I just read he committed suicide at the end of the battle. That’s a shame.
I have a small piece of concrete from cpt.Raginis’s bunker on the most exposed, honorable shelf in the living room in my house. I carved it out with my swiss-knife and took as a souvenir when I was at scout trip in Vizna many years ago.
It gave me POWERFUL STRENGTH to survive the communist horror of the martial law and Soviet occupation. It was like a dagger of conscience whenever I was stricken with the feeling of helplessness and thinking of giving up the fight.
Facts about cpt. Raginis:
Cpt.Raginis - Polish Leonidas - the legendary commander of Vizna - POLAND'S THERMOPYLAE.
For three days, together with his 800 soldiers put up a heroic and truly spirited defense of Vizna and was successfully stopping 42,000 soldiers of Gen. heinz Guderian's Panzer Armee charging towards Warsaw.
NOT A SINGLE POLISH SOLDIER SURRENDERED!
Cpt. Raginis blew himself up with a grenade when German tanks were approaching his position and there was no means to stop them (the ammo was over). The few heavy wounded, about 40 soldiers, were taken POWs unconscious from the battle field by Germans.Some of them didn't survive till the morning after...
P.S. I remember all my schoolmates were teary-eyed when the tour guide was telling the story. UNFORGETABLE!