A WAR hero buried far from the homeland he fought for has a fitting grave again – as an inspiration to a new generation.
Brigadier-General Stanislaw Jozef Kozicki was one of Poland’s top army commanders when his country was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1939. He died at the Polish resettlement camp in Baron’s Cross, Leominster, in 1948 to be buried at the town’s cemetery.
Volunteers from the town joined helping hands from the county’s Polish community to get the grave back to its best on Saturday.
Other volunteers tended to the Polish graves at Credenhill on the day.
Another seven senior Polish officers from the Second World War are also said to be buried in Leominster having died at Baron’s Cross camp.
Emilia Kozial, of Hereford’s Polish Saturday School, hoped the stories behind the graves could be the start of studies by a new generation into Polish settlement in the county after the Second World War.
A visit to the site of Foxley Camp – from which many of the county’s long-established Polish community can trace their roots – is already planned.
A seasoned solder, Brig- Gen Kozicki commanded the Polish army’s armoured forces as Blitzkrieg broke across the country’s borders in 1939.
With Poland defeated he was interned in Romania then handed over to the Germans as a prisoner of war.
Before the war broke out he had seen his family murdered by his own manservant.
On release, Brig Gen Kozicki headed for England as Communism threw its iron curtain over Poland.
Baron’s Cross camp was a base for the Polish Resettlement Corps, a holding unit for members of the Polish armed forces who did not want to return to a Poland under the communists.
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