Józef Haller de Hallenburg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Józef Haller de Hallenburg (August 13, 1873 - June 4, 1960) was a Polish general and politician.

Haller studied at Vienna's Technical Military Academy and subsequently served with the Austrian Army. In 1916, during the First World War, he became commander of the Second Brigade of the Polish Legion, and commanded Polish units under French Command in World War I, which became known as the Blue Army (or Haller's Army).

General Haller's uniform as Commander of the Blue Army (Military Museum, Warsaw)

In 1918, in the aftermath of the "Charge at Rarańcza," as commander of the 2nd Polish Auxiliary Corps with the Austrian Army, he broke through the Austro-Russian front line to Ukraine, where he united his troops with Polish detachments which had left the Tsarist army. Under the pressure of the Germans, who after the Peace of Brest-Litovsk regarded the presence of Polish troops in Ukraine as illegal, and a fierce battle between Poles and Germans at Kaniów (May 10, 1918, 2500 casualties) his corps was interned, while the Brigadier himself managed to escape to Moscow. Subsequently, by the way of Murmansk, he arrived in France, where on behalf of the Polish National Committee he created what was known as the Blue Army (from the color of its French uniforms). In 1919, at the new army's head, he arrived in Poland and was dispatched to the Ukrainian front.

General Józef Haller, touching Blue Army battle flag.

In 1920 Haller seized Pomerania and entered Danzig (Gdańsk) 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.

Józef Haller in an undated photo

In 1920-1927 he was a deputy to the Sejm. After the election of Gabriel Narutowicz as President of the Republic in December 1922, Haller fell into disfavor^{[citation needed]}. 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 (1939), Haller was living abroad. In 1940-1943 he served as Minister of Education in Władysław Sikorski's government. After 1945 he settled down in London and did not partake in any political activities of exiled Poles.