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

General Stefan Rowecki (codename: “Grot”), the leader of the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa), was arrested in Warsaw on 30 June 1943. Rowecki was discovered by the Gestapo after being betrayed by three Poles who worked for the Home Army intelligence service. A key role was played by Eugeniusz Świerczewski, who knew Rowecki from the pre-war years. He recognised “Grot” in the street and informed the Germans. Other agents who spied on the general were Ludwik Kalkstein and his fiancée, Blanka Kaczorowska, of whom the historian Witold Pronobis wrote: “She played an important and particularly heinous role. Until the beginning of March 1944, she was a member of Section II (Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence) of the main command of the Home Army. She remained undetected as an agent and denounced more people – around 29 officers and soldiers in all.”[1]Świerczewski was the only one of the three to be arrested during the war, in June 1944. Following interrogation by counter-espionage officers from the Home Army, he was sentenced to death by the military court and hanged in the cellar of a building in Warsaw. His body was then hastily buried.

General Rowecki was immediately (after his arrest – translator’s note) taken to the Gestapo headquarters in Schuch Avenue (Aleja Szucha) in Warsaw. The unofficial interrogation there, which was initially conducted in order to confirm his identity, was led by the head of the Secret State Police, Ludwig Hahn, and attended by other officials. Jürgen Stroop, who was responsible for the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, later described General “Grot” when interviewed by Kazimierz Moczarski: “He was unusually serious and completely calm. I must admit that he made a deep impression on me. He wore civilian clothes, but you could tell at first glance that this was someone of the highest military rank.”[2]

Since the Germans feared that attempts would be made to free their prisoner, a special aeroplane was ordered from Berlin, which flew the general back to the German capital the very next day, on 1 July 1943. The head of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller, then assumed personal responsibility for “Grot”. In the interrogations that followed, the option was of course considered of persuading “Grot” Rowecki to collaborate with the Nazis in order to weaken the Polish underground. However, in a note left by Heinrich Himmler after a meeting with Hitler, the Führer rejected the idea of involving the general “in the neutralisation of the Polish resistance movement”, since he regarded “the experiment” as being “too dangerous”.[3]