Józef Różański (; born Josef Goldberg;
13 July 1907, in
Warsaw – 21 August 1981, in Warsaw) was an officer in the
Soviet NKVD Secret Police and later, a
Colonel in the Polish
Ministry of Public Security (UB), a communist secret police. Born into a
Polish-Jewish
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...
family in
Warsaw, Różański became very active in the
Communist Party of Poland before
World War II.
[ He joined the NKVD following the Soviet invasion of Poland and after the war, adopting the name Różański, served as an agent with the Polish Communist Security apparatus ( Urząd Bezpieczeństwa).
Różański was personally involved in torturing and killing dozens of opponents of the Polish People's Republic (''PRL''), including anti-communists.][Barbara Fijałkowska]
RÓŻAŃSKI "LIBERAŁEM"
15 December 2002, Fundacja Orientacja "abcnet"; see also: B. Fijałkowska, ''Borejsza i Różański. Przyczynek do dziejów stalinizmu w Polsce'', and " Cursed soldiers". He gained notoriety as one of the most brutal secret police Officers in Warsaw. Różański personally administered torture to Witold Pilecki, one of the most famous "Cursed soldiers" and the only individual who willingly went to Auschwitz Camp. Pilecki revealed no sensitive information and was executed on May 25, 1948 at Mokotów Prison by Sergeant Piotr Śmietański, the "Butcher".[Piekarski, Konstanty R. (1990), ''Escaping Hell: The Story of a Polish Underground Officer in Auschwitz and Buchenwald'', Dundurn Press Ltd., , p. 249][Lidia Świerczek]
Pilecki`s life
Institute of National Remembrance. Last accessed on 14 March 2009.
Józef Różański was arrested in 1953 – at the end of the Stalinist period in Poland – and charged with torturing innocent prisoners, including Polish United Workers' Party members. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison on 23 December 1955.Anatol Fejgin
Anatol Fejgin (25 September 1909 – 28 July 2002) was a Polish communist activist before World War II, and after 1949, commander of the Stalinist political police at the Ministry of Public Security of Poland, in charge of its notorious Special Bu ...
), he was again sentenced by the lower court this time to 15 years in prison.Jerzy Borejsza
Jerzy Borejsza (; born Beniamin Goldberg; 14 July 1905 in Warsaw – 19 January 1952 in Warsaw) was a Polish communist activist and writer. During the Stalinist period of communist Poland, he was chief of a state press and publishing syndicate ...
.
Notes and references
* Barbara Fijałkowska, ''Borejsza i Różański. Przyczynek do dziejów stalinizmu w Polsce'', Olsztyn 1995. , pp. 260, 203, 210, 216-223.
* AIPN, 0193/7094, Akta osobowe Józefa Różańskiego, k. 5.
* Zdzisław Uniszewski. Józef Różański. "Karta
Karta may refer to:
Places
* Karta, Iran, a village in Izeh County, Khuzestan Province, Iran
* Karta, Andika, a village in Andika County, Khuzestan Province, Iran
* Kharta or Karta, a Himalayan region in Tibet
* Kangaroo Island or Karta, an is ...
". 31 (2000).
* Stanisław Marat, Józef Snopkiewicz: Ludzie bezpieki: Dokumentacja czasu bezprawia. Warszawa: Alfa, 1990. .
*
"Curriculum vitae"
written by Józef Różański himself on 7 September 1944, for the Ministry of Public Security of Poland
* Aldona Zaorska, ''Sąsiedzi. Najbardziej okrutni oprawcy polskich patriotów'', Warszawa 2012, .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rozanski, Jozef
1907 births
1981 deaths
Military personnel from Warsaw
People from Warsaw Governorate
20th-century Polish Jews
Polish communists
Jewish socialists
NKVD officers
Polish United Workers' Party members
Prisoners and detainees of Poland
Polish prisoners and detainees
Polish intelligence officers (1943–1990)