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Adam Ronikier
Adam Ronikier
Adam Ronikier
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Adam Feliks Ronikier (1 November 1881, Warsaw – 4 September 1952, Orchard Lake, Michigan) was a Polish count and conservative politician.[1][additional citation(s) needed]

Key Information

Biography

[edit]

During the World War I, he was a president of the Central Welfare Council (Rada Główna Opiekuńcza) in the period 1916–1918 in Kingdom of Poland, and again during the World War II from June 1940 to October 1943 in General Government.[2][additional citation(s) needed] The council received financial support both from the German authorities and (clandestinely) from the Polish Government in Exile.

World War II

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World War II Establishment of the Central Welfare Council After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, he organized meetings of the anti-Sanation opposition in his Warsaw apartment, proclaiming the need to prioritize the defense of the nation over the defense of the state.[3][4] After the capitulation of Warsaw, he joined the Capital Committee for Social Self-Help (SKSS).[4][5]

On October 8, 1939, he received Lieutenant Colonel von Hoeltz from the Bavarian artillery regiment in Warsaw, who asked him about Polish sentiments towards the Germans on behalf of SS Standartenführer Harry von Craushaar, Hans Frank's deputy and head of the civilian board at the command of the 8th Army.[6] This conversation was condemned by Mieczysław Niedziałkowski at a meeting of the SKSS.[7] In October 1939, Ronikier also spoke with a high-ranking official of the Third Reich, Weiss von Ulogg, an envoy of the Prussian Prime Minister, Marshal Hermann Göring, who also probed the Poles' willingness to cooperate.[4][8] Before Ulogg left for Berlin in November, Ronikier handed him a memorandum intended for Göring, prepared together with Roman Rybarski, Norbert Barlicki and Bolesław Lutomski, in which he postulated the establishment of a new social welfare institution, an issuing bank and a civic guard to prevent "anarchy".[8] He passed a copy of this note to Herbert Hoover's envoy and delegate of the Commission for Polish Relief (CPR, also known as the Polish Food Commission and commonly known as the Hoover Commission[9]), a businessman active in Poland, William C. McDonald, who – after October talks in Berlin and a tour of the General Government with the head of the National Socialist People's Social Welfare (NSV) Erich Hilgenfeldt[10] – contacted Ronikier in November about establishing an institution for distributing American aid. Ronikier held several days of conferences with McDonald and another CPR activist, Columba Patrick Murray Jr., partly at the United States Embassy in Warsaw with the participation of Consul George Haering. He agreed with them on the exclusively Polish nature of the planned organization, its monopoly on the distribution of aid sent from the USA and direct control by American donors.[10][11]

On November 19, 1939, he presented this project of the organization at the meeting of the SKSS, where, due to the rejection by other candidates of cooperation with the Germans, he received conditional support and authorization to start talks with Archbishop Adam Sapieha and the Kraków circles.[12][13][11] His candidacy for the head of the organization was put forward by Janusz Machnicki.[14] After the Germans imposed their conditions on the Americans and the Polish Red Cross withdrew from establishing a dependent welfare organization under German supervision, Ronikier was summoned to talks in Kraków on December 13 by Fritz Arlt, head of the Department of Population and Welfare Affairs of the Social Welfare Department in the Office of the General Governor and deputy head of the department, to whom Ronikier had been recommended by Maria Tarnowska, a colleague from the Polish Red Cross.[15][16] While in Kraków, he criticized the parallel negotiations between the SKSS and Wilhelm von Janowski from the NSV, which were subsequently interrupted by Arlt's superior, Herbert Heinrich.[17] He submitted to Arlt a project agreed with McDonald for an organization modeled on the Central Welfare Council from World War I.[18] During his next visit to Kraków in January 1940, he obtained Franek's consent to establish the Central Welfare Council with a narrow staff and took the position of vice-president alongside Janusz Radziwiłł, concentrating most of the real powers in his hands.[19] At the beginning of February, he reported to Cardinal Sapieha, who indicated his collaborators. From 22 January to 29 May 1940, he negotiated the statute of the Central Welfare Council with the Germans in detail, with the support of Archbishops Sapieha and Stanisław Gall.[20][21][9][22] From the beginning of the occupation, he sought to minimise Polish losses and avert the risk of socialist revolution through political cooperation with the Germans.[23] At the end of 1939, at a secret meeting with Stanisław Tyszkiewicz, he stated the need to establish a pro-German Polish government.[24] During this period, he encouraged Maciej Rataj to accept the position of prime minister of the collaborationist government, meeting with a sharp refusal.[25]

