Edmund Lesisz (1906-1943) was a Polish Captain who was known for being one of the main leaders of the

Raid on Fraustadt The Raid on Fraustadt ( pl, Wypad na Wschowę) was a military raid, carried out by the Polish Army on September 2, 1939, second day of the Invasion of Poland. Polish forces attacked Wehrmacht positions in and around the town of Wschowa, Fraustadt ...

and commanding the during the

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 ...

Biography

Lesisz was a professional infantry officer, coming from a family with patriotic traditions, and a graduate of the Cadet Corps in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

. During the Invasion of Poland, Cpt. Ludwik Snitko, commanding a platoon of heavy machine guns and a platoon of armored cars, organized the

which ended in a Polish victory. He was also a captain of the 55th Infantry Regiment as the commander of the 2nd company in the 1st battalion. After the conclusion of the Invasion, Capt. Lesisz was captured by the Germans and stayed in

Oflag VII-A Murnau Oflag VII-A Murnau was a German Army prisoner-of-war camp for Polish Army officers during World War II. It was located north of the Bavarian town of Murnau am Staffelsee. Camp history The camp was created in September 1939. It consisted of an e ...

. There, in the fall of 1941, he was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

for allegedly ordering the deaths of surrendered German soldiers at

Fraustadt Wschowa (pronounced , german: Fraustadt) is a town in the Lubusz Voivodeship in western Poland with 13,875 inhabitants (2019). It is the capital of Wschowa County and a significant tourist site containing many important historical monuments. His ...

. A similar fate befell his superior - Maj. Jan Dymowski who was the commander of the 1st Battalion of the 55th Infantry Regiment. Until January 1943 they were both held in a prison in Łódź, where they were to be tried but Lesisz was tortured and brutally murdered the day before the end of the trial on 21 January 1943.

Legacy

Gorzow_Wielkopolski_Wsch_SA139_023_(Edmund_Lesisz)

Lesisz was posthumously awarded the Cross of the Order of

Virtuti Militari The War Order of Virtuti Militari (Latin: ''"For Military Virtue"'', pl, Order Wojenny Virtuti Militari) is Poland's highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war. It was created in 1792 by Polish King Stan ...

by the

Polish government-in-exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...

during the 1970s. He is also featured in a SA139-023 model as a Regio Bohater as a commemoration for the 100th Anniversary of Poland's independence.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lesisz, Edmund 1906 births 1943 deaths People from Kozienice Polish military personnel killed in World War II Polish Army officers