A participant of the Warsaw Uprising, Chairman of the Association of Warsaw Insurgents, member of the initiative group of the Warsaw Rising Museum, General Zbigniew Ścibor-Rylski (nom de guerre "Motyl" - The Butterfly) has died aged 101.
"Our wise, kind and brave Butterfly has flown to join the Lord. General Ścibor-Rylski has died. Our hearts are broken. Hail to his memory," the President of Warsaw Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz wrote on her website.
Zbigniew Ścibor-Rylski was born at the height of World War I, in Brovki-Pershi (Polish: Browki), a village southeast of Zhytomyr, and southwest of Kiev, in present-day Ukraine, but at the time part of the Russian Empire.
During the Invasion of Poland by Nazi German troops (September 1939), Ścibor-Rylski served in the 1st Aviation Regiment: on September 6, he left Warsaw in the squadron of Major Władysław Prohazko. Initially on trucks, and then on foot, the group broke through German lines and retreated to the east.
They took part in other clashes, rallying with the Independent Operational Group Polesie, under the command of Brigadier General Franciszek Kleeberg. After the capitulation of Kock, he attempted to break through to Romania, but he was captured in the village called Krzywda.
After an escape from the prisoner-of-war camp, Ścibor-Rylski returned to Warsaw and joined the underground resistance movement, where he was introduced by his former commander Prohazko. He was sworn into the movement in September 1940.
Beginning January 1944, Ścibor-Rylski was engaged in fighting alongside Armia Krajowa's 27 Volhynian Infantry Division, throughout its advance route. From July of that year, he was in Warsaw, taking part in the Warsaw Uprising in the ranks of Czata 49 Battalion, based at the "Radosław" training camp. He was a company commander in the Sokół 50 Infantry Battalion.
General Ścibor-Rylski was a member of a initiative group for the foundation of the Warsaw Rising Museum. In 1990, he became the Chairman of the Association of Warsaw Insurgents.
Ścibor-Rylski retired with the rank of brigadier general in the Polish Land Forces, he was rewarded several Polish awards and decorations, including Virtuti Militari.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, PAP, Wikipedia