Cpt. Krzysztof Flizak, the youngest soldier of General Anders was a guest of the NNW Film Festival
       He traveled over 3.5 thousand miles to find my father. Later he was the youngest soldier of the Anders army. Capt. Krzysztof Flizak is the hero of the documentary “Monte Cassino – The Last Chapter” shown on Friday (Jan 10, 2022) at the Film Festival Niepokorni Niezłomni Wyklęci in Gdynia.
       The film “Monte Cassino – The Last Chapter” is a story of veterans – Władysław Dąbrowski, Alfons Mrzyk, Leon Piesowocki, Edward Moczulski, Czesław Balca, Marian Bajda, Feliks Osiński and Krzysztof Flizak, a captain in the US army who, as a ten-year-old boy, went to the Junacka Cadet School in Palestine.

       After the screening of the film, there was a conversation with its heroes: Capt. Władysław Dąbrowski and Capt. Krzysztof Flizak. The other one, he was the youngest soldier of General Anders. During the meeting with the audience, he told about his search for a soldier’s father. “As a young boy, I traveled over 3.5 thousand kilometers to find him. I looked for him in Russia, in Iraq. I went to various camps” – recalled Flizak.
       Together with Anders’ army, he walked the entire combat route (Monte Cassino, Loreto, Ancona and Bologna). “Later, I found myself in the VII Supply Company, which was sent across the Caspian Sea to Pahlavi. We were prepared for further transport. In Easter 1942, I was already on free Persian soil” – explained Flizak.

       Krzysztof Flizak was 7 years old when World War II broke out. However, he did not go to school, but together with the adults he dug anti-tank ditches. In September 1939, his father, a professional military man, was arrested by the NKVD and sent to a POW camp near Smolensk.
       Krzysztof and his mother were deported to Siberia. In order to get into the youth company in the army of General Anders, which was being formed in the USSR, he gave his date of birth two years earlier.

       Together with Anders’ army, he walked the entire combat route (Monte Cassino, Loreto, Ancona and Bologna). “Later I found myself in the VII Supply Company, which was sent across the Caspian Sea to Pahlavi. We were prepared for further transport. On Easter 1942, I was already on free Persian soil” – explained Flizak. He also mentioned that after the war “the second corps in which he served was demobilized”. “The British gave us two years to adjust to our new civilian life. We had to sign a contract that we had no grievances against them. I was the youngest in the Polish Corps of Adaptation and Deployment” – he pointed out.

       After the war he emigrated to America. “I changed the Polish uniform to the American one, I didn’t know any other profession than a soldier” – recalled the captain.
       In the US, he was assigned to the 101st Parachute Division and sent to the Korean War. He was wounded at the front. “I spent nine months in the hospital, and it took me five years to rehabilitate,” he said.

Held under the honorary patronage of President Andrzej Duda, the Niepokorni Niezłomni Wyklęci Film Festival will end on Saturday.

 (PAP)

author: Piotr Mirowicz.

PUBLISHED: 01.10.2022 News, Culture and art
(Original Polish version can be found here:  Dzieje.pl )