Leon Billewicz
Leon Billewicz | |
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Memorial at the Piatykhatky mass grave in Kharkiv, with plaque of General Leon Billewicz (172/272) among 3,739 names of victims of the local NKVD killing squad.[1] | |
Born | citation needed] Verbichno (today Verbichne, Turiisk Raion) | 24 February 1870[
Died | April 1940 Kharkiv NKVD prison, Soviet Union | (aged 70)
Allegiance | Poland |
Rank | Brigadier General |
Leon Billewicz (April[citation needed] 25[citation needed], 1870 in Werbiczna – April 1940)[2] was a Polish officer and a General of the Polish Army. He was murdered during the Katyń massacre.
Biography
[edit]Service
[edit]Initially serving with the Imperial Russian Army, in November 1918 he joined the Polish forces. In the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1919-1920 he commanded the Polish 13th Infantry Brigade. In 1919 he was promoted to the rank of Generał brygady (Brigadier general). After the Peace of Riga he remained in active service and, until 1927, served as a commanding officer of the Brześć Fortified Area. In April 1927, he retired from active service.
Katyń massacre
[edit]After the Invasion of Poland in 1939 he was arrested by the NKVD and imprisoned in Soviet Union. Interned in the Starobielsk concentration camp,[3] he was murdered in Kharkiv in April 1940, at the age of seventy, during the Katyń massacre. Among the Katyn victims were 14 Polish generals including Bronisław Bohatyrewicz, Xawery Czernicki (admiral), Stanisław Haller, Aleksander Kowalewski, Henryk Minkiewicz, Kazimierz Orlik-Łukoski, Konstanty Plisowski, Rudolf Prich (murdered in Lviv), Franciszek Sikorski, Leonard Skierski, Piotr Skuratowicz, Mieczysław Smorawiński and Alojzy Wir-Konas (promoted posthumously).[4]
References
[edit]- ^ Jędrzej Tucholski (2003). "Jeńcy obozu w Starobielsku zamordowani w siedzibie charkowskiego Zarządu NKWD w kwietniu i maju 1940 roku, spoczywający na Polskim Cmentarzu Wojennym w Charkowie" (PDF). List of Prisoners of Starobielsk NKVD murdered at Kharkiv and resting at the Polish Cemetery in Piatykhatky. Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa. Archived from the original (PDF file, direct download 9.62 MB) on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
- ^ "Leon Billewicz". Ogrody Wspomnień. 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
- ^ The Crime of Katyn Polish Cultural Foundation, 1989 ISBN 0-85065-190-5 Page 19
- ^ 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.
- 1870 births
- 1940 deaths
- People from Volyn Oblast
- People from Volhynian Governorate
- Polish military personnel in the Imperial Russian Army of World War I
- Polish generals
- Katyn massacre victims
- Polish people of the Polish–Soviet War
- Polish military personnel killed in World War II
- Polish Army officers
- Polish prisoners of war
- World War II prisoners of war held by the Soviet Union
- Imperial Russian Army personnel
- People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent
- Billewicz family