He was born on 26 November 1913. His parents were Franciszek and Maria (nee Kaczmarek). The family was well off; his father ran a bakery and a colonial shop in Kwilcz. He also participated as a long-term board member of the former People's Bank.

 

His parents raised their children in the spirit of patriotism. Both his older brothers, Stanisław and Antoni, took part in the Greater Poland Uprising. Stanisław also took part in the Polish-Bolshevik war. His brother Antoni, after the end of the September campaign, ended up in a prison camp in the USSR, from where with the army General Władysław Anders he got to the Middle East and then fought in the 1st Armored Division of General Stanislaw Maczek. His sister, Franceszka, married Antoni Ruge, a decorator.

 

After graduating, Cieplinski participated in the Cadet Corps no. 3 in Rawicz. Between 1934-1936 he attended the Infantry School in Komorów-Ostrow Mazowiecka, where he graduated at the level of an aspirant. From 1936 he served in the 62nd Infantry Regiment in Bydgoszcz.

 

After the outbreak of World War II, he participated in the 1939 Defense War as the commander of an anti-tank company. He fought in the Battle of Bzura and in the Kampinoska Forest while making his way to besieged Warsaw. He distinguished himself in the battles near Witkowice, where he destroyed 6 German tanks and 2 command vehicles from an anti-tank unit. For this feat, he was personally awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari - V class, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant.

 

With the rest of his regiment, he rushed to the capital and took part in its defense. After the surrender on 28 September 1939, he did not go into captivity. While simulating the treatment of a wound in the Ujazdowski Hospital, he produced documents with a fake civilian name.

 

Leaving the uniform and VM order at his sister's house in Warsaw, on 24 or 25 October 1939, he set out with Colonel Kazimierz Heilman-Rawicz, from Lublin to Rzeszów. In December he reached Hungary. In Budapest, he went through conspiracy training and was sent to Poland to create the bones of the underground organization.

 

On his way back to Poland, he was stopped by the Germans in Baligrod in Subcarpathia. He ended up in the Sanok prison, from which he escaped in May 1940.

 

After escaping from the underground prison, he served many commander functions. In the spring of 1940, he took over the position of commander of the ZWZ Armed Forces Circuit, and after a year he was promoted to the post of inspector of the ZZWZ-AK Armed Forces Inspectorate and oversaw it until February 1945. His unit was one of the best in the Krakow District of the Home Army (AK).

 

On the night of 7 to 8 October 1944. he was leading an unsuccessful action to demolish the prison at the castle in Rzeszów, where NKWD was jailing approximately 300 AK soldiers.

 

In March 1945. he switched to the military organization "NO", followed by the Delegation of the Poliah Armed Forces. From May 1945, he was a delegate to the District of Rzeszów DSZ, and from August a delegate of the District of Cracow DSZ.

 

After the establishment of the WiN Association, he became the head of the District of Krakow WiN, and in December 1945  assumed command of the Southern Area. After a year, he became the Chairman of the IV Main Board of WiN.

 

After the war, he and his wife ran a hardware store in Zabrze. On 28 November 1947, he was arrested. He was in the Mokotów prison of the Ministry of Public Safety in Warsaw for 3 years. Until November 1950, he underwent  cruel interrogations. From some of them he was brought back to his cell in a blanket. "Sometimes it seems to me that my strength is dying, I can no longer look at what is happening, listen to the moaning of the murdered, in this kingdom of Satan" - he wrote to his wife.

 

In 1950 the Warsaw court sentenced him 5 times to the death penalty. Before his death, Lukasz told his fellow prisoner that he would hold a medal in his mouth that would be found after his body was discovered.

 

On 1 March 1951, six other members of IV ZG WiN (Adam Lazarowicz, Mieczyslaw Kawalec, Józef Rzepka, Franciszek Blazej, Józef Batory and Karol Chmiel) were shot in the Mokotow prison. The convicts were shot in the back of their heads. Their bodies were buried in a place unknown to this day.

​

​

Source: IPN Facebook post (in Polish)

​

​