Aleksander Narbutt-Łuczyński

Aleksander Narbutt-Łuczyński (February 28, 1890 – July 25, 1977) was a Polish lawyer and military officer, a brigadier general of the Polish Army and a veteran of both the Polish-Bolshevik War and World War II. During the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 he commanded the rear troops of the Kraków Army.

Łuczyński gave the orders for the Pinsk massacre, in which 35 Jewish civilians were killed. After that he moved to Belgium, where he graduated from the faculty of law of the University of Liège. After the outbreak of World War I he returned to Poland under foreign partitions and volunteered for the Polish Legions in Austria-Hungary. In October 1914 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, and then in March of the following year - to Captain.

After Poland regained independence in 1918 Narbutt-Łuczyński joined the newly formed Polish Army, and took part in the Polish-Bolshevik War in the rank of Major, and then Colonel (since June 1, 1919). After the war he remained in the army and in 1924 was promoted to brigadier general. He served on various command posts in the interbellum. During the Invasion of Poland, Narbutt-Łuczyński commanded the rear troops of the Kraków Army. Taken prisoner of war in Romania, he made his way to France, where he remained in the officers' reserve of the commander-in-chief. After the end of World War II, he settled in the United States, where he lived until his death.

Pinsk massacre During the Polish-Soviet War, Major Łuczyński was a commanding officer of Polish troops in the frontline city of Pinsk, whose population was overwhelmingly Jewish. According to William W. Hagen Łuczyński "embodied military anti-Jewish paranoia, discovering in trivia malevolent design and finding himself in a numerous throng of unfriendly foreign-speaking Jews, high fearful of ambush."

Honours and awards Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari Cross of Independence Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta Cross of Valour - four times Gold Cross of Merit - twice Officer's "Parasol" badge