Stanisław Klimecki

Who is Stanisław Klimecki?

Stanisław Klimecki was a Polish lawyer, social activist, and the President of Kraków at the time of the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. He served as president only for a few weeks, before his German successor from the NSDAP took over by the order of SS-Obergruppenführer, Hans Frank. Klimecki saved the city from being shelled by the invading Wehrmacht troops on his own initiative.

Klimecki was arrested and then released numerous times during the occupation of Kraków, before his death at the hands of the Nazis. The first time, he was taken hostage by the Wehrmacht on September 6, 1939, when he approached them with the call to stop shooting because the city was defenseless: "Feuer einstellen!" The second time, if only briefly – on September 11, 1939 for interrogation; and then once more on September 20, 1939, when he was dismissed as President. On November 6, 1939, Klimecki was arrested again, during the notorious Sonderaktion Krakau, and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He returned to Kraków upon his release, and was apprehended for the last time of his life on November 29, 1942. A few days later, on December 11, 1942, he was executed, along with some 40 hostages at a remote killing ground in the Niepołomice Forest.