November 30, 1913 - Romuald Rajs
Operating under the nom de guerre "Bury," Rajs emerged from the Polish anti-communist resistance of the postwar years — a context that has complicated his historical legacy without diminishing the gravity of what his unit carried out. In 1946, forces under his command burned Belarusian villages in the Białystok region and killed approximately 79 civilians, acts that were later classified as war crimes. He represents a figure whose ideological cause and criminal conduct became inseparable, making his story central to difficult postwar reckonings in Poland.
From Wikipedia
Romuald Rajs, nom de guerre "Bury" (30 November 1913 – 30 December 1949), was a Polish soldier, a member of Home Army (AK) and National Military Union (NZW), an anti-communist insurgent and war criminal. In 1946 the unit under his command burned several Belarusian villages in the region of Białystok and massacred about 79 villagers. He was sentenced to death in a show trial held by the Polish communist government in 1949, charged with membership in delegalized NZW. Following the trial, he was executed in 1949. The verdict was nullified by the Military Court of Warsaw in 1995. In 2005, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance conducted an investigation which revealed that his actions bear the marks of genocide against Orthodox Belarusian community in post-war boundaries of Poland. Rajs is revered by regional nationalist Polish groups as a hero which creates tensions with the local Belarusian and Eastern Orthodox inhabitants.
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