Henryk Kosior

Polish 2nd Corps

Henryk Kosior was born on 11 May 1920. Before the war, he attended a military school in Przemysl.

After the invasion of Poland in 1939 by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, he fought in the September Campaign and was captured by the Russians.At that time, prisoners of war Polish officers were often executed by the Soviets. This happened during the notorious Katyn massacre. Fortunately, non-commissioned officers such as Henryk were released quite quickly.

Henryk had begun serving in the Polish resistance movement at the age of 19. He returned to the Home Army after his release worked undercover in a transport company in Lwow, and his job was to obtain weapons for the resistance. Henryk's colleague saw that he had a gun and turned him over to the Soviet secret service. Henryk was sentenced to five years of forced labour near Leningrad. He managed to escape but was arrested at the border with Finland and sent to Kharkiv. There he received an extra 10-year sentence at the labour camp in Vorkuta.

After the restoration of diplomatic relations between Poland and the Soviet Union in 1941, most Polish prisoners were released to form the Polish army in the USSR to fight Nazi Germany. It was a great exodus of refugees who were fleeing the hell of the Soviet labour camps.

After some time, the Polish forces in the Soviet Union were evacuated. Henryk Kosior left the Soviet Union as a soldier of the 23rd Transport Company of the Polish 2nd Corps. Henryk joined the newly formed army, but his state of health was poor, and he spent almost a year in field hospitals.

The Poles trained in the Middle East (Persia, Iraq, Palestine, and Egypt) and in December 1943 were sent to the front in Italy. Henryk, as a platoon commander, delivered ammunition to the front line. He took part in the Battle of Monte Cassino and the liberation of Ancona and Bologna.

Immediately after the war he became an instructor at a transport school in Italy. In 1947, Henryk returned to Poland. He was persecuted by the Communists and decided to emigrate to Germany.

Henryk Kosior died in Koblenz, Germany, on 7 March 2020, at the age of 100 years.