Ludwik "Hanka" Kalkstein (13 March 1920, in Warsaw– 26 October 1994, in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

)Adam Zadworny
''Ostatnia misja Kalksteina''
"

Gazeta Wyborcza (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish nationwide daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It was launched on 8 May 1989 on the basis of the Polish Round Table Agreement and as a press organ of the Solidarity (Polish trade union), t ...

", 12 December 2009. was a Polish

Nazi collaborator In World War II, many governments, organizations and individuals Collaborationism, collaborated with the Axis powers, "out of conviction, desperation, or under coercion". Nationalists sometimes welcomed German or Italian troops they believed wou ...

. He worked as a Nazi police agent during the

German occupation of Poland German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

and then as a Stalinist informant after the Soviet takeover of Poland. Along with his wife (Blanka Kaczorowska "Sroka", b. 13 October 1922 in Brest, d. 25 August 2004), they became traitors to the Polish AK resistance organization. Kalkstein was responsible for the arrest and execution by the Nazis of at least 14 officers of the

Polish underground The Polish Underground State (, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Government of the Republic of Poland ...

, including General

Stefan Rowecki Stefan Paweł Rowecki (pseudonym: ''Grot'', "Spearhead", hence the alternate name, Stefan Grot-Rowecki; 25 December 1895 – 2 August 1944) was a Polish general, journalist and the leader of the Armia Krajowa. He was murdered by the Gestapo in ...

Biography

Born on 13 March 1920 in Warsaw as the son of Edward Kalkstein and Ludwika née Kucińska, owners of a textile shop. Ludwik Kalkstein claimed to be a descendant of Colonel Krystian Kalkstein, who lived in the 17th century, but there is no confirmation of this in documents, according to genealogy he was a descendant of the Kalksteins from the Brodnica region, the first Kalkstein to settle in the Brodnica area was Jan Kalkstein, to whom Ludwig von Erlichshausen granted 11 łans of land under Magdeburg law in Świecie near Brodnica in 1450, a branch of the Kalksteins originating from Polaszki also lived in the Brodnica area. In 1939 Ludwik Kalkstein graduated from high school, in September he left for Vilnius, where he probably worked in the underground. In January 1940 he returned to Warsaw, where he joined the offensive intelligence of the ZWZ-AK. He operated in the Stragan intelligence network. In the spring of 1941 he organized his own Hanka group (the so-called "H" network), developing his own network of informants. After a year of intelligence activity, he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant and awarded the Cross of Valor for stealing a German situational plan of landing sites in occupied Europe and a recipe for a new aluminum alloy. Arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

in April 1942 and interrogated, Kalkstein and Kaczorowska had followed a path taken by other Nazi agents. After collaborating with the Germans and even fighting on their side against the Poles during the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

of 1944 (Kalkstein joined the SS as "Paul Henchel"), they would later collaborate as informants with the Communist UB after their internment in prison.''Ostatnia misja Kalksteina''
(ibidem), 12 December 2009, page 2. Kalkstein was arrested by 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 ...

in August 1953 and sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

, charged with having betrayed General Rowecki. The sentence was reduced to 12 years in prison. He was released in 1965 under an

amnesty Amnesty () is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet be ...

. In 1973 he settled in

Piaseczno Piaseczno () is a town in east-central Poland with 47,660 inhabitants. It is situated in the Masovian Voivodeship, within the Warsaw metropolitan area, just south of Warsaw, approximately south of its center. It is a residential area and a suburb ...

, Poland, where he ran a chicken farm, then moved to the village of Utrata near

Jarocin Jarocin () is a town in west-central Poland with 25,700 inhabitants (1995), the administrative capital of Jarocin County in Greater Poland Voivodeship. Jarocin is a historical town, having been founded and granted city rights in the 13th century. ...

, where he owned a large pig farm. In 1981 or 1982 he travelled to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, where his son (from a relationship with Blanka Kaczorowski) lived. The family claimed that he died in France in the 1980s. In fact, in the mid-1980s he emerged in Munich, Germany, where he worked in the library of the Polish Catholic Mission under the name "Edward Ciesielski". He died in Munich on 26 October 1994.

Biography

Notes and references

See also