Born: January 5, 1919, Jekaterynoslav (now Dnipro), Russia
Died: October 19, 2018, Otwock, Poland
Buried: Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw – section D20-2-4
Family: father – Franciszek, mother – Maria nee Sobko
Wife: Janina Bogumiła Brzozowska nee Pauluk (1921-2011)
Medals: Polish – Order of Virtuti Militari 5th class, Cross of Valor, Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Monte Cassino Cross, Silver Cross of Merit
Fates before joining Anders Army: In 1939, Edmund Brzozowski graduated from the Piarist Priests’ Commercial School in Lida (Nowogródek voivodship, Poland). From June 1939, he underwent a four-month training in the junak camp in the vicinity of Nakło, where he built defensive positions.
In September 1939, he took part in the defense campaign as a junior of the Junak Labor Corps (Junackie Hufce Pracy): the war found him during a preparatory camp for the Cadet School. In January 1940, he was arrested by the NKVD for Polish patriotic engagement and sentenced by a Soviet court to 5 years of hard labor in labor camps in USSR as a “hostile element”. The sentence was served, inter alia, in the camps in Kotlas and in Vorkuta (Komi Republic).
Military history at Anders Army: In September 1941, after signing the Sikorski-Majski pact, Edmund Brzozowski joined the Polish Army in the USSR. After being evacuated from Soviet Russia through Persia, he reached Palestine, where he was incorporated into the 3 Carpathian Rifle Division, which was being formed, which was part of the Polish 2nd Corps (census no. 3 DSK 1919/92). Then, after almost a year of exercises in Iraq, in December 1943, he was sent to Italy via Egypt with his unit.
Together with the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division of the 2nd Corps, he participated in the Italian campaign, including the battles on the Sangro River, the capture of Monte Cassino – for which he was awarded the Virtuti Militari V class and the Cross of Valor – as well as in the battles for Ancona and Bologna. He ended his active service as a second lieutenant.
Post-War: After the end of the war, he stayed in Great Britain, where he started working and started a family. In 2006, he and his wife returned to Poland for good, settling in Otwock near Warsaw. President of the Association of Former Soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces in the West “Carpathians”. Appointed to the rank of colonel.
Edmund Brzozowski died in 2018 in Otwock. He was buried at the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw.
Edmund Brzozowski’s wife, Janina Bogumiła Brzozowska (née Pauluk), deported by the Soviets to Siberia, also in the USSR, joined the Polish Army and served as a volunteer in the Women’s Auxiliary Military Service. In the Italian campaign, she worked in the 3rd Military Hospital of the 2nd Corps. Promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. In 2007, she and her husband returned to Poland from Great Britain. She died in 2011 in Otwock and was buried at the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw.
author: Aneta Hoffmann, Warsaw, Poland
