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 ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

2008, p. 26, 265. was a Polish

non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

and

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

functionary in the Ministry of Public Security and executioner at Mokotów Prison. Śmietański was stationed at the Mokotów Prison in the

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

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

until the collapse of the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

in 1989, Mokotów Prison—where Śmietański conducted his deeds—was a place of detention, torture and execution of the Polish

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...

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 ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million ne ...

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

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

s Jerzy Miatkowski, Tadeusz Pelak, Edmund Tudruj, Arkadiusz Wasilewski, Roman Gronski, Lukasik, Commandant 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 ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicato ...

Zygmunt Szendzielarz Zygmunt Szendzielarz (12 March 1910 – 8 February 1951) was the commander of the Polish 5th Wilno Brigade of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), nom de guerre "Łupaszka". He fought against the Red Army after the end of the Second World War. Followin ...

, 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 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United K ...

, 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 Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointe ...

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 a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

'', 1999, 858 pages. . Page 379. the founder of the

Secret Polish Army Tajna Armia Polska, TAP (Secret Polish Army) was a Resistance movement founded in November 1939 in German-occupied Poland, which was active in the areas of the Warsaw, Podlasie, Kielce and Lublin Voivodships. Founders were: * Lieutenant Colonel ...

and prominent member of the

Armia Krajowa 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) e ...

, famous for his daring mission to the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. I ...

. 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 means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the the ...

. According to historians Szymon Hermański and Tomasz Wróblewski, some pieces in ''

Nasz Dziennik ''Nasz Dziennik'' ("Our Daily") is a Polish-language Roman Catholic daily newspaper published six times a week in Warsaw, Poland. It is connected to the Lux Veritatis Foundation. Its viewpoint has been described as right-wing to far-right (h ...

'' 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.

Biography

Notes and references

Further reading