Stanisław Haller

Stanisław Haller
Stanisław Haller
Chief of the Polish General Staff
	In office; 12 May 1926 – 15 May 1926
Preceded by	Edmund Kessler
Succeeded by	Stanisław Burhardt-Bukacki
Personal details
Born	26 April 1872; Polanka Hallera, Austria-Hungary
Died	April 1940 (67-68); Kharkov, Soviet Union
Resting place	Kharkov Polish War Cemetery
Citizenship	Polish
Military service
Allegiance	Second Polish Republic
Branch/service	Polish Legions; ; Polish Armed Forces
Years of service	1912–1939
Rank	Divisional general
Battles/wars	First World War; Polish–Soviet War ; Invasion of Poland
Haller Coat of Arms

Stanisław Haller de Hallenburg (26 April 1872 – April 1940) was a Polish politician and general who was murdered in the Katyn massacre. He was the cousin of General Józef Haller von Hallenburg.

Life

Between 1894 and 1918 Haller served in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Among other military functions, he was commandant of Fortress Kraków. In 1918 he joined the renascent Polish Army. During the Polish-Soviet War he contributed to the defeat of Budionny's army and its expulsion beyond the Bug River. In 1919-1920, 1923–25 and in May 1926 he was Chief of the Polish General Staff. After 1926 he was placed in retirement as a political opponent of the new regime headed by Józef Piłsudski.

Death

In 1939 he was arrested by the Soviets after their attack on Poland and placed in a POW camp in Starobielsk.^[1]^[2] Along with other Polish POWs, he was murdered by the NKVD in April 1940, just before his sixty-eighth birthday, in Piatykhatky near Kharkov, in what is collectively called the Katyn Massacre.^[3]

He is buried at the Polish War Cemetery in Kharkov.

Commemorations

Stanisław Haller is patron of the 5th command regiment of the Kraków-based Polish 2nd Mechanized Corps.

Honours and awards

Commander's Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari; previously awarded the Silver Cross (1921)
Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta
Cross of Valour - twice
Cross of Liberty, Class I (Estonia)
Royal Order of St. Stephen of Hungary
Order of St. Stanislaus

Other high ranking Polish officers murdered in the Katyn Massacre

Among the victims of the Katyn Massacre were 14 Polish military leaders, including Leon Billewicz, Bronisław Bohatyrewicz, Xawery Czernicki, Henryk Minkiewicz, Kazimierz Orlik-Łukoski, Konstanty Plisowski, Rudolf Prich (murdered in Lwow), Franciszek Sikorski, Leonard Skierski, Piotr Skuratowicz, Mieczysław Smorawiński, and Alojzy Wir-Konas (promoted posthumously).^[4]

References

^ J.K.Zawodny Death in the Forest Notre Dame, 1962, pg. 145
^ The Crime of Katyn Polish Cultural Foundation, 1989 ISBN 0-85065-190-5, pg. 19
^ J.K.Zawodny Death in the Forest Notre Dame, 1962, pg. 146
^ Andrzej Leszek Szcześniak, ed. (1989). Katyń; lista ofiar i zaginionych jeńców obozów Kozielsk, Ostaszków, Starobielsk. Warsaw, Alfa. p. 366. ISBN 978-83-7001-294-6.; Moszyński, Adam, ed. (1989). Lista katyńska; jeńcy obozów Kozielsk, Ostaszków, Starobielsk i zaginieni w Rosji Sowieckiej. Warsaw, Polskie Towarzystwo Historyczne. p. 336. ISBN 978-83-85028-81-9.; Tucholski, Jędrzej (1991). Mord w Katyniu; Kozielsk, Ostaszków, Starobielsk: lista ofiar. Warsaw, Pax. p. 987. ISBN 978-83-211-1408-8.; Banaszek, Kazimierz (2000). Kawalerowie Orderu Virtuti Militari w mogiłach katyńskich. Roman, Wanda Krystyna; Sawicki, Zdzisław. Warsaw, Chapter of the Virtuti Militari War Medal & RYTM. p. 351. ISBN 978-83-87893-79-8.; Maria Skrzyńska-Pławińska, ed. (1995). Rozstrzelani w Katyniu; alfabetyczny spis 4410 jeńców polskich z Kozielska rozstrzelanych w kwietniu-maju 1940, według źródeł sowieckich, polskich i niemieckich. Stanisław Maria Jankowski. Warsaw, Karta. p. 286. ISBN 978-83-86713-11-0.; Skrzyńska-Pławińska, Maria, ed. (1996). Rozstrzelani w Charkowie; alfabetyczny spis 3739 jeńców polskich ze Starobielska rozstrzelanych w kwietniu-maju 1940, według źródeł sowieckich i polskich. Porytskaya, Ileana. Warsaw, Karta. p. 245. ISBN 978-83-86713-12-7.; Skrzyńska-Pławińska, Maria, ed. (1997). Rozstrzelani w Twerze; alfabetyczny spis 6314 jeńców polskich z Ostaszkowa rozstrzelanych w kwietniu-maju 1940 i pogrzebanych w Miednoje, według źródeł sowieckich i polskich. Porytskaya, Ileana. Warsaw, Karta. p. 344. ISBN 978-83-86713-18-9.

Bibliography

Stalisław Haller (sic!) (1926). Naród a armja (The Nation and the Army). Kraków, Księgarnia Krakowska. p. 88.
Andrzej Wierzbicki; Stanisław Haller; Jan Rzepecki (1984). O przewrocie majowym 1926; opinie świadków i uczestników (On the May Coup d'etat; opinions of witnesses and participants). Wydawnictwa MON. p. 164. ISBN 83-11-07122-5.