Stanisław Haller de Hallenburg

Stanisław Haller (born 26 April 1872, murdered in April 1940) was a Polish politician and general, and cousin of General Józef Haller de Hallenburg.

Life

Between 1894 and 1918 he served in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Among other 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.

In 1939 he was arrested by the Soviets and placed in a POW camp in Starobielsk^[1][2]. Along with other Polish POWs, he was murdered by the NKVD in April 1940 near Kharkov, in the Katyn Massacres^[1].

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

Bibliography

• Stalisław Haller (sic!) (1926). Naród a armja (The Nation and the Army). Kraków, Księgarnia Krakowska. p. 88. 

• various authors (1984). O przewrocie majowym 1926; opinie świadków i uczestników (On the May Coup d'etat; opinions of witnesses and participants). Andrzej Wierzbicki, Stanisław Haller, Jan Rzepecki. Wydawnictwa MON. p. 164. ISBN 8311071225. 

References

See also

• Prometheism
• List of Poles