JULIAN SPITOSŁAW KULSKI

Julian Spitoslaw Kulski, born December 5, 1892 in Warsaw, soldier of Jozef Pilsudski’s legions, participant in the Polish-Soviet war of 1920, pre-war vice-president of Warsaw (from 1935), deputy and friend of Stefan Starzynski.

He also went down in the pages of history as a captive of the City Hall, a patriot and an activist for the capital. After the arrest of Stefan Starzyński in October 1939, he became his successor. With the consent of the authorities of the delegate of the Polish Government at Home and the Polish Underground State as well as the government in exile, he served as the city’s mayor, according to German nomenclature, a commissar mayor.

Thousands of people owed their lives to him, to whom he issued fictitious identity documents or real or fictitious certificates of employment at City Hall. He helped members of the resistance, people wanted by the Germans, citizens of Jewish descent, and escapees from the ghetto. The scale of his activities was enormous. For his attitude and heroic deeds he was repeatedly decorated, including the Cross of Valor in 1939 for the defense of Warsaw.