Jan Mazurkiewicz Jan Mazurkiewicz ( 27 August 1896 , Lwów – 4 May 1988 , Warsaw ) , codename " Radosław " , was a Polish soldier , a veteran of World War I , and a colonel in the Polish anti - Nazi resistance Armia Krajowa ( AK ) during World War II . He was one of the main commanders of the Warsaw Uprising , where he led the eponymous force which was one of the best armed and trained insurrectionist units in the Uprising . After the war he was persecuted by the communist authorities of the People ' s Republic of Poland despite the fact that he tried to cooperate with the new regime . He was rehabilitated after the end of the Stalinist period and was active in the official veterans ' organization Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy ( ZBoWiD ) . He was eventually promoted to the rank of general of the Armed Forces of the People ' s Republic of Poland ( LWP ) . He died shortly before the fall of communism in Eastern Europe . Early life and World War I . Mazurkiewicz was born in a craftsman ' s family in Lwów . His father died in a fire in 1905 . He spent his childhood in Złoczów and attended a gymnasium in Lwów . He was a member of Strzelec and then of the Polish Legions in World War I . He was a private in Józef Piłsudski ' s First Brigade and fought in the Battle of Łowczówek on 25 July 1914 , where he was wounded and taken into Russian captivity . He soon escaped and rejoined his unit . In 1918 , he took part in the Battle of Kaniów as a unit commander , while serving under General Józef Haller . Second Polish Republic . During the interwar period of the Second Polish Republic , he was promoted to the rank of captain , but left active service between 1922 and 1927 . Right before the outbreak of World War II ( 1938 – 1939 ) , he served as an instructor at the " Centrum Wyszkolenia Piechoty w Rembertowie " ( Center for Infantry Education in Rembertów ) , where he taught military tactics to future company commanders . World War II . Organizing resistance . In August 1939 , Mazurkiewicz was assigned to the " Grupa Operacyjnej Dywersji " ( " Diversionary Operations Group " ) of the Polish General Staff , which was involved in counter - intelligence operations against Nazi Germany , particularly in the Free City of Danzig . After the German invasion of Poland and the imminent collapse of Polish defenses in mid - September , following plans made before the outbreak of the war , he organized " Tajna Organizacja Wojskowa " ( Secret Military Organization , TOW ) , an underground group dedicated to sabotaging and resisting the German occupation . He travelled to Paris , where he met with General Władysław Sikorski , the Polish prime minister in exile , who officially sanctioned the formation of TOW . In Hungary , Mazurkiewicz subsequently organized a cell whose purpose was to serve as a transit point for soldiers and couriers traveling between occupied Poland and France . He returned to Poland in June 1940 . In March 1943 , TOW was officially merged with " Kierownictwo Dywersji " ( Directorate for Diversion ) , or Kedyw , which was the group within the general anti - Nazi organization " Armia Krajowa " ( The Home Army , AK ) , charged with carrying out sabotage , propaganda , intelligence gathering and direct action against the Germans . Mazurkiewicz was the second in command of Kedyw ( its head was General Emil August Fieldorf ) until August 1944 and the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising . Warsaw Uprising . Shortly before the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 , Mazurkiewicz was made commander of the Radosław Group . This force was one of the largest , best trained and equipped Polish units in the uprising . After the initiation of the uprising , the unit seized major portions of the Wola suburbs , and subsequently defended it against German attacks carried out by troops under the command of SS Gruppenführer Heinz Reinefarth and Standartenführer Oskar Dirlewanger . One of the battalions of the group , Battalion " Zośka " , liberated the Gęsiówka concentration camp located within Warsaw , and freed 384 prisoners ( mainly Jews ) , most of whom then joined the unit . The " Radosław Group " fought its way to " Stare Miasto " ( Warsaw Old Town ) borough , when further defense in Wola became impossible . In the areas of Wola that Reinefarth ' s and Dirlewanger ' s troops recaptured from the insurgents , at least 40 , 000 civilians and prisoners of war ( POWs ) were murdered in the Wola massacre . Despite being severely wounded in the head and leg during his escape from Wola , after a short stay in a hospital , Mazurkiewicz was put back in charge of the Radosław Group . He led an unsuccessful attempt in early September to evacuate to Śródmieście ( City center , Warsaw ) after Stare Miasto was overrun by German troops . After this failed , his group managed to make its way to the Czerniaków suburb where it tried to contact the First Polish Army under Soviet command , stationed on the right bank of Vistula . Since no help was forthcoming from the Soviet - controlled Poles , Mazurkiewicz and his unit made their way through Warsaw ' s sewers to Mokotów , the last center of resistance in Warsaw , in late September . There , the remains of the decimated group , including the " Parasol " and " Czata 49 " battalions , fought until the surrender of the Polish forces on 2 October . Shortly before the order was signed , Mazurkiewicz was officially promoted to the rank of colonel , by General Tadeusz Bór - Komorowski , the commander of the uprising . According to the capitulation agreement , the Polish Home Army soldiers were to be treated as regular POW s and the civilians of Warsaw evacuated . Mazurkiewicz disbanded his unit and together with his wife Anna , who was a member of the Radosław Group , escaped the city by posing as a civilian . In communist Poland . In 1945 , he was arrested by Urząd Bezpieczeństwa , the Polish communist secret police . He decided to cooperate with communist authorities in order to protect former members of resistance and he called for ex - AK soldiers who had joined the anti - communist underground to lay down their arms in accordance with the amnesties of 1945 and 1947 . In 1949 , Mazurkiewicz wrote a letter to Stanisław Radkiewicz , head of the Ministry of Public Security , complaining of the continued persecution of former Home Army soldiers and he was arrested again . During a two - year pre - trial confinement , Mazurkiewicz was interrogated and tortured — he was beaten and his teeth and hair were forcibly pulled out . He was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment in a show trial , in which the prosecutor submitted a false confession allegedly made by Mazurkiewicz and no defense witnesses were allowed to appear . He remained imprisoned until the amnesty of 1956 . Eventually rehabilitated , he was active in organizations which sought to protect former veterans of anti - Nazi resistance and served as vice - president of the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy , the Polish veterans association . In 1980 , during a brief liberalization associated with the first Solidarity period he was promoted to the rank of General . He died in May 1988 , about a year and a half before the first postwar non - communist government was elected in Poland , and was buried at Powązki Military Cemetery .