Józef Zachariasz Bem Bem József |
|
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Born |
Tarnów, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (now Poland) |
March 14, 1794
Died | December 10, 1850 Aleppo, Ottoman Empire (now Syria) |
(aged 56)
Buried at | Tarnów (since 1929) |
Allegiance | Polish insurgents Revolutionary Hungarian Army Ottoman Army |
Rank | General |
Unit | Artillery |
Battles |
Battle of Iganie (1831) Battle of Ostrołęka (1831) Battle of Temesvár (1849) Battle of Segesvár (1849) |
Awards |
Józef Zachariasz Bem (Hungarian: Bem József, Turkish: Murat Pasha; March 14, 1794, Tarnów – December 10, 1850, Aleppo) was a Polish engineer and general, an Ottoman pasha and a national hero of Poland and Hungary, and a figure intertwined with other European nationalisms. Like Tadeusz Kościuszko (who fought in the American War of Independence) and Jan Henryk Dąbrowski (who fought alongside Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy and in the French Invasion of Russia), Bem fought outside Poland's borders for the future of Poland anywhere his leadership and military skills were needed.
Bem was born in Tarnów in Galicia, the area of Poland that had become part of the Habsburg Monarchy through the First Partition in 1772. After the creation of the tiny Duchy of Warsaw from the territories captured by Napoleon, he moved with his parents to Kraków, where after finishing military school (where he distinguished himself in mathematics) and joined the ducal forces as a fifteen-year-old cadet. Bem joined a Polish artillery regiment as a sub-lieutenant and then lieutenant in the French service, took part in the French invasion of Russia (1812), and subsequently distinguished himself in the defence of Danzig (Polish: Gdańsk) (January – November 1813), winning the Knight's Cross of the Legion d'honneur.