Józef Różański (; born Josef Goldberg; 13 July 1907 – 21 August 1981) was an officer in the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

and later, a

Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

in the Polish Ministry of Public Security (UB), the 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 Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...

family in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, Różański became very active in the

Communist Party of Poland The interwar Communist Party of Poland (, KPP) was a communist party active in Poland during the Second Polish Republic. It resulted from a December 1918 merger of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) and the ...

before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He joined the

following the

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...

and after the war, adopting the name Różański, served as an agent with the Polish Communist Security apparatus (

Urząd Bezpieczeństwa The Ministry of Public Security (), was the secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage agency operating in the Polish People's Republic. From 1945 to 1954 it was known as the Security Office (, UB), and from 1956 to 1990 as the Security ...

). Różański was personally involved in torturing dozens of opponents of the

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

(''PRL''), including

anti-communists Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...

and " Cursed soldiers".Barbara Fijałkowska
RÓŻAŃSKI "LIBERAŁEM"
15 December 2002, Fundacja Orientacja "abcnet"; see also: B. Fijałkowska, ''Borejsza i Różański. Przyczynek do dziejów stalinizmu w Polsce'', He gained notoriety as one of the most brutal secret police Officers in Warsaw. Różański personally administered torture to

Witold Pilecki Witold Pilecki (; 13 May 190125 May 1948), known by the codenames ''Roman Jezierski'', ''Tomasz Serafiński'', ''Druh'' and ''Witold'', was a Polish World War II cavalry officer, intelligence agent, and resistance leader. As a youth, 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 Mokotów Prison (, 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 Poland. During the Nazi Ge ...

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 Dundurn Press is one of the largest Canadian-owned book publishing companies of adult fiction and non-fiction. The company publishes Canadian literature, history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Hum ...

Ltd., , p. 249Lidia Świerczek
Pilecki`s life

Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state research institute in charge of education and archives which also includes two public prosecutio ...

. 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 The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parti ...

members. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison on 23 December 1955. In July 1956, the Supreme Court reopened his case due to improprieties discovered in the original investigation. On 11 November 1957 (charged along with co-defendant Anatol Fejgin), he was sentenced by the lower court to 15 years in prison, which was reduced to 14 years on appeal. Różański was released from prison in October 1964, having served 11 years. He died of cancer on 21 August 1981, and was buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw. Różański was a brother of Jerzy Borejsza.

Awards and decorations

* Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 2nd Class (13 December 1945) * Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 3rd Class (10 October 1945)M.P. z 1945 r. nr 44, poz. 109
(„For activities in the underground, participation in partisan fights and for services in organizing the Security Service and the Citizens' Militia”). * POL Polonia Restituta Oficerski BAR

Officer's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta (, ) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on alien (law), foreigners for outstanding achievements in ...

Knight's Cross of the

* Golden Cross of Merit

Notes and references

* Barbara Fijałkowska, ''Borejsza i Różański. Przyczynek do dziejów stalinizmu w Polsce'',

Olsztyn Olsztyn ( , ) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with powiat rights, city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents Olsz ...

1995. , pp. 260, 203, 210, 216-223. * AIPN, 0193/7094, Akta osobowe Józefa Różańskiego, k. 5. * Zdzisław Uniszewski. Józef Różański. " Karta". 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 Deaths from cancer in Poland Polish United Workers' Party members Polish intelligence officers (1943–1990) Ministry of Public Security (Poland) officials Polish police officers convicted of crimes Polish war criminals People convicted of torture Political repression in Poland Prisoners and detainees of Poland