The final year of General “Grot” Rowecki’s life

It is not known in which of the 80 cells Stefan Rowecki was initially interned (it could have been cell no. 71), or why in January 1944 he was moved to cell no. 50 next to the SS office. What is certain is that the window of this cell did not look out onto the exercise yard, making contact with other prisoners considerably harder. It is thought[5] that he was moved there because of a planned escape, and/or in connection with a report by a Ukrainian prisoner who claimed that the Banderites (supporters of Stepan Bandera – translator’s note) were planning to murder the general and to make his death look like suicide.[6]

In Sachsenhausen, as in Berlin, General Rowecki was classified as an “honourable prisoner” (Ehrenhäftling). He was permitted to wear civilian clothing, was given special meals known as “troops’ food”, which were otherwise reserved for the SS guards, and was allowed to correspond with his family. The five letters in total which he wrote to his cousin Halina Królikowska, née Chrzanowska, are valuable historical documents, which were only able to be saved from the ravages of war thanks to the brave actions of his relatives. They are an important record of the general’s life in the camp, of his concern for his immediate family and, in veiled language, for the fate of the Home Army. With the approval of the Germans, “Grot” was able to receive packages containing food, clothing and medication.

For many years, he had suffered from a disease of the liver. In Sachsenhausen, his health deteriorated dramatically. In one of his letters, he asks for a delivery of fruit “and something made of vegetables (but without peas or cabbage), dried plums, jam, blueberries.”[7] In the “Note for the doctor in Warsaw” which he attaches to a letter written in February 1944, he complains that the examinations conducted in Berlin in December had no effect at all. The general was informed neither of the results, nor was he given a diagnosis. “Shortly afterwards, I was informed that nothing malign, nothing that indicated underlying disease, was found.”[8]