On 12 May 1970, on the 26th anniversary of the start of the final attack on Monte Cassino, General Władysław Anders, commander of the Polish Army in the USSR and 2nd Polish Corps, died in London. In 1942 he brought out more than 115 1000 Poles, soldiers and civilians survived from russian prisons and camps. He rests on Monte Cassino among his comrades in arms.
Karol Rozmark (left) gathering with the emigration authorities of Poland. Inside, General Władysław Anders.
"General Anders became a symbol of the hero, even in his own country. The current rulers will atone for the sin of treating specified a noble boy of Poland" - he said in London on May 21, 1970 during a ceremony mass after his death General Władysław Anders Fr. Cardinal John Heenan, Primate of England and Wales. The general died on May 12 that year on the 26th anniversary of the final assault on Monte Cassino. According to his will, he was buried among his soldiers in the Polish War Cemetery on the celebrated Italian hill. Gen. Anders has been active with the military since his youth. During planet War I he fought in the Tsar army, in 1917 he joined the First Polish Corps, and in 1918 he volunteered for the Polish army. As Chief of Staff of the Wielkopolska Army participated in Wielkopolska Uprising, he besides fought in the Polish-bolshevik War, commanding the 15th Poznań Ulan Regiment.
In interwar Poland, the general commanded, among others, the Kresowa Brigade of Cavalry and the Nowogródz Brigade of Cavalry. – As an excellent rider, he participated in global hippic competitions, in 1932 he was the head of the Polish equestrian team, which won the Nations Cup in good – says Dr. Jan Fabianski, a historian who dealt with the period of planet War II. During the run in September 1939, General Anders fought, among others, in the Płock, Warsaw and under Tomaszów Lubelski. On September 29, he got into russian captivity. – He was held in the central NKVD prison in Lubianka and then in the Butyrka investigative prison in Moscow, where he was repeatedly interrogated and encouraged to cooperate with the russian Union – the expert describes.
After the 3rd Reich attacked the ZSRS and signed the Sikorski–Majski Gen. Anders layout on July 30, 1941, he was released from prison. Gen. Władysław Sikorski, Chief Leader, then entrusted him with the creation of a Polish army in the russian Union. "I call on all Polish citizens capable of carrying weapons to fulfil their work to the Homeland and to join the White Eagle banners" was General Anders' order of August 22, 1941.
The ceremony of Władysław Anders
Poles released under amnesty from russian camps and prisoners to the army. – In view of the russian authorities' simplification in the number of rations for the Polish army, the general decided to evacuate soldiers from the ZSRS – explains Dr Fabianski. From March to November 1942, more than 115,000 people, including 78,000 soldiers and 37,000 civilians, came to Iran with a commander from “inhuman land” for whom he became a symbol of salvation. In the mediate East Władysław Anders formed the 2nd Polish Corps. In early 1944, Polish units were moved to Italy, where were celebrated for winning Monte CassinoAncony and Bologna.
After the war, the general, as an opponent of the findings of the Yalta Conference and communist power in Poland, remained in the UK. He was 1 of the key figures of Polish London emigration and an authority for his soldiers. “In the country he was considered 1 of the main enemies, for which the communist authorities deprived him of Polish citizenship in 1946,” says the historian.
Anders participated in the cultural, social and political life of Polish emigration. He was, among others, Chief Chief and General Inspector of the Armed Forces, and besides chaired the Main Committee of the National Treasury and the Polish Cultural Foundation in London. A fewer months before his death, on August 15, 1969, at Monte Cassino Cemetery in 1 of the last public speeches, the general said: “Poland was given to Russia by the hands of Western powers... Nobody can foretell how much longer Poland will endure under a abroad government whose strength is based solely on russian bayonets. But we are certain that shed blood will not be useless.”
