Ludwik Kalkstein

Ludwik "Hanka" Kalkstein, also known as Ludwik Kalkstein-Stoliński, (13 March 1920, in Warsaw – 26 October 1994, in Munich);[1] was a Polish collaborateur of German descent who worked together with Nazi German Gestapo agents during the Warsaw Uprising and later as a Stalinist informant following the Soviet takeover of Poland. Along with his wife (Blanka Kaczorowska "Sroka"(b. October 13, 1922 in Brest, d. August 25, 2004), they became traitors to the Armia Krajowa under not just one but two consecutive totalitarian regimes.[2] Kalkstein was responsible for the arrest and execution by the Nazis of at least fourteen Polish underground officers, including the General Stefan Rowecki.

Kalkstein, Gestapo agent during Warsaw Uprising, Stalinist informant in postwar Poland
Blanka Kaczorowska

Arrested by the Gestapo in April 1942 and interrogated, Kalkstein and Kaczorowska had followed a path taken by other Nazi agents.[3] After collaborating with the Germans, even fighting on their side against the Poles of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 (Kalkstein joined the SS as "Paul Henchel"),[2] they would later collaborate as informants with Urzad Bezpieczenstwa (a Polish version of the KGB between 1947 and 1956), after their internment in a Stalinist prison.[4]

Kalkstein was arrested by the Polish Ministry of Public Security in August 1953 and then sentenced to life imprisonment on the charge of the betrayal of General Grot-Rowecki. The sentence was reduced to 12 years in prison. He was released from prison in 1965 under an amnesty. In 1973 and settled in Piaseczno, Poland where he ran a chicken farm and then moved to the village of Utrata near Jarocin where he owned a large pig farm. In 1981 or in 1982 he traveled to France, where his son lived (from a relationship with Blanka Kaczorowski). The family claimed that he died in France in the 1980s. In fact, in the mid-1980s, he emerged in Munich, where he worked in the library of the Polish Catholic Mission under the name of "Edward Ciesielski". He died on 26 October 1994, in Munich, Germany.[5]

See also

Notes and references
  1. Adam Zadworny, "Ostatnia misja Kalksteina." Gazeta Wyborcza, 12 December 2009.
  2. Waldemar Grabowski. "Kalkstein i Kaczorowska w świetle akt UB" (PDF 1.01 MB). Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej, issue: 08-09 / 2004. Retrieved 11 September 2011.
  3. No greater ally: the untold story of Poland's forces in World War II By Kenneth K. Koskodan
  4. "Ostatnia misja Kalksteina," page 2 (ibidem). 12 December 2009.
  5. "KALKSTEIN I KACZOROWSKA W ŚWIETLE AKT UB - ARTYKUŁY - Pamięć.pl - portal edukacyjny IPN". pamiec.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 15 February 2018.

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