Stanisław Gustaw Jaster, codenamed Hel (pronounced [staˈɲiswaf ˈɡustaf ˈjastɛr] ⓘ; born 1 January 1921 in Lviv, died after 12 July 1943 in Warsaw) was a Polish scout, an escapee from the Auschwitz concentration camp, and a soldier of the Home Army.

[2] Stanisław Senior, a recipient of several honors, including the Virtuti Militari Order, was involved in independence activities since his school days and, after the outbreak of World War I, volunteered for the Polish Legions.

After leaving government service in 1936, an unemployed Stanisław Senior was forced for a time to run a fruit and vegetable stall at Mier Halls (with the help of his sons).

Due to behavioral issues, he frequently changed schools: he initially attended the Prince Józef Poniatowski State Boys' Gymnasium in Warsaw [pl], then transferred to Cadet Corps No.

[8] According to some sources, he planned to pursue studies at the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology, but the outbreak of World War II prevented this.

The alerted Germans arrested the Poles hiding in the ruins; after some time, the younger boys were released, but Jaster, being the oldest among them, was accused of attempting an attack on the officer and imprisoned in Pawiak.

[10] According to his fiancée, Anna Danuta Sławińska [pl], he even painted portraits of SS officers and prisoner functionaries in exchange for food and favors.

In the spring of 1942, the Politische Abteilung (the camp Gestapo) placed him on a list of people scheduled for execution, but the sentence was postponed due to the need for Bendera to finish repairing several cars.

[22] The escape plan aimed to prevent retaliatory measures against fellow prisoners by having the escapees pose as members of a fake work commando operating a platform cart (Rollwagenkommando).

Bendera opened the garage with a counterfeit key, while his companions entered the HWL basement through a previously loosened manhole cover into the coke bunker.

From the garage, they took an open-top Steyr 220, a car frequently used by the head of HWL, SS-Hauptsturmführer Kreutzmann (some sources, likely erroneously, claim that the vehicle belonged to the camp commandant).

[27][14] As a result of the investigation conducted by the camp authorities, the kapo from HWL, Reichsdeutsch Kurt Pachala (also known as Pachale), was sentenced to death in a starvation bunker.

[2] With the help of the Leśniewski family, Stanisław rented an additional apartment on Spacerowa Street in Komorów (he was already engaged to Anna Danuta at that time).

Being a blond man close to two meters tall, he successfully exploited his "Nordic appearance" to pass as a Gestapo agent in civilian clothes.

The event was allegedly witnessed by the adjutant to the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army, Captain Ryszard Jamontt-Krzywicki [pl], codenamed Szymon, who was supposed to meet Wiktor at that same time.

[46] The rumor that Jaster had been accused of treason and executed by the verdict of the Polish Underground was made more credible in the late 1960s in the memoirs of Home Army officers Aleksander Kunicki [pl] and Emil Kumor.

[13][47] Józef Saski [pl] suspected that Jaster's extrajudicial execution was ordered by the aforementioned Captain Szymon, and the sentence was carried out by soldiers from his three-man protective team of the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army, led by Jerzy Nowakowski, codenamed Jureczek.

The author, who during the war served as the head of the intelligence unit of Osa–Kosa 30, dedicated an entire chapter to Jaster's case, titled Zdrajca (Traitor).

[44] He also supposedly confessed that his escape from Auschwitz had been staged by the Politische Abteilung to gain credibility in underground circles, while assuring that the other three escapees were unaware of his betrayal.

[44] Kunicki concluded: "The traitor and Gestapo informant Stanisław Jaster, codenamed Hel, was sentenced to death by the Home Army court.

In these memoirs, Kumor, who was the head of the special division of the General Headquarters of the Home Army, included Captain Ryszard Jamontt-Krzywicki's account of the arrest of Wiktor and the investigation into Hel.

[53] Piotr Stachiewicz (veteran and chronicler of the Parasol Battalion) and one of the last living soldiers of Osa–Kosa 30, Stefan Smarzyński, codenamed Balon, came forward in support of Kunicki.

[54] The latter group issued numerous letters and statements in his defense, addressed to the press, publishing houses, veteran organizations, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

[54] Tomasz Strzembosz, in his review of Cichy front, addressed the case of Hel, pointing out inconsistencies and contradictions in Kunicki's argument and the differences between his account and the recollections of Emil Kumor.

Based on this, Cyra published two articles in the weeklies Kierunki (1986) and Panorama (1987), where he presented several pieces of evidence defending Jaster and called for his rehabilitation.

[2][54] In 1991, an article titled Dramat Stanisława Gustawa Jastera codenamed "Hel" by Janusz Kwiatkowski and Wiesław Raciborski was published in Polska Zbrojna, in which they once again presented testimonies pointing to Jaster's innocence and highlighted numerous gaps and inconsistencies in the arguments of his accusers.

Kwiatkowski and Raciborski also appealed to the authorities of the World Association of Home Army Soldiers to conduct a thorough re-examination of the case and to officially rehabilitate Jaster.

In 2011, Duży Format, a supplement to Gazeta Wyborcza, published an article by Piotr Płatek titled Obrona "Hela", which again presented evidence suggesting Jaster's innocence.

[59] In her conclusion, Czarnecka asserted that "there is no strong evidence of Staszek's guilt, and much speaks in his favor", adding that, unless new documents are found, "this case can be considered closed".

[61] However, Hubert Kuberski disagrees, emphasizing that due to the deaths of key witnesses and the lack of definitive documentary evidence (owing to the destruction of the Warsaw Gestapo archives in August 1944 and insufficient research in German archives), Czarnecka's conclusions can only be considered "weak clues", and a definitive resolution to the question of Jaster's alleged betrayal remains impossible.