Piotr Śmietański (27 June 1899 – 23 February 1950)[2][3] was a Polish non-commissioned officer and communist functionary in the Ministry of Public Security and executioner at Mokotów Prison.

From World War II until the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989, Mokotów Prison—where Śmietański conducted his deeds—was a place of detention, torture and execution of the Polish anti-communist opposition.

Among them were prominent politicians, social activists and Polish underground fighters, including Lieutenants Jerzy Miatkowski, Tadeusz Pelak, Edmund Tudruj, Arkadiusz Wasilewski, Roman Gronski, Captain Stanislaw Lukasik, Commandant Hieronim Dekutowski (killed by Śmietański in one day, on 7 March 1949).

Those executed after Śmietański's apparent death in 1950 include Major Zygmunt Szendzielarz, Lieutenants Henryk Borowski, Antoni Olechnowicz, Lucjan Minkiewicz (8 February 1951), Captain Stanisław Sojczyński, Lieutenant Antoni Wodyński from AK, and countless others,[7] including victims of the notorious 1 March, 1951 Mokotów Prison execution, who were given five consecutive death sentences each.

[9] On 25 May 1948,[4][11] Śmietański personally executed Witold Pilecki,[12] the founder of the Secret Polish Army and prominent member of the Armia Krajowa, famous for his daring mission to the Auschwitz concentration camp.