Ordinary soldiers were the backbone of the Home Army. Their mementos - photos, documents, personal items – have been collected together at exhibitions and in the warehouses of the Museum of the Second World War. In today's inauguration of another series related to the Home Army - #BohaterowieAK - we present the profile of an outstanding Polish partisan: Jan ‘Ponury’ Piwnik.
Jan Piwnik was born on August 31st, 1912 in Janowice near Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. Until 1933, he served in the Artillery Reserve Cadet School in Włodzimierz Wołyński. Between the years 1935–1939, as a reserve lieutenant, he was a member of the State Police. As the commander of the 3rd company of the Police Reserve Group, after completing military exercises, in September 1939 he took part in the Polish campaign. Together with his unit, he managed to get to Hungary, where he was interned. He escaped to France, however, and joined the Polish army there. In the west, he was eventually included in the 1st Independent Parachute Brigade.
During his stay in the British Isles, he volunteered to serve in the country. He took a special course for the Cichociemni - an elite group of paratroopers who were to be dropped into occupied Poland. On October 10th, 1941, he took the oath binding himself to the Union of Armed Struggle. In November, as a lieutenant, he was dropped into the country and landed near Skierniewice. He was involved in coordination of matters related to the arrival of subsequent groups of Cichociemni. Ultimately, however, he was involved in a whirlwind of conspiratorial work of a combat nature. In January 1943, he carried out an action, freeing three members of the Polish underground from a German prison in Pinsk in eastern Poland. This was recognized as an exemplary action, and Piwnik itself was awarded the Virtuti Militari order.
