Alfons Flisykowski


Alfons Flisykowski was a Polish worker of the Polish Post Office in the Free City of Danzig in the years 1923–1939 and a second commander of the defence of the Post Office from the invading Nazi German forces when World War II started on 1 September 1939.

Background

Flisykowski was captured by the Germans on 2 September 1939 and handed over to the Gestapo. Denied the legitimate status of POW, he was put on trial, together with the other 37 captured post-office workers. Designated as a "bandit" by a paramilitary court, he was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad in Danzig-Saspe on 5 October 1939.
Flisykowski's grave was discovered in 1991. In the same year the families of the killed postmen founded an association called Circle of the Families of the Former Workers of Gdańsk Post Office with a goal to repeal the verdict qualifying the postmen as bandits. With the help of Dieter Schenk, a former worker of Interpol and the author of a book on the subject, the case was put into a verification trial.
As a result of these actions the Land Court in Lübeck made a decision, on 30 December 1996, that the previous verdict of 1939 sentencing Flisykowski to death was illegal.
He was awarded the Cross of Valour posthumously on 1 September 1990.