Zygmunt Milczewski (1 October 1905 – 2 June 2001) was a Polish historian associated with

Pomerania Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...

, a community leader in the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

, and World War II resistance fighter in the underground

Home Army The Home Army (, ; 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) established in the ...

(Armia Krajowa) with the postwar rank of Lieutenant (''

porucznik Porucznik (Por.) is a rank of the Polish Army, roughly equivalent to the military rank of the First Lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of ...

''). During the darkest years of

Stalinism in Poland Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism inc ...

he spent three years in prison from 1949 to 1952 as a so-called enemy of the state along with thousands of other political prisoners persecuted by the communist ''

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 ...

''. Milczewski is best remembered for his research into wartime history of his beloved province, with special focus on the attempted genocide of ethnic Poles of Pomerania in the course of Nazi

Operation Tannenberg Operation Tannenberg (, ) was one of the first Anti-Polish sentiment, anti-Polish extermination actions by Nazi Germany in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), German-occupied Poland from September 1939 to January 1940. The operation was conducted ...

, known as ''

Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders committed against the Polish people, Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) during the ...

'', including

massacres in Piaśnica The massacres in Piaśnica were a series of mass murders carried out by Nazi Germany during World War II, between the fall of 1939 and spring of 1940 in Piaśnica Wielka (Groß Piasnitz) in the Darzlubska Wilderness near Wejherowo. The exact n ...

among various atrocities and expulsions.Zygmunt Milczewski
Nazwiska ofiar Piaśnicy z obszaru powiatu morskiego
(PDF file, direct download). Dokument przygotował Łukasz Borchmann.

Life and work

Milczewski was born in Strzepcz near

Wejherowo Wejherowo (; formerly ) is a city in Gdańsk Pomerania, northern Poland, with 48,735 inhabitants (2021). It has been the capital of Wejherowo County in Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999; previously, it was a city in Gdańsk Voivodeship (1975–199 ...

. He graduated from the

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well as 100 specializat ...

in the field of economics and took up a post of secretary to mayor (''

wójt A wójt is the highest administrative officer of a Polish ''rural gmina'', i.e., of a commune (''gmina'') comprising only villages. (The head of a town or city is called, respectively, the ''burmistrz'' or "president".) History and etymology T ...

'') of a rural community of

Rumia Rumia (; ; ) is a town in northern Poland, in the Wejherowo County in Pomeranian Voivodeship, with some 49,000 inhabitants. It is a part of the Kashubian Tricity (Rumia, Reda, Wejherowo) and a suburb part of the metropolitan area of the Tricity ...

- Zagórze in the interwar Poland; credited with helping the town grow quicker. After the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

by Nazi Germany, Milczewski relocated to

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

in the southern part of

occupied Poland ' (Norwegian language, Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV 2 (Norway), TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. ...

and joined the anti-Nazi underground, ''

nom de guerre A ''nom de guerre'' (, 'war name') is a pseudonym chosen by someone to use when they are involved in a particular activity, especially fighting in a war. In Ancien régime, ''ancien régime'' Kingdom of France, France it would be adopted by each n ...

'' Wąsowicz. In 1942 he was assigned to ''Komenda Okręgu AK Kraków-Miasto'' (pl) with the rank of ''

Podporucznik ''Podporuchik'' ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, потпоручник, potporučnik, , , , , ) is the most junior officer in some Slavic armed forces, and is placed below the rank of lieutenant, typically corresponding to rank of second lieutenant in English ...

'' (the Second Lieutenant). For his resistance activities he was awarded four times by the

Polish government-in-exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile (), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent Occupation ...

Ministry of National Defence ('' Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej'') with the Medal of Valor and the Cross of AK, locally. After the defeat of Nazi Germany Milczewski returned to

and soon began his research into ani-Nazi resistance in Pomerania. His was thrown in prison in 1949 with the onset of the Stalinist terror in postwar Poland, and released in 1952. Milczewski was a member of the ''Światowy Związek Żołnierzy Armii Krajowej'' (World Union of the Home Army Soldiers). He died on 2 June 2001 at the age of 95, and was buried in Wejherowo.

Wejherowo chronicle

Milczewski published his heartrending book ''Wejherowo i Powiat Morski: Wrzesień 1939 - Maj 1945'' (Wejherowo and the Marine County: September 1939 till May 1945) in

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

soon after the collapse of the Soviet empire. Void of any emotional interpretation the book presents a chronological account of persecution of the Polish people in the town and its environs based on German and Polish archives, testimonies of survivors, his own historical research, and materials collected by the Polish scientific community. One of the more shocking facts revealed by Milczewski was that the large German minority who, for decades, lived next door to Polish

Kashubians The Kashubians (; ; ), also known as Cassubians or Kashubs, are a Lechitic ( West Slavic) ethnic group native to the historical region of Pomerania, including its eastern part called Pomerelia, in north-central Poland. Their settlement area is ...

, have expressed hatred and rage towards them in that period, leading to nothing but death and destruction and yet Poles resisted the state-sanctioned

Germanization Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, German people, people, and German culture, culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nati ...

Books

*Zygmunt Milczewski, ''Wejherowo i powiat morski : wrzesień 1939 - maj 1945 : kronika'' Publisher:

: elbstverl. 1990.Tadeusz Bolduan
Review of book "Wejherowo i powiat morski" by Zygmunt Milczewski, Gdańsk 1991
(dLibra, external DjVu format for digital libraries with installation instructions). ''Pomerania'' monthly 1/1992. Pages: 35–36. Bałtycka Biblioteka Cyfrowa.

Notes and references

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Milczewski, Zygmunt 1905 births 2001 deaths People from Wejherowo County People from West Prussia 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers University of Warsaw alumni Home Army members Prisoners and detainees of Poland