Cezary Ketling-Szemley | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Janusz, Ketling, Olgierd, Arpad |
| Born | 22 July 1915 near Lviv, Austro-Hungary |
| Died | 9 January 1979 (aged 63) Warsaw, Poland |
| Allegiance | Polish Underground State |
| Service/ | PLAN Home Army Polish People's Army PAL |
| Years of service | 1939–1945 |
| Battles/wars | Warsaw Uprising |
| Awards |  |
Cezary Ketling-Szemley (22 July 1915 – 9 January 1979) was a Polish military officer and lawyer. He was a participant in the Polish resistance movement during the World War II, member of the PLAN, Home Army and PAL, main collaborator and supporter of the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW) on the part of the Polish underground during and before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He was born as Cezary Szemley. During the war he used the aliases "Janusz", "Ketling", "Olgierd" and "Arpad". After the war, he signed himself Cezary Szemley-Ketling or Ketling-Szemley. In 1949, he officially changed his name to Janusz Ketling-Szemley.[1]
Many details of Szemley's biography are unknown or unclear. What is known is that immediately after the start of the German occupation he joined the underground as a member of the Polish Popular Independence Action (PLAN) affiliated with the Alliance of Democrats party. After its destruction by the Germans, he founded a new organization of the same name, which soon joined the ZWZ-AK. As a member of the Home Army, he was twice sentenced to death by an underground court for collaboration with the Gestapo, but the sentence was not approved by the Home Army commander. In December 1942, he established contacts with the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW), which was forming in the ghetto, claiming to be a representative of the Polish underground state, for which he probably had no approval. He assisted the ŻZW with training, as well as by selling weapons and taking part in joint anti-German actions. He also supported the ŻZW during the ghetto uprising, helping some of the fighters escape from the ghetto.
He later became associated with the pro-communist and pro-Soviet Polish People's Army (PAL) and the Soviet-installed government of the PKWN. After the war, he worked as a lawyer.
- ^ Grabski 2007, p. 427n26.