August Emil Fieldorf was born on March 20, 1895 in Krakow. At the age of 19, after the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered for the Polish Legions. Later on, he participated in the Polish-Bolshevik war, the September 1939 defensive war, and, of course, the fight in occupied Poland, becoming a legend of the armed underground.

This outstanding soldier and one of the most important Home Army leaders, commanding its Kedyw [Directorate of Diversion] operations, ordered, orchestrated and oversaw 1,175 acts of sabotage, destruction of 1,167 fuel tankers, 270 military stores, 38 bridges and 4,300 vehicles – as well as liquidation of 2,000 German police personnel and their collaborators. Fieldorf, using the alias "Nil" [Nile] to remind him of the Egyptian leg of his return from England in the summer of 1940, became one of the most wanted men in occupied Poland during WWII. Shortly before the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, he was promoted to the rank of general.

In post-war communist Poland Fieldorf got accidentally arrested under a false name and deported to a labour camp in the USSR. Having come out after his return, he was put on trial on false charges and sentenced to death. On 24 February 1953, General "Nil" was hanged in the Mokotów prison, an execution method particularly humiliating for a soldier and officer. He was the highest-ranking Home Army soldier who fell victim to a murder by court in the Stalinist period. Five years later, the Prosecutor General’s Office discontinued the Fieldorf’s case due to lack of evidence. It was only in 1989, 36 years after his death, that he was fully rehabilitated by the Prosecutor General of the People's Republic of Poland, which decided that he had not committed the alleged crime. His symbolic grave is located at the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw.