Eugeniusz Niedzielski
Captain in the Polish Armed Forces, veteran of General Stanisław Maczek’s 1st Polish Armoured Division.
Eugeniusz Niedzielski was born on 1 September 1923 in Volhynia, the son of Narcyz and Józefa (née Karpińska). He spent his childhood and youth with his parents and two sisters in the Volhynian settlement of Ostrów. Following his father's death in the 1930s, Eugeniusz, as the eldest child, had to help his mother run the family farm. His mother subsequently remarried. In 1940, the family was deported to Siberia. While in exile, Eugeniusz worked felling trees. Following the amnesty granted to Polish citizens in the Soviet Union and the subsequent formation of the Polish Armed Forces there, he joined the 7th Infantry Division of General Władysław Anders’s army. He left the Soviet Union with Anders’s forces and travelled through the Middle East before reaching Europe. In October 1942, he was sent to Great Britain, where he continued his service in the Polish Armed Forces in the West before joining General Stanisław Maczek’s 1st Polish Armoured Division. He took part in the Division’s campaign across Normandy, Belgium and the Netherlands, including the liberation of Breda by Polish troops, before advancing into Germany. He continued to serve with the 1st Armoured Division in Germany until March 1947. After the war, he settled in Great Britain, where he has lived ever since. It was there that he met his future wife. They married in 1950 and had two children. He did not return to Poland until 1980, making his first visit to his homeland since the war.
His decorations include the Cross of Valour (Krzyż Walecznych), as well as the British France and Germany Star and War Medal. He is an honorary citizen of Breda in the Netherlands.