Piotr Śmietański (27 June 1899 – 23 February 1950) Piotr Śmietański: Dane osoby z katalogu funkcjonariuszy aparatu bezpieczeństwa.
Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej, 2007 Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Komisja Scigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu. Source: J. Pawłowicz, ''Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki 1901-1948'',

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 ...

2008, p. 26, 265. was a Polish

non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is an enlisted rank, enlisted leader, petty officer, or in some cases warrant officer, who does not hold a Commission (document), commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority b ...

and

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

functionary in the

Ministry of Public Security Ministry of Public Security can refer to: * Ministry of Justice and Public Security (Brazil) * Ministry of Public Security of Burundi * Ministry of Public Security (Chile) * Ministry of Public Security (China) * Ministry of Public Security of Co ...

and executioner at Mokotów Prison. Śmietański was stationed at the Mokotów Prison in the

borough of Mokotów () known also as ''Rakowiecka Prison'' located at 37 Rakowiecka Street. From

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 ...

until the collapse of the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

in 1989, it was a place of detention, torture and execution of the Polish anti-communist opposition.Tadeusz M. Płużański
"Strzał w tył głowy."
Publicystyka Antysocjalistycznego Mazowsza. 2010.

Biography

Śmietański was born in Zawady to an ethnic Polish working-class family. Śmietański joined the Communist Party of Poland in 1923, using the pseudonym Mojżesz (Moses). Śmietański — nicknamed by the inmates as the "Butcher of the Mokotow Prison" — executed personally and supervised the executions of hundreds of opponents of the Stalinist regime in 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. ...

. Among them were prominent politicians, social activists and Polish underground fighters, including

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

s Jerzy Miatkowski, Tadeusz Pelak, Edmund Tudruj, Arkadiusz Wasilewski, Roman Gronski, Lukasik,

Commandant Commandant ( or ; ) is a title often given to the officer in charge of a military (or other uniformed service) training establishment or academy. This usage is common in English-speaking nations. In some countries it may be a military or police ...

Hieronim Dekutowski (killed by Śmietański in one day, on 7 March 1949). and Adam Doboszyński . Those executed after Śmietański's apparent death in 1950 include

Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

Zygmunt Szendzielarz, Lieutenants Henryk Borowski, Antoni Olechnowicz, Lucjan Minkiewicz (8 February 1951), Captain Stanisław Sojczyński, Lieutenant Antoni Wodyński from AK, and countless others, The Doomed Soldiers.
Polish Underground Soldiers 1944-1963 - The Untold Story. DoomedSoldiers.com including victims of the notorious 1 March, 1951 Mokotów Prison execution, who were given five consecutive death sentences each. The Doomed Soldiers. An Account of interrogation methods.
Polish Underground Soldiers 1944-1963. The Untold Story. DoomedSoldiers.com As a humiliation, Brigadier General Emil August Fieldorf was hanged rather than shot. The head of the Mokotów Prison, Alojzy Grabicki, was sometimes present at the executions. The victims' dead bodies—often undressed and placed in empty cement bags—were wheeled out at night and buried in unmarked graves, leveled out afterwards in the vicinity of different Warsaw cemeteries: in Służew (till mid 1948), the Mokotów and the Powązki cemeteries, or in open fields, in around Pole Mokotowskie, Kabacki forest and Okęcie. On 25 May 1948,Kon Piekarski
''Escaping Hell: The Story of a Polish Underground Officer''
Dundurn Press, 1989, 254 pages. . Page 249. Google Books. Śmietański personally executed Witold Pilecki,Stéphane Courtois, Mark Kramer
''Livre noir du Communisme: crimes, terreur, répression''.
The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, ''

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

'', 1999, 858 pages. . Page 379. the founder of the Secret Polish Army and prominent member of the Armia Krajowa, famous for his daring mission to the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

. Śmietański is believed to have been paid 1,000 Polish złoty for each execution he carried out, a substantial amount of money under

Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...

. According to historians Szymon Hermański and Tomasz Wróblewski, some pieces in '' Nasz Dziennik'' and '' Najwyższy Czas!'' falsely claimed he had emigrated to Israel in 1968, that he was born in the 1920s, was purposefully not listed in the population registry, and was possibly still alive in Israel. However he died from tuberculosis in the Korczak sanatorium on 23 February 1950 and was buried in Bródno Cemetery 4 days later. Historian Jacek Pawłowicz from IPN in his 2008 book about Pilecki claimed that Śmietański died of tuberculosis at the age of 50 in the year of his last known Mokotów executions. Śmietański is buried in section 8H, row 1, grave 4 at the Bródno Cemetery in Warsaw, together with his wife Eufemia (1899-1976) and daughter Zdzislawa Szablewksa (1933-1996).

Biography

Notes and references

Further reading