born: January 3, 1917 in Strzegocice, Dębica province, Podkarpackie voivodship, Poland
died: September 10, 2019 in Gdynia, Poland
buried: Gdańsk Oliwa cemetery – section 15, row 18, grave 9
medals: Polish – Silver Virtuti Militari Cross, Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (year 2006), Cross of Valour, Medal of Commission of National Education, Honorary Citizen of Rzeszów (year 2002), Custiodian of National Remembrance (year 2010), “Thorunium” Medal (year 2017)
Fates before joining Anders Army :
Jan Łopuski attended the Jan III Sobieski Junior High School in Cracow, where in 1935 he passed his final exams. In the years 1935-1939 he studied at the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University and at the Academy of Commerce in Cracow. He graduated in 1939.
He took part in the September campaign of 1939 as a volunteer lancer in the 24th Infantry Division. During World War II, from 1940, he was active in the ZWZ-AK (Polish Home Army) of the Rzeszów Subdistrict of the Kraków District, taking the pseudonym “Mariusz”. Weapons and Air Transfer Officer. He actively participated in Operation “Burza”, e.g. in an unsuccessful action to free prisoners from the prison at the Castle in Rzeszów.
On December 17, 1944, arrested by the Soviets, imprisoned and tortured, he was finally interned in the NKVD camp No. 283 in Stalinogorsk (now Novomoskovsk), south of Moscow. Here he worked in inhumane conditions until his release in August 1945 and his return to post-war Poland. Then he managed to get through Czechoslovakia to Italy.
Military history:
After arriving in Italy, Jan Łopuski volunteered for the Polish 2nd Corps. In the years 1945-1947 he served in the 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division of the 2nd Corps in Italy, and then, after his transfer in 1946 – in Great Britain – second lieutenant of the 2nd Carpathian Rifle Battalion of the 1st Carpathian Rifle Brigade (registration no. 1917/40).
Post-War:
He returned to Poland by sea from Great Britain in 1947. He worked as an economist and lawyer in the maritime branches of foreign trade companies in Gdynia. In 1951, he obtained a doctoral degree, and in 1970, a habilitated doctor of legal sciences at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
From 1971 associated with the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, where from 1972 he headed the Department of Foreign Trade Law, and from 1984 the Department of International Civil Law. In 1977, he received the title of associate professor, and in 1984, full professor. Distinguished and respected Dean of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. In 1986 he retired. Until the mid-1960s, he was under surveillance by the Polish Security Service.
Author of over 300 scientific papers. He also published his memoirs “Remaining Oneself. Living in the Shadow of Suspicion” (IPN, 2007).
He died in Gdynia in 2019. On the first anniversary at the Nicolaus Copernicus University, a commemorative plaque of the Professor was unveiled.