In December 1943, he met Horace Coock, British political agent in Warsaw. In February 1944, Ronikier was arrested by Gestapo in Kraków for three weeks. In July 1944, he again discussed with SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans Gerd Schindhelm to save lives of many thousands of Polish young people in Warsaw who were ready to fight against Germans to the death without any chance to win. Count Ronikier had presented an idea to end a German occupation of Warsaw without military combat – Polish Home Army takes Warsaw from German hands. It was supported by some German politicians and field officers (almost like the liberation of Paris in August 1944). Finally, the Warsaw Uprising broke out on 1 August 1944.

After the capitulation of the Warsaw Uprising, he led, alongside Feliks Burdecki, a propaganda campaign in support of the German war effort against the USSR by the population of the General Government. On the authority of Schindhelm and SS Obersturmführer Alfred Kolf, and with the support of Archbishop Sapieha, for this purpose he founded the Bureau of Studies in Kraków at the end of October 1944,[26][27][28][21] with its headquarters in the Pusłowski Palace.[29] It was an initiative of a political collaboration nature,[27][28] which raised concerns among the underground authorities, but due to the lack of broader social support it was discredited by them as frivolous.[30][31] The Bureau, which left no trace of formal activity, was composed of about 70 people representing mainly the so-called landed gentry and intelligentsia activists with views described in the AK circle as close to those of the National Armed Forces.[32][28][27][31] They included Józef Mackiewicz, Aleksander Bocheński, Dominik Horodyński [pl], Stanisław Stomma, Tomasz Rostworowski, Alfred Wielopolski [pl], Henryk Stefan Potocki, Bogdan Drucki-Lubecki and his brother Ksawery, Eugeniusz Jeleniewski, Stanisław Milewski, Jerzy Rogowicz, Antoni Starzeński, former Minister of the Treasury Jerzy Michalski, former Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government senator Zygmunt Jundziłł [pl], Ronikier secretary Andrzej Ciechanowiecki and RGO activists Kazimierz Okulicz, Stanisław Tyszkiewicz and Antoni Plater-Zyberk.[33][29][34] The work of the Office, in which Gestapo officers and German officials participated,[29][30] consisted of preparing the ground for a collaborationist Polish self-government, which would take over responsibility for providing contingents for the German army in exchange for enabling care for forced labourers in the Reich and restoring secondary school education.

The communiqués of the newspapers at that time included references to Poland and Poles. Ronikier announced the Germans' readiness to recognize the London government in the face of the establishment of the Polish Committee of National Liberation under the protection of the Soviet Union. He appealed to abandon resistance to the Germans in order to "save the Polish biological power of the nation" and to conclude an anti-communist alliance with the occupier.[35][36] His goal was to establish a new center of power in the country after the defeat of the Warsaw Uprising, which would replace the Polish underground state, which he believed was discredited.[37] In addition to plans to create Polish self-government in the lands west of the Vistula, he also conceived concepts of a federation with Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Lithuania.[37] The action was not officially condemned by the Polish underground, perhaps due to its support by Cardinal Sapieha.[29] Counterintelligence reports of the Government Delegation for Poland (codenamed "Wir") from December 1944 emphasized the full approval of the German authorities for "Count Roniker's Action" and its connection with the German desire to exploit anti-communist sentiments in society to achieve war benefits.[38]

Ronikier also began attacks on the RGO in the autumn of 1944, the aim of which was to remove president Tchórznicki, assessed in the underground as an initiative inspired by the Germans. He accused the Council of failing to take care of the people of Warsaw. He was invited to the December meeting of the RGO, where he clashed with Ludwik Dunin, who opposed his contacts with the Gestapo. On January 2, 1945, he demanded in a letter from Tchórznicki that he resign to Sapieha.

