Tadeusz Jan Nowicki was born at 9.30 a.m. on 27 February 1915 in Dortmund, in the working-class district of Erving. The available documentation shows that he had five siblings: Wanda, Janina, Irena, Telesfor and Sophie. His parents Jan and Helena Nowicki decided to return to Poland in 1918. The couple chose the town of Wysoka, in the Działdowo region, to be their place of settlement in Poland. T. Nowicki began his education at the Teachers’ Seminar in Działdowo in 1929. It was a very specific secondary school. Its main task was to educate the Masurian intelligentsia, identifying with the Polish ethnos. It is worth emphasising here in what circumstances this young man who later became very actively involved in the fight for Poland’s independence, as well as in social activity and positivist grassroots work in the village of Podgolina, was raised.
On 20 August 1939, he was mobilised and assigned to the Brodnica National Defence Battalion, with which he followed the combat route of the September 1939 campaign. After being taken prisoner, he prudently understated his rank. As a result, he was in the group that left the camp walls on 15 October 1939. He finally settled in Kroczyn, where he undertook to organise secret teaching. At the end of 1942, T. Nowicki joined in the creation of a military structure in Chełm poviat, which eventually took the name of the Peasant Battalions. He took part in the actions carried out as part of the „Storm” Operation. He was arrested on 7 December 1944 by a PUBP officer in Chełm.
On 15 September 1945, T. Nowicki was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. After his release from prison, he settled down with his family in Przyjma near Golina. He was a man of great merit for Poland, but above all for his small homeland. This is all the more noteworthy because Przyjma, or more broadly the Golina municipality, was his place on earth by choice, not by birth. However, he was able to devote to this land and especially to the people living here all his talents and life energy, which he did not lack.
