Janusz Komorowski

Major of the Polish Army, sports equestrian, Olympian from Berlin, medalist of the Polish Championships in eventing. After the war, a horse riding coach in England and Argentina.

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Born on October 9, 1905 in Warsaw.

We would like to thank Ms. Krystyna Rudowska for preparing a comprehensive biography of Janusz Komorowski. We publish the introduction below, the rest of the article is available in the Polish Digital Equestrian Library - Editorial office of the Legendy Polskie Equestrian portal.

I met Major Janusz Komorowski in 1987 while collecting materials for biographies of cavalrymen and outstanding Polish riders. I made a phone call requesting an appointment and the major immediately invited me to the house for an interview.

He lived at ul. Czerniakowska 157 m12, in a place close to him from his memories, in the vicinity of ul. Podchorążych, where the barracks of the 1st Horse Artillery Squadron were located before the war, and ul. Light Cavalry, where the barracks of the 1st Light Cavalry Regiment used to be located. Mr. Major hated being late, so I would arrive early and wait outside the door, and when the exact hour struck, I would knock on the door.

After the first meeting, I regularly visited the extremely hospitable home of the Komorowskis every few days, there was always hot tea with raspberries and a glass of cherry brandy. I turned on the tape recorder and Mr. Major talked. Our meetings quickly turned into discussions about life and our difficult Polish history.

From Major, apart from dozens of hours of his stories recorded on tape, I also received a commemorative photo with a dedication and negatives of photos from photographs from a private archive. Our conversations resulted in several articles and a film broadcast on Polish Television. Mr. Major agreed to appear in the film, but he did not want to speak directly to the camera, so we recorded his statements separately (so-called offs) and provided voices for the scenes shot with the camera. (…)

Read the rest of Janusz Komorowski's memoirs in the Polish Digital Equestrian Library (click)

Author of the text: Krystyna Rudowska