Kazimierz KONDOL

Kazimierz was the second youngest of six sons of Marcin Kondol and Antonina Deren. He was born in Przysietnica, Poland on in February 1918. In 1921, the family moved to Polska Wola (in modern day Ukraine). Kazimierz married Maria Pietryka (1914-1991) in 1937, they had two children: Leszek (1938) and Krystyna (1943). He also had a son by Stefania Mazur, Jozef Mazur, in 1938.
 

Kazimierz, along with his family (as well as his in-laws Jozef, Stanislaw, Franciszek, and Wladyslaw Petryka) were forcibly deported to Siberia in February 1940 by the Russians. Kazimierz was imprisoned in a gulag at Kutyr, Siberia, where he had to work long hours each day to receive a few grams of bread and some watery soup.
 

In August 1941, the Polish-Government-in-Exile negotiated an ‘amnesty’ for all Polish prisoners held in the USSR. This allowed Kazimierz to leave the gulag and make an arduous journey to the southern USSR where a Polish army was being formed.

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Kazimierz joined the Polish army and was reunited with his wife and son in Uzbekistan in the spring of 1942. They all evacuated to Persia (now Iran) in early 1942, and Kazimierz served as a Rifleman in the 18th Battalion, 5th Kresowa Infantry Division of the Polish 2nd Corps in the Middle East. In December 1944, he sailed to Italy with the Polish 2nd Corps and fought in the Italian Campaign. He was wounded during the battle of Monte Cassino.

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Kazimierz was killed in action on 21 August 1944 (aged 26) whilst crossing the Metauro river in the Ancona region of Italy. He fell under machine gun fire. Witnesses stated that his death was quick but brutal, with the gunfire tearing his body apart. They also stated that he died with "the smile of a man who knew no fear." He was buried the following day in the local cemetery in Ostra, Italy and was later exhumed and reinterred in the Polish Military cemetery at Loreto. He was remembered by his family as free-spirited, happy go lucky and fearless.

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Kazimierz was posthumously awarded Poland's highest military honour, the 'Virtuti Militari' and the Monte Cassino Cross (# 19588). His service number was 1918-228-III.

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Kazimierz Kondol received the Virtuti Militari medal for these actions:

During the attack on Widmo Hill, Kazimierz was wounded while trying to help another soldier, Witold Pełdiak, whose sister was the wife of Kazimierz's brother.

 

According to family accounts, Kazimierz helped wounded men down the mountain and found Witold. He told him to stay there and he would return. And indeed, he did he did return, but Witold had disappeared. Kazimierz continued searching for him, endangering himself, and was shot in the right knee. Witold later died from his wounds. This happened on the day the Poles paid their greatest bloodletting during the Battle of Monte Cassino.

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Copyright: Kondol family

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