Henryk Toruńczyk

Col. Henryk Torunczyk, born in Włocławek, (1909–1966) was a Polish soldier. He later volunteered to fight with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. He was sometime commander of the Naftali Botwin Company; Chief of Staff^[1] of XIII International Brigade and leader of an International Unit^[2] formed in January 1939 from a rump of Brigade veterans who remained in Spain after demoblisation.^[3] They crossed the border in Spain on about 9 January 1939^[4] He later became a partisan.^[5] From 1943 he was instrumental in forming the Samodzielny Batalion Szturmowy.^[6] In 1945 he was briefly commanding officer of the Polish Internal Security Corps.

Henryk Toruńczyk
Roman Toruńczyk's grave at the Powązki Military Cemetery
Born	(1909-02-08)8 February 1909 Włocławek, Russian Empire
Died	18 January 1966(1966-01-18) (aged 56) Warsaw, Polish People's Republic
Buried	Powązki Military Cemetery, Warsaw
Allegiance	Polish People's Republic
Branch	International Brigades Polish People's Army
Rank	Pułkownik (Colonel)
Unit	XIII International Brigade Polish Independent Special Battalion Internal Security Corps
Commands	Commander of the XIII International Brigade Commander of the Internal Security Corps
Battles / wars	Spanish Civil War Second World War
Awards	(see below)

He is also called: Henrik Torunczyk and Henrik Tourunczyk.

Awards and decorations

• Order of the Banner of Labour]], 1st Class
• Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (13 July 1955)
• Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 3rd Class
• Gold Cross of Virtuti Militari
• Partisan Cross
• Medal "For Your Freedom and Ours"
• Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class (USSR)

See also

• Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, 4th Rev. Ed. 2001.
• Antony Beevor, The Battle for Spain, 2007.
• Cecil Eby, Comrades and Commissars, 2007.