Modelski, Witold Stefan.

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Modelski, Witold Stefan, born 11-11-1932 in Warsaw, Poland to Jadwiga Maria Modelska. During World War II after the Modelski family’s house on Nowy Świat Street   had burnt down, all the family moved to Leszno Street, where Witold had been cared for by his mother Jadwiga Maria Modelska until the Warsaw Uprising broke out.

Death and burial ground of Modelski, Witold Stefan.

At the beginning of August 1944, Witold Modelski joined the Parasol Battalion, a part of the Radosław Group, precisely the 4th platoon of the 1st company. Battalion Parasol (Polish: Batalion Parasol) was a Scouting battalion of the Armia Krajowa, the primary Polish resistance movement in World War II. It consisted primarily of members of the Gray Ranks. The battalion distinguished itself in numerous underground operations and took part in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, as an element of the Radosław Group, under command of Jan Mazurkiewicz, .It was first organized as “Agat” (“Anti-Gestapo”) unit by Adam Borys “Pług”, a Cichociemni elite soldier parachuted from England in the fall of 1943. Due to arrest and death of Tadeusz Kostrzewski “Niemira” on 02-01-1944 it changed its name to “Pegaz” (“Przeciw Gestapo – Against the Gestapo”), and after another arrest it was reorganized as “Parasol” battalion. The last name referred to a parachute, as the unit was intended to join Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade in free Poland. Jan Mazurkiewicz survived the war and was a political prisoner of the Stalinist period (until 1956). From 1964 he was vice-president of Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy. Jan died age 91 on 04-05-1988.

When the Wola district collapsed, he transferred to The North Group, a part of the Gozdawa Battalion – Sosna section[note 1], located in Warsaw Old Town[note 2]. Witold Modelski ended his martial fate on Czerniaków in the Parasol Battalion

Modelski was uncommonly brave. On 23-08-1944, Widold was awarded the Cross of Valour and promoted to corporal. He died on 20-09-1944 on the Czerniaków Coast, in home on Wilanowska Street 1.   After the war, his mother, with the help of female emergency medical technicians from the Polish Red Cross, tracked down her son’s body during the soldiers exhumation on the Upper Czerniaków Uprising. Under the cover of night she transported Witold on the Powązki Military Cemetery and buried him near the cemetery wall on her own. Only after several years later was his body moved into the plot reserved for soldiers and emergency medical technicians from the Parasol Battalion. The exact destination of his grave is the quarter A24-10-24.[3]

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