He left Poland on 18 January 1945, because of threat of arrest and possible death penalty, just before the Soviet army drove the German forces from Cracow. He died in exile in the United States.

References

[edit]
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Adam Ronikier

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Adam Feliks Ronikier (1 November 1881 – 4 September 1952) was a Polish count and conservative politician who served as president of the Main Welfare Council (Rada Główna Opiekuńcza, RGO), the primary legal Polish social welfare organization during the Nazi occupation, from its establishment in 1940 until October 1943. Under his leadership, the RGO coordinated humanitarian aid efforts, including international relief distributions, to alleviate suffering among Polish civilians amid wartime hardships and German restrictions. Ronikier's tenure highlighted tensions between pragmatic survival strategies and resistance ideals, as he advocated for limited cooperation with occupiers to preserve Polish society, a stance reflected in his postwar memoirs detailing the era's moral dilemmas.

Early Life

Birth and Family

Adam Feliks Ronikier was born on 1 November 1881 in Warsaw to a noble Polish family holding the comital title and bearing the Gryf coat of arms. His father, Wiktor Kazimierz Ronikier, was a count from an established szlachta lineage that traced its prominence through generations of Polish aristocracy. This heritage of landed nobility, rooted in traditions of service and hierarchy, provided the foundational context for Ronikier's early exposure to conservative principles emphasizing social order and national continuity.

Education

Ronikier completed his secondary education at the private Wojciech Górski Men's Gymnasium in Warsaw, graduating in 1897 before passing the matura examination the following year at a state school. This classical schooling, typical for under , provided a foundation in humanities and sciences that informed his later conservative worldview, emphasizing national tradition and social order. He subsequently pursued higher studies at Riga Technical University, acquiring technical expertise that aligned with his family's industrial interests and contributed to his practical approach in public service.

Pre-War Career

Conservative Activism

Adam Ronikier emerged as a key figure in interwar Polish conservative politics, co-founding the Stronnictwo Narodowe (National Party), a party rooted in nationalist and traditionalist principles. As a prominent activist, he advocated for policies emphasizing Polish sovereignty, agrarian interests, and opposition to leftist influences, aligning with the conservative elite's efforts to preserve social hierarchies amid the Second Republic's turbulent democracy. Within the Stronnictwo Narodowe, Ronikier assumed leadership roles, contributing to the party's platform that prioritized national unity and cultural preservation over radical reforms. His activism reflected the broader conservative pushback against Sanacja regime policies, positioning him as a defender of aristocratic and Catholic values in public discourse.

Diplomatic Roles

Count Adam Ronikier represented Poland in high-level negotiations with Lithuanian authorities in June 1918, as the states sought to navigate territorial disputes and foster cooperation amid World War I instability. Acting as a delegate, Ronikier engaged Lithuanian representatives and Konstantinas Olšauskas in talks that produced the short-lived Ronikier-Voldemaras treaty, an agreement emphasizing mutual recognition and potential alliance against common threats. These discussions, held against the backdrop of escalating tensions that would erupt into the Polish-Lithuanian War of 1919–1920, highlighted Ronikier's role in diplomatic efforts to avert conflict through pragmatic border accommodations and joint defense arrangements. Though the treaty ultimately failed to prevent hostilities due to irreconcilable national aspirations, it underscored Ronikier's alignment with conservative factions advocating measured engagement over confrontation in Poland's early interwar foreign policy.

Wartime Leadership

RGO Presidency

Count Adam Ronikier was appointed president of the Main Welfare Council (Rada Główna Opiekuńcza, RGO) in the General Government in early 1940 following the removal of the previous chairman, Prince Janusz Radziwiłł, by German Governor General Hans Frank. His tenure lasted until October 1943. As head of the RGO, the only Polish social welfare organization tolerated by Nazi authorities, Ronikier operated within the framework of German oversight, which included direct interventions in leadership changes to align the body with occupation policies. This environment required balancing compliance with occupier demands to ensure the RGO's continued existence and basic operational capacity for aiding Polish civilians amid repression and resource shortages.

