Stanisław Sojczyński “Warszyc” was born on 30 March 1910 in Rzejowice. Before the Second World War, he worked as a Polish teacher. During the war, he was an officer with the Polish Victory Service (Służba Zwycięstwu Polski), the Union for Armed Struggle (Związek Walki Zbrojnej) and the Home Army (Armia Krajowa). He came to fame owing to a daring raid on the German prison in Radomsko on the night of 7 August 1943. The soldiers under his command freed about 50 captives: more than 40 Poles and 11 Jews and retreated without any casualties. In recognition of his bravery, Lieutenant Sojczyński, then using the alias “Wojnar”, was awarded the Silver Cross of the War Order of Virtuti Militari. He proved himself as a competent commander of the partisan unit he organized in the Częstochowa Inspectorate of the Home Army. He fought in Operation Tempest, leading the 1st Battalion of the 27th Infantry Regiment of the Home Army.

Sojczyński’s troops failed to break through to Warsaw to help the insurgents during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. In December 1944, Sojczyński was part of a team guarding the British military mission codenamed “Freston” in occupied Poland. The aim of the mission was to collect information for the British government about the situation in Poland, particularly about the Polish underground and the Red Army’s attitude to it. On 1 January 1945, the “Manewr” battalion under “Warszyc’s” command fought a fierce battle with the Germans near Katarzynów in defence of the mission. In January 1945, Sojczyński was promoted to captain.

Stanisław Sojczyński, who assumed the alias “Warszyc”, did not surrender arms to the Soviet occupiers. On 3 May 1945, he restored his organisation. Its primary objective was to defend the Poles against terror and to liquidate collaborators. Sojczyński’s units operated under the name of the Underground Polish Army (Konspiracyjne Wojsko Polskie, KWP) with the codenames of “Lasy” and “Bory”. It numbered approx. 4,000 troops in the Łódzkie and Kieleckie regions, but it also operated in Silesia and the Poznań region. The KWP units conducted numerous spectacular operations against the outposts of the police – the so-called “Citizens’ Militia” (MO) - and the secret police (UB) as well as their local informers.

In his open letter of 12 August 1945 to Col. Jan Mazurkiewicz alias “Radosław”, Captain Sojczyński called Mazurkiewicz’s appeal to surrender treason and urged him to continue fighting against the communists. “Warszyc” was counting on the outbreak of World War III and the success of the Polish People’s Party in a truly free general election in Poland, guaranteed during the conference of the leaders of the three allied powers.

On the night of 19 April 1946, Sojczyński reprised his WWII operation. Approximately 170 partisans led by Jan Rogulka alias “Grot” attacked Radomsko. They freed 57 detainees from the prison of the secret police district headquarters. However, they failed to find all the members of the Polish Workers’ Party sentenced to death by the KWP leadership, who were to be executed. During the retreat, the partisans defeated a unit of the Internal Security Corps, which was three times more numerous. It was then that the communists vowed to retaliate.

The ordeal started on 27 June 1946, after “Warszyc” was arrested as a result of denunciation by a former member of the organization who had agreed to collaborate with the secret police. The trial that Sojczyński and other KWP members stood before the Military District Court in Łódź on 9 -17 December 1946 was merely an approval of a sentence given in the party and secret police offices.

Stanisław Sojczyński was murdered on 19 February 1947 in Łódź, three days prior to the announcement of an amnesty. His final resting place is unknown.

Tadeusz Płużański

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