Major Władysław Car – a victim of the Katyn massacre (1895–1940)

Abstract

The article describes the life of Władysław Car – one of the thousands of victims of the Katyn massacre. He was born in 1895 in Warsaw, where he obtained a secondary school certificate. In 1915 he was evacuated by the Russian authorities to Kiev, where a year later he was called up to serve in the Russian army. In 1918, he served in the 1 Polish Corps in Russia, and after returning to the Polish lands he worked as a teacher in Tarczyn near Warsaw. In August 1919, he volunteered for the Polish Army and initially he served in unit trains in 7th Infantry Division, and in the years 1921–1924 in the Headquarters of District of Corps No. 5 in Krakow. In 1924 he was transferred to the 4th Regiment Heavy Artillery in Czestochowa (after 1935 his unit was moved to Tomaszow Mazowiecki) and after training he became a gunnery officer. In this regiment he served until 1938 and he has taken various stations (battery commander, quartermaster and adjutant). During his service in the 4 heavy artillery regiment he was promoted to captain. In October 1938, he was moved to the Anti-Gas Institute in Warsaw, where he worked until the outbreak of World War II. In September 1939 he was captured by the Russian and was placed in the camp in Kozelsk. In April 1940 – together with other Polish officers from this camp – he was executed in Katyn. Captain Władysław Car is one of several thousand Polish officers, about which memory slowly blurred out. In 2007 he was posthumously promoted to the rank of major.