Władysław Filipkowski | |
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| Nicknames | Cis, Janka |
| Born | (1892-05-01)1 May 1892 |
| Died | 17 April 1950(1950-04-17) (aged 57) |
| Service years | 1914 |
| Rank | Generał brygady |
| Conflicts | Lwów Uprising |
| Awards |       |
| Other work | factory clerk |
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Władysław Filipkowski (noms de guerreCis andJanka; 1 May 1892 – 17 April 1950) was a Polish military commander and a professional officer of thePolish Army. DuringWorld War II he was the commanding officer of theArmia Krajowa units in the inspectorate ofLwów (modern Lviv) and the commander of theLwów Uprising. For his merits he was promoted to the titular rank ofgenerał brygady.
Władysław Jakub Filipkowski was born on 1 May 1892 in the village of Filipów nearSuwałki, then in thePrivislinsky Krai of theRussian Empire. In 1909 he graduated from a local gymnasium in Suwałki and then left forGalicia, the only part ofpartitioned Poland where teaching inPolish was permitted. There he started studying at the law faculty of theLviv University. Simultaneously he also studied at the machine engineering faculty of theLviv University of Technology, where he became a member of theZwiązek Strzelecki paramilitary organization. However, he did not finish his studies at the latter university due to the outbreak of theGreat War.
On 1 August 1914 he joined thePolish Legions, where he held a number of posts. He fought in theCarpathians,Bukovina andVolhynia, serving as a commander of a single piece of artillery, of an infantry platoon and as an adjutant of a battalion of heavyhowitzers. Following theOath Crisis of 1917 he was interned by the Germans. Released from the prisoner camp on 1 November 1918, he moved toWarsaw, where he joined the newly bornPolish Army immediately after its creation. Initially a clerk in the Inspectorate of Artillery, on November 29 he became an adjutant to the Polish commander-in-chief, General (laterMarshal of Poland)Józef Piłsudski. During the early stage of thePolish-Bolshevik War, in November 1919 he was dispatched to Lwów, where he served as the commander of the local cell of theII Detachment of the Headquarters, that is the intelligence and counter-intelligence service. He held that post until the signing of thepeace of Riga.
During theMay Coup d'État in Poland Filipkowski with an infantry regiment under his command supported the revolters of Piłsudski against the government. He remained in the military until the outbreak ofWorld War II. He fought in thePolish Defensive War as a commander of an improvised infantry unit. Captured by the Soviets on 2 October 1939, he was imprisoned in Lwów. However, he managed to escape from the prison and moved to German-heldGeneral Government. There he hid inOtwock and then inWarsaw, under a variety of false identities. He joined theSZP resistance organization, which was later reformed into theAssociation of Armed Resistance and in the end into theHome Army. As one of the high-ranking Polish officers who knew the city of Lwów - yet were not known to a wider public prior to the outbreak of World War II, Filipkowski was a perfect candidate for a chief of Polish resistance in that town. In early 1940 he returned there under a false name and started to organize the Polish resistance. Initially under Soviet occupation, he continued his work as a Home Army inspector for the area of the city after the German take-over of the area in 1941. On 1 August 1943 he was made the commander of all Home Army units in the region.
In 1944 the units under his command started theOperation Tempest in the area. Filipkowski commanded the Polish forces in theLwów Uprising, in which the Home Army, with assistance of the advancingRed Army, took control over the city from the Germans. In the same period his wife, Janina née Obiedzińska and one of his two sons Jan (b. 1922) were active members of the Home Army inMasovia. The latter was killed in the final days of theWarsaw Uprising.
Soon after the German forces were pushed out of the city, Filipkowski was invited to a conference withMichał Rola-Żymierski and arrested by the SovietNKVD inZhytomir on 3 August 1944; at the same time most of his soldiers were also arrested and sent to Soviet prisons - or had to flee back to German-held part of Poland. Filipkowski was held in a number of Soviet prisons, including the prison inKiev, aSmersh camp of the1st Ukrainian Front, and NKVD camps inKharkov,Ryazan,Dyagilev,Gryazovets andBrest. In November 1947 he was handed over to theMinistry of Public Security of Poland inBiała Podlaska, interrogated and set free. However, soon afterwards his younger son Andrzej (b. 1925), also a former soldier of the Home Army, was arrested by the Communists and was held in prisons until thedestalinization thaw of 1956.
Władysław Filipkowski then was resettled to the town ofPieńsk (formerGerman:Penzig) nearZgorzelec in theRecovered Territories of thenewly restored Republic of Poland, where he found a job of an administrative director of a local state-ownedglass works. He died there on 17 April 1950 and was buried in thePowązki cemetery of Warsaw.
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