Eugeniusz Witt, born March 6, 1922 in Baranovicz, Poland. His father was an officer in the Polish army and after the German invasion in 1939 he never saw him again. He and his mother were transported to Siberia by the Russians, where he worked on a collective farm as a carpenter near the town of Biijsk in the Altaj Mountains. In 1941 he was freed and joined the Polish army that was being formed under General Wladyslaw Anders. He was trained in Uzbekistan and then sent to Iran and Iraq, where the army was re-equipped and reorganized by the British. In January 1943 the British authorities asked for volunteers to train as paratroopers. He volunteered, and traveled on a troop ship to Glasgow, arriving in March 1943. He was selected for special forces training to work behind enemy lines as a radio operator, but was sent to London instead where he was a communications coordinator working with underground forces in Poland. He immigrated to the United States in 1948.
© Jonathan Alpeyrie
