Józef Różański (; born Josef Goldberg; 13 July 1907, in

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 official ...

– 21 August 1981, in Warsaw) was an officer in the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

Secret Police and later, a

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military 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 colonel was typically in charge ...

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

, Różański became very active in the

Communist Party of Poland The interwar Communist Party of Poland ( pl, Komunistyczna Partia Polski, 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 a ...

before

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 ...

. He joined the

following the

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military operation by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west. Subs ...

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 ( pl, Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), commonly known as UB or later SB, was the secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage agency operating in the Polish People's Republic. From 1945 to 1954 it w ...

). Różański was personally involved in torturing and killing dozens of opponents of 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 nea ...

(''PRL''), including

anti-communists 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 ...

.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 The "cursed soldiers" (also known as "doomed soldiers", "accursed soldiers" or "damned soldiers"; pl, żołnierze wyklęci) or "indomitable soldiers" ( pl, żołnierze niezłomni) is a term applied to a variety of anti-Soviet and anti-communist ...

". 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; ; codenames ''Roman Jezierski, Tomasz Serafiński, Druh, Witold'') was a Polish World War II cavalry officer, intelligence agent, and resistance leader. As a youth, Pilecki joined Polish underground ...

, 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 Dundurn Press is one of the largest Canadian-owned book publishing companies of adult and children's fiction and non-fiction. The company publishes Canadian literature, history, biography, politics and arts. Dundurn has about 2500 books in pr ...

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 ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...

. 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 ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), 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 lega ...

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 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. He was released in 1964, having served seven years. Różański died of cancer on 21 August 1981, and was buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw. Różański was a brother of

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 Olsztyn ( , ; german: Allenstein ; Old Prussian: ''Alnāsteini'' * Latin: ''Allenstenium'', ''Holstin'') is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with county right ...

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)