Jozef Haller

Józef Haller was a prominent Polish military leader, who fought in the First World War and the Polish-Soviet War. He was a legionary in the Polish Legions, a harcmistrz (the highest Scouting instructor rank in Poland), the president of the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association, and a political and social activist. He was the cousin of Stanisław Haller. He studied at Vienna's Technical Military Academy and served with the Austrian Army until 1910. He supported the pro-independence Polish organization Sokół. In 1916, he became commander of the Second Brigade of the Polish Legion, which fought against Russia on the Eastern Front. In 1918, he broke through the Austro-Russian front line to Ukraine, where he united his troops with Polish detachments that had left the Tsarist army. He protested the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and continued to fight the Russians with his II Corps. He escaped to France, where he created the Blue Army, also known as Haller's Army, which fought alongside the Entente. In 1919, he arrived in Poland and was dispatched to the Ukrainian front. In 1920, he seized Pomerania and entered Danzig in the name of Poland, and during the Polish-Soviet War he commanded an army of volunteers. He was also Inspector General of the Army and a member of the War Council. He was a deputy to the Sejm from 1920 to 1927. After the 1926 May Coup, he was ordered into retirement. He co-organized an opposition party, the "Front Morges". At the time of the invasion of Poland in 1939, he was living abroad. He was a minister without portfolio in the second government of Władysław Sikorski. He died in London in 1960 and was buried at Brompton Cemetery. He was awarded the Order of the White Eagle and the Virtuti Militari.