Netherlands honours 99-year-old Polish veteran for role in WWII liberation

The Dutch embassy in London has honoured a 99-year-old Polish veteran for his role – as part of Poland’s exiled armed forces – in liberating the Netherlands from German Nazi occupation in World War Two.

Eugeniusz Jan Niedzielski, who served in the Polish 1st Armoured Division, was awarded a Thank You Liberator Medal at a ceremony on Wednesday.

“More than 250,000 Poles fought for our freedom during World War II,” wrote the embassy. “To compare, there were 20,000 Dutch military and 12,000 sailors in the merchant fleet active in the war…Thank you Poles for the sacrifices during the liberation of Europe and the Netherlands.”

Niedzielski was involved in Operation Pheasant, an Allied offensive to clear German troops from the province of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands that took place in October and November 1944.

Poland’s 1st Armoured Division, under the command of Major General Stanisław Maczek, played a major role in that operation, as well as the wider efforts to liberate France, Belgium and the Netherlands after the D-Day landings.

Niedzielski was born on 1 September 1923 in Dubno in Wołyń, which was then part of Poland but is now in Ukraine. After the German and Soviet invasions that began World War Two in September 1939, he was one of the hundreds of thousands of Poles deported eastwards by the Soviet Union, ending up in Siberia.

In 1942, after Stalin had switched sides to join the Allies, Niedzielski joined the new Polish army that was formed from those who had been deported to the Soviet Union. After his unit crossed the Soviet-Iranian frontier, it was placed under British command and Niedzielski was subsequently assigned to the UK.

There, he was enlisted in the 1st Armored Division of the Polish Armed Forces in the West. His unit took part in the battle of the Falaise pocket in August 1944, before arriving at the Dutch border on 16 September and subsequently being involved in Operation Pheasant.

During the operation, the Polish 1st Armored Division liberated the city of Breda without any civilian casualties or major destruction on 29 October 1944. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the city’s liberation in 2019, football club NAC Breda named their stadium after General Maczek for the day.

In 1947, Niedzielski returned to the UK, where he enlisted in the Polish Resettlement Corps before being honourably discharged the next year. Niedzielski has remained in the UK since, residing in London.

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Piso, the military attaché to the Dutch embassy in London, told Notes from Poland: “I believe that all these veterans, who are almost 100-years-old or older, are fading away now and we have to pass on the message to our children and grandchildren about what they did.”

“These are people that have given so much for your liberation, so that you are able to protest, have freedom of speech and the ability to go outside and be who you are,” he added. “Don’t forget the people who made it possible. People like Niedzielski, who really suffered himself and then suffered for others.”

Dutch embassies are mandated to present the Thank You Liberator Medal as a token of appreciation to those who helped liberate the Netherlands during the war. The medal, which features the flags of Poland, Canada, the US and UK, has been presented 2,443 times.

Main image credit: Karel van Oosterom / Twitter 

Anna Hackett

Anna Hackett is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a recent graduate of European Studies from Trinity College Dublin and has had previous journalistic experience with the Irish Independent News & Media group.