials at Powązki Cemetery