stillunusual:Eugeniusz Lokajski (code name “Brok”) - Polish resistance fighter and photoreporter (an

stillunusual:Eugeniusz Lokajski (code name “Brok”) - Polish resistance fighter and photoreporter (and cat lover), pictured in August 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising.Lokajski was a well-known gymnast and athlete in pre-war Poland. He set the Polish javelin record in 1936 and was favourite for the gold medal in the Berlin Olympics of that year, before suffering an injury during training that ended his career.During the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939 he was conscripted into the Polish Army and served as a platoon commander in the 35th Infantry Regiment. After the Battle of Brześć he was taken prisoner by the Soviets, but managed to escape to Warsaw, thus avoiding the fate of other Polish officers interned by the USSR, who were murdered at Katyń and other sites in 1940.In Warsaw he opened a photographic shop and also worked as a teacher in one of the underground universities that were set up after the Germans banned higher education for the Polish population. He became more active in the resistance following the death of his brother, Józef Lokajski, who was killed by the Germans in 1943. In the Warsaw Uprising, both Lokajski and his sister Zofia fought in the Koszta company of the Armia Krajowa, stationed mainly in the city centre. The commander of his unit, Stefan Mich (code name “Kmita”) also asked him to use his photographic skills to document the fate of the uprising.Just before the capitulation Lokajski was attached to the Headquarters of the Armia Krajowa and tasked with preparing photographs of important AK soldiers for fake German documents, which would allow them to evade captivity and continue their resistance activities. While stocking up on materials at a photographic shop in Marszałkowska Street, he was killed during a German artillery barrage. A collection of 840 of his photographs taken during the uprising was found after the war in one of Warsaw’s ruined buildings.Six of Eugeniusz Lokajski’s Warsaw Uprising photos….Jerzy Tyczyński (code name “Jur”) with a Bergmann MP18 gun….A first aid patrol on Moniuszki Street….German POWs being marched away from the PAST-a building….Polish partisans standing next to a burning building….Stefan Mich (code name “Kmita”) looking for signs of Soviet troop movements….Woman with a mirror…. -- source link

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