Aid Coordination

As president of the Main Welfare Council (RGO), Adam Ronikier coordinated the distribution of international humanitarian aid to alleviate widespread suffering in Nazi-occupied Poland, including resources channeled through organizations like the Commission for Polish Relief, associated with former U.S. President Herbert Hoover. This effort involved negotiating with German authorities for permissions to import and allocate supplies amid severe restrictions on Polish institutions. The RGO under Ronikier delivered essential relief—such as food rations, clothing, and cash benefits—to millions of Poles and Jews confronting famine, displacement, and repression in the General Government. Operations included managing soup kitchens, shelters, and direct aid programs that targeted the most vulnerable populations, sustaining biological survival despite intense oversight and limitations imposed by the occupiers. Ronikier estimated that 2.6 to 2.9 million people were in dire need by late 1940, underscoring the scale of the crisis and the RGO's role in bridging external support with on-the-ground delivery under duress.

Political Positions

Activist Alignment

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, Adam Ronikier aligned with the "aktywiści" (activists) faction among conservative politicians, who advocated limited cooperation with the occupiers to safeguard Polish society rather than outright confrontation. This stance mirrored that of Władysław Studnicki, another prominent conservative favoring tactical accommodation to avert annihilation. Central to Ronikier's philosophy was the emphasis on the "biological survival" of the Polish nation, which prioritized the physical preservation and demographic continuity of the population over ideological purity or immediate resistance, viewing mass extermination as the greater existential threat.

Survival Strategies

Ronikier advocated pragmatic survival strategies centered on the "biological preservation" of the Polish nation amid dual existential threats from Nazi occupation policies and potential Soviet domination. He argued that ideological resistance alone risked the total eradication of Polish society, proposing instead a tactical accommodation with German authorities to secure minimal conditions for national continuity, including access to aid and avoidance of escalatory reprisals that could decimate the population. This perspective stemmed from his alignment with the "activist" faction, which prioritized enduring occupation hardships over confrontation to prevent annihilation by either Axis or Soviet forces, viewing pure defiance as insufficient against genocidal pressures. Ronikier's rationale highlighted the precarious balance: while Nazi exploitation threatened cultural and physical extinction, Soviet alternatives loomed as equally destructive, necessitating calculated concessions to maintain societal structures and avert irreversible collapse.

Late War Actions

Biuro Studiów

In late 1944, following the failure of the Warsaw Uprising, Adam Ronikier established the Biuro Studiów (Bureau of Studies) in Kraków to develop a framework for local Polish administration and alleviate the resulting humanitarian and administrative catastrophe. The initiative sought to organize Polish societal structures under occupation constraints, emphasizing pragmatic governance over continued armed resistance. Founded with authorization from German officials, including SS-Obersturmführer Alfred Kolbe, and supported by clerical figures like Archbishop Sapieha's advisor, the bureau reflected Ronikier's broader survival-oriented approach. However, the Polish Underground State regarded it as perilously close to collaboration due to its accommodationist stance and German tolerance.

Volhynia Negotiations

In response to the intensifying massacres of Polish civilians by the in Volhynia during 1943, Adam Ronikier pursued high-stakes negotiations with German occupation authorities to authorize and arm Polish self-defense units. He submitted proposals for forming these detachments, which aimed to protect Polish settlements from UPA attacks by coordinating local militias equipped with weapons sourced from German supplies. Ronikier contended that ideological purity offered poor protection against genocide, arguing within his pragmatic activist framework that unarmed Poles faced annihilation in the ethnic violence, necessitating tactical accommodations with the occupier to enable defensive capabilities and preserve the nation's biological survival. These negotiations involved appeals to officials such as Otto Wächter, highlighting the urgent threat posed by UPA forces to justify arming Polish groups despite the risks of perceived collaboration.

Post-War and Legacy

Emigration and Death

Following the Soviet liberation of Poland in early 1945, Ronikier left the country amid threats of arrest by the advancing communist authorities. He emigrated to the United States, where he spent his remaining years in exile. Ronikier died on 4 September 1952 in Orchard Lake, Michigan.

