Karol Chmiel (1911–1951) was born on 17 April 1911 in the village of Zagorzyce (now in Ropczyce-Sędziszów County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship) to the peasant family of Antoni and Katarzyna née Charchut.
He graduated from high school in Dębica, and was admitted to the prestigious Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where he studied law.
At the beginning of the Polish September Campaign, Chmiel tried to escape east, to the area of Lwów, where his wife's family owned an estate.
Some time in 1944, Chmiel drove a captured German car, but he forgot to display a Polish flag on it, and was peppered with bullets by Home Army soldiers.
In 1947, he became a member of WiN's headquarters and political adviser to Łukasz Ciepliński as well as a liaison between Cieplinski and the PSL's Stanislaw Mikolajczyk.
This document publicised crimes committed by the Soviet and Polish secret services on members of the disbanded Home Army and anti-Communist activists.