Tadeusz Kotłowski 1924 - 1945

Born 17.5.1924 in Poznań
Died 24.2.1945 in Mauthausen

Biography

Tadeusz Kotłowski was born on May 17, 1924, in Poznań, into a military family maintaining the patriotic traditions of Greater Poland. He was the eldest child among the five children of Kazimierz Kotłowski (professional soldier of the Polish Army, Greater Poland insurgent) and Jadwiga née Sarbak.

Tadeusz's carefree youth ended when, after Poland’s September defeat in 1939, Greater Poland was incorporated into the Third Reich, becoming part of the so-called The Wartheland (Warthegau) administered by the fanatical, ruthless Nazi Arthur Greiser, striving to completely eliminate Poles and create a model German National Socialist district here. Tadeusz joined the Scout conspiracy movement Szare Szeregi against the occupiers very early. He joined the scout military group “Polska Niepodległa”, adopts the nickname “Jastrząb” and becomes a link between the “Polska Niepodległa” organization and the ZWZ (Związek Walki Zbrojnej)/Home Army.

In the fall of 1943, arrests of members of the Polish resistance group increased. Tadeusz Kotłowski was arrested by the Gestapo on October 4, 1944, in Poznań. He died in the Mauthausen concentration camp on February 24, 1945. He was 20 years old on the day of his death.

Tadeusz lived in a tragic time for Poland. In 1939, at the age of 15, he found himself under the rule of German Nazism in Poland. The German nation chose as its leader Adolf Hitler, who, with populist reforms and Nazi propaganda, introduced dictatorship and terror in Germany itself as well as in the countries occupied by the German army.

The history of Germany with its populist leader elected by the people is a warning to the whole world. There is no example of positive populist rule in the history of nations. Populist rule always leads to losses for the entire nation.

 

Włodzimierz Kotłowski, nephew (son of Alojzy Kotłowski, Tadeusz’s younger brother – in the family photo in the middle)

Location In room