MAJ Stanisław Cieślik is one of the nearly 22,000 Polish military officers and policemen and intelligentsia reserve officers taken captive by the Soviet Union after its attack on Poland on 17 September 1939, made prisoners of war and then murdered in cold blood in April and May 1940 by the NKVD in a planned holocaust. In all, the NKVD executed almost half the Polish officer corps.

MAJ Stanisław Cieślik, Polish citizen, was the son of Józef. He graduated from the Junior High School in Jasło. In 1914–1918 he served in the Austrian army, as Poland was still occupied by its three neighbours and had no army of its onw, and Jasło was in the part of its territory occupied by Austria-Hungar. However, as soon as Poland regained independence in 1918, he joined the Polish Army. He was appointed second lieutenant on 1 November 1919.

MAJ Stanisław Cieślik graduated from War College (Polish: Wyższa Szkoła Wojskowa) in 1925. He served in the Headquarters of 4th Corps District Command (Polish: Dowództwo Okręgu Korpusu), and 5th Infantry Division, and the 6th Airborne Infantry Division as economic officer, quartermaster and summer camp intendant.

Starting with 1937, Cieślik headed a department of the 5th Corps District Command and then its intendancy office.

REFERENCES

For a list of "The Victims of the Katyń Massacre who were Murdered in Kharkov", see:

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofiary_zbrodni_katyńskiej_–_zamordowani_w_Charkowie

For a biogram of MAJ Stanisław Cieślik see:

Jędrzej Tucholski (ed.). Charków. Księga Cmentarna Polskiego Cmentarza Wojennego (Kharkov. The Cemetery List of the Polish War Cemetery). Warszawa, 2003. ISBN 83-916663-5-2. (in Polish)

https://ksiegicmentarne.muzeumkatynskie.pl/wpis/4832

For a broader description of how the unmarked burial site was discovered by children what they found there, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piatykhatky,_Kharkiv_Oblast

For the honours prison guard Mitrofan Vasilievich Syromiatnikov received from Beria for his part in murdering the Polish officers, see:

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitrofan_Syromiatnikow

For a description of the life of the Polish prisoners at the Starobielsk Camp see:

Czapski Józef. "Wspomnienia starobielskie" (in Polish); for a French translation see: Souvenirs de Starobielsk. Gustaw Herling-Grudziński. Les Éditions Noir sur Blanc. Montricher 1987

For a short documentary on the holocaust of the Polish officers and its historical background and its cover-up see:

"Katyn - WWII's Forgotten Massacre" by Mark Felton, 2021:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2djnWw751s

Written by Ivonna Nowicka, 2024