Historical Assessment

Adam Ronikier's leadership of the Main Welfare Council during the Nazi occupation positioned him within the "gray zone" of moral ambiguities, where pragmatic cooperation with occupiers coexisted with efforts to preserve Polish society amid existential threats, as examined in studies of conservative Polish responses to total war. This space, distinct from heroic or overt treason, involved tactical accommodations to avert annihilation, reflecting broader debates on collaboration's spectrum in occupied Poland. As a humanitarian bridge between the Polish population and German authorities, Ronikier facilitated relief distribution under severe constraints, channeling international aid to mitigate famine and displacement while contending with occupation demands that blurred lines of autonomy and subjugation. His approach prioritized biological survival over ideological confrontation, embodying the activist camp's emphasis on endurance against both Nazi and anticipated Soviet perils. Ronikier's legacy underscores essential tensions in modern Polish history, where such intermediary roles reveal the limits of binary narratives of victimhood and resistance, informing historiographical evaluations of occupation-era pragmatism.

References

  1. https://sztetl.org.pl/en/glossary/rada-glowna-opiekuncza-1940-r
  2. https://repozytorium.uni.wroc.pl/Content/108263/PDF/05_Kimla_P_Adam_hrabia_Ronikier_wobec_despotyzmu_bohaterstwa.pdf
  3. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/K8YG-Z8G/adam-feliks-ronikier-1881-1952
  4. https://www.geni.com/people/Adam-Ronikier-h-Gryf/6000000023104612149
  5. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ronikier-5
  6. https://wychowancygorskiego.pl/biogramy/ronikier-adam-feliks/
  7. https://www.academia.edu/44361828/Spo%C5%82ecze%C5%84stwo_polskie_Ziem_P%C3%B3%C5%82nocno_Wschodnich_by%C5%82ej_Rzeczypospolitej_Obojga_Narod%C3%B3w_wobec_niemieckiej_okupacji_Ober_Ost
  8. https://dawny.pl/adam-feliks-ronikier-hrabia-h-gryf/
  9. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01629779300000241
  10. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1918Supp01v01/d873
  11. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/POLAND%20UNDER%20NAZI%20RULE%201941_0001.pdf
  12. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn593157
  13. https://holocaustjournal.haifa.ac.il/index.php/home-all/11-dapim-journal-studies-on-the-holocaust/dapim-21/60-klaus-peter-friedrich--cooperation-and-collaboration-in-poland-1939-1946-
  14. https://history.osu.edu/sites/history.osu.edu/files/Niebrzydowski_REE_Seminar_March2016.pdf
  15. https://dokumen.pub/polish-society-under-german-occupation-the-generalgouvernement-1939-1944-0691093814-9780691093819.html
  16. https://wwv.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205913.pdf
  17. https://rep.up.krakow.pl/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11716/5684/AF003--10--Stosunek-ziemianstwa--Gapys.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
  18. https://historia.org.pl/2015/01/02/opcja-niemiecka-czyli-jak-polscy-antykomunisci-probowali-porozumiec-sie-z-trzecia-rzesza-p-zychowicz-recenzja/
  19. https://histmag.org/Adam-Ronikier-Pamietniki-1939-1945-recenzja-9901
  20. https://dawny.pl/adam-feliks-ronikier-ostatni-dziedzic-zabek/
  21. https://infodlapolaka.pl/infopedia/adam-ronikier/
  22. https://jozefmackiewicz.com/przyczynek-do-ponurych-dziejow-jozef-mackiewicz/
  23. https://otwartawarszawa.pl/ludzie/adam-ronikier
  24. https://sovereignty.pl/polish-self-defence-in-volhynia-they-managed-to-save-thousands-of-civilians/
  25. https://grokipedia.com/page/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia_and_Eastern_Galicia
  26. https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/polish-armed-forces-west-polskie-si-y-zbrojne-na-zachodzie-1939-1947/count-ronikie-research-question-282371/
  27. https://www.academia.edu/1514376/Unwanted_Collaborators_Leon_Koz%C5%82owski_W%C5%82adys%C5%82aw_Studnicki_and_the_Problem_of_Collaboration_among_the_Polish_Conservative_Politicians_in_World_War_II
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