Henryk Cybulski

Who is Henryk Cybulski?

Henryk Cybulski was born in 1910 in the village of Przebraze in Volhynia. He died in 1971.

He worked as a forester, when in September 1939 the Red Army invaded Eastern Poland. Cybulski was forcibly deported by the Soviets to Siberia on February 10, 1940.

In the summer of 1940 he managed to escape and, after walking for eight weeks, returned to Volhynia. As he later wrote, his sports experiences in long-distance running were a great help. Upon coming back, he took up several menial jobs, trying to lie low and not to attract attention of Soviet authorities.

In August 1942, Cybulski joined the Home Army. In early Spring of 1943, at the beginning of Massacres of Poles in Volhynia, he became one of commandants of the Przebraże Defence, together with Ludwik Malinowski. Under his leadership, Polish resistance groups reorganized into a 500-man strong brigade, including a cavalry unit. Przebraze became a fortress, in which up to 25 000 people lived.