Colonel Franciszek Skibiński
3rd Rifle Brigade
10th Armored Cavalry Brigade

Well, just the liberation of the concentration camp—well, it was a discovery [of] Papenburg. It was the first camp I saw in my life. I heard the stories about how this camp were [sic] looking. But to see heaps of terribly lean naked bodies lying … Well, it was a very shocking sight. And it shocked me and my soldiers, as well, very, very deeply. I do remember this moment.

(Interview, October 1981, https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn513325)

Born on 15 August 1899 in Munich, Germany, Franciszek Maria Maksymilian Skibiński served with the Puławy Legion during the First World War and joined the secret Polish Military Organization in 1918. He served with the Polish Army during the wars of independence and was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1920. Although reprimanded by an officers’ court of honour for an incident of disturbing the peace in 1925 and arrested for firing a gun allegedly while intoxicated in 1927, he continued to advance through the ranks, rising to a major by the September 1939 campaign.

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