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This article is part of the series: Polish Secret State History of Poland

Stefan Paweł Rowecki (pseudonym: Grot, hence called Stefan Grot-Rowecki,December 25, 1895 - August 2, 1944) was a Polish general, journalist and the leader of the Armia Krajowa.

Stefan Rowecki in early thirties (here as colonel)

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Stefan Rowecki was born in Piotrków Trybunalski. In his home town he was one of the organizers of a secret scouting organization. During World War I he was conscripted to the Austro-Hungarian army and then to the First Brigade of the Polish Legions. He was interned in August 1917 after most of his unit refused to pledge loyalty to the Emperor of Austria. In February 1918 he was released from the internment camp in Beniaminów and joined the Polnische Wehrmacht, and then the Polish Army.

He fought in the Polish-Soviet war (1919-1920) and after the war remained in the army and organized the first military weekly (Przegląd Wojskowy). From 1930-1935 he was the commander of the 55th Infantry Regiment in Leszno. From June 1939 Rowecki organised the Warsaw Armoured-Motorised Brigade (Warszawska Brygada Pancerno-Motorowa, 7TP, TKS tanks). While the unit did not reach full mobilization it did, however, take part in the September Campaign.

After the Polish defeat Rowecki managed to avoid capture and returned to Warsaw and in October 1939 he became one of the leaders, then in 1940 commander, of the Związek Walki Zbrojnej. From 1942 he was commander of the Armia Krajowa (Home Army).

In 1941 Rowecki organised sabotage in the territories east of the pre-war Polish borders Wachlarz. On June 30, 1943 he was arrested by Gestapo in Warsaw and sent to Berlin, where he was questioned by many prominent Nazi officials (Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Heinrich Himmler and Heinrich Müller). He was offered some sort of an anti-bolshevik alliance, but he refused. He was probably murdered in August 1944 in Sachsenhausen.^[1][2][3]

Gen. Rowecki "Grot" was arrested because of the betrayal by lieutenant Ludwik Kalkstein “Hanka”, major Eugeniusz Swierczewski “Genes”, and Blanka Kaczorowska “Sroka”. All of them were members of the Home Army and Gestapo agents. Eugeniusz Swierczewski, Ludwik Kalkstein, and Blanka Kaczorowska were sentenced to death for high treason by Secret War Tribunal of the Polish Secret State. The sentence on Eugeniusz Swierczewski was carried out by troops commanded by Stefan Rys “Jozef”. They hanged Swierczewski in the basement of the house on Krochmalna 74 street in Warsaw. Ludwik Kalkstein got protection from Gestapo and avoided the execution. He fought in a Waffen SS unit during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 under the name Konrad Stark. After the war, he was working in Polish Radio in Szczecin and later on he was recruited as an agent by Urzad Bezpieczenstwa. In 1982, he immigrated to France. Blanka Kaczorowska also survived the war. Her death sentence was never carried out because she was pregnant. After the war, she was working as a secret agent for Urzad Bezpieczenstwa and later for Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa. She immigrated to France in 1971.

There have been claims that the arrest of Gen. Rowecki on Jun 30, 1943 was a result of a wider intelligence operation against Polish Underground State with the goal to eliminate top commanders and political leaders of Polish resistance. During the same time period, Gestapo arrested the commander of NSZ (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne) colonel Ignacy Oziewicz who was arrested on Jun 9, 1943. On July 4, 1943, Gen. Władysław Sikorski died in a plane crash under very mysterious circumstances. Within a period of two months, Polish Army lost three top commanders.

• • Virtuti Militari IV class and V class
  • Krzyż Walecznych eight times, four times for Polish-Soviet War and 4 times for Polish Defensive War of 1939
  • Order of the White Eagle Posthumously 11.XI.1995
  • Polonia Restituta IV class
  • Krzyż ZasługiI class
  • Cross of Independence
  • Medal "Polska Swemu Obrońcy"
  • Medal 10-lecia Odzyskania Niepodległości
  • Krzyż Armii Krajowej
  • Legion of Merit Commander, Posthumously 9.VIII.1984 by Ronald Reagan
  • Legion of Honor

Inline:

1. ^ Norman J W Goda; Timothy Naftali, Robert Wolfe, Richard Breitman (2005). U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 144. ISBN 0-521-85268-4. 
2. ^ Richard C Lukas (1989). in Richard C Lukas: Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-1692-9. 
3. ^ Andrzej Paczkowski (2003). The Spring Will Be Ours: Poland and the Poles from Occupation to Freedom. Penn State Press, 549. ISBN 0-271-02308-2. 

General: