Colonel Kazimierz Klimczak, the oldest living participant of the Warsaw Uprising, celebrates his 109th birthday on Wednesday. “Mr. Kazimierz, on your 109th birthday, please accept my thanks for your service and wishes for 200 years in the best health!” the employees of the Warsaw Uprising Museum wrote on his special date.
“You witnessed the revival of the Republic of Poland, the great victory of 1920, as a soldier of the Polish Army, you took part in the September Campaign, and your service in the Home Army ended with your heroic participation in the Warsaw Uprising,” recalled Elżbieta Witek, the Speaker of the Polish parliament’s lower chamber (Sejm).
Today, Col. Kazimierz Klimczak, veteran of the September 1939 defensive war and #WarsawUprising, is celebrating his 109th birthday.
Many happy returns, Colonel! pic.twitter.com/mWz4CTAXxB
— Institute of National Remembrance (@ipngovpl_eng) February 15, 2023
The Sejm Speaker recalled that “Szron” (Kazimierz’s nom de guerre) together with other insurgents shared the expectation of regaining the independence lost in 1939 and for decades “carried the independence tradition in its heart, as well as the command of its commander to pass on to younger generations the truth about the uprising, to teach that patriotism is what carries the motto +God, Honor, Homeland+”.
Kazimierz Klimczak “Szron” was born on February 15, 1914. He graduated from the Infantry School in Konin. He fought in the Polish September campaign in 1939. He served in the ranks of the Pomeranian Army and fought in the Battle of the Bzura River in which he was badly injured.
During the German occupation, he worked in a tobacco factory. From the windows of his apartment, he watched the ghetto uprising. Despite his wounds sustained in 1939, he fought in the Warsaw Uprising. He escaped from the POW’s transport and hid in the countryside for over a year. After the war, he was interrogated by the communist security services.
Later on, Kazimierz Klimczak became an activist for the War Disabled Association of the Republic of Poland. In 2017, he was promoted to the rank of colonel. Since April 5, 2022, he is the oldest living man in Poland.