Marian Porwit

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Marian Porwit (1895-1988) was a Polish military officer, a Colonel of the Polish Army and a noted military historian. A commander of one of the sections of the Polish front during the Siege of Warsaw of 1939, after the war he became one of the most renown historians documenting the history of the Polish Defensive War.

Born September 25, 1895 in Gorlice (then in Austro-Hungarian Galicia), following the outbreak of the Great War Porwit joined the Polish Legions, where he served with distinction. In 1918 he joined the re-established Polish Army and fought in the Polish-Bolshevik War. By 1939 he was promoted to the rank of pułkownik. Attached to the staff of Gen. Walerian Czuma, Porwit became the commanding officer of the Western Area of the defence of Warsaw during the siege of 1939. The troops under his command successfully defended the westernmost approach towards the city centre between September 8 and September 28.

Taken prisoner of war by Nazi Germany, Porwit spent the remainder of World War II in POW camps. Liberated in 1945 he moved to London, where he became a member of the Sikorski Institute. However, in 1946 he decided to return to Poland. He settled in Warsaw, where he continued his historical career. He died April 26, 1988 in Warsaw.

Porwit's son, Krzysztof Porwit, became a noted economist.