Publication date: 09.05.2023

Before World War II, he served in the 4th Niemen Uhlan Regiment in Vilnius. He fought in the defensive war of 1939, for which he was awarded the Virtuti Militari Cross. After unsuccessful attempts to escape to Hungary, he returned to Vilnius in  November 1939.

At the beginning of 1940, he became involved in the underground activities - first in the Regimental Circles, and then, in the Union of Armed Struggle - Home Army.  He adopted the pseudonym "Łupaszka", referring to Cavalry Lieutenant Colonel Jerzy Dąbrowski "Łupaszka" (the famous cavalry officer during the Polish-Soviet War, co-founder of  the 13th Regiment of Wilno Uhlans).

Commander and organiser of a Home Army partisan unit from November 1943, called the 5th Wilno Brigade (also known as the Brigade of Death). At its head, he organised many successful actions against the Germans and the Lithuanian troops collaborating with them, as well as against the hostile Soviet partisans.

At the end of July 1944, his unit was surrounded by Soviet troops and he was forced to liquidate the brigade. He managed to reach the region of Bialystok, where he continued his pro-independence activities under the conditions of the new, communist occupation. The units under his command operated in vast areas from Podlasie to Western Pomerania. From a small unit operating in autumn 1944,  he created a brigade of 300 soldiers the following year.

He was characterised by extraordinary consistency in the fight for a free Poland. In a leaflet, at the beginning of 1946, he wrote, inter alia:  "We are not a gang, as we are called by the traitors and the bastard sons of our fatherland. We come from Polish towns and villages [...].  We want Poland to be ruled by Poles devoted to the cause and elected by the entire Nation".

Arrested by officers of the communist Security Office on 30 June 1948,  he was subjected to a brutal interrogation.  On 2 November 1950,  the Military District Court in Warsaw sentenced Zygmunt Szendzielarz to eighteen times the death penalty.  Zygmunt Szendzielarz was murdered by the communists in the Mokotów prison on 8 February 1951.

The major's body was buried in secret.  The remains of "Łupaszka" were found by the team of prof. Krzysztof Szwagrzyk from the Institute of National Remembrance  in 2013,  in the 'Ł' section of Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw. On 24 April 2016, he was buried with military honours in his family grave at the Powązki Military Cemetery.