Major general Boleslaw Roja

Roja was born 1876 in Brynce Zagorne, Galicia. In 1898 he graduated from the Wiener Neustadt Cadet School and was assigned as a lieutenant to the 36th Landwehr Infantry Regiment in Kolomea. From 1905 he was in the reserve and worked for the intelligence of the Monarchy. In 1914 he joined the Polish Legion, where from 1915 he was appointed as lieutenant colonel to the commander of the 4th Infantry Regiment. With his regiment he fought against the Russians first in the Lublin area and then in Volhynia. Having come into conflict with the Monarchy’s military leadership, he left the Polish Legion in July 1917 and joined the Austro-Hungarian regular army. As a major general, he was appointed city commander of Kraków in 1918.

After the war, he participated in the organization of the newly formed Polish army. In 1922, he was retired, presumably because of his old conflict with Pilsudski. He was then elected a member of parliament and entered politics. In 1940, he was arrested by the Germans who occupied Poland. He was beaten to death in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on May 27, 1940.

Despite his conflicts and criticism against Pilsudski, his country respects and preserves his memory. This was also expressed by erecting a monument in his honor at the site of his death on the grounds of the former concentration camp.