Włodzimierz Józef Godłowski (7 October 1900 – April/May 1940) was a Polish neurologist and psychologist. A professor of the

Stefan Batory University Vilnius University (Lithuanian language, Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a Public university, public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher e ...

Wilno Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

(Vilnius), he was also an officer in the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...

during the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

and

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...

. He was made a prisoner of war by the Soviets in 1939 and was murdered in the 1940

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre was a series of mass killings under Communist regimes, mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish people, Polish military officer, military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by t ...

Biography

Włodzimierz Godłowski was born in

Stryi Stryi (, ; ) is a city in Lviv Oblast, western Ukraine. It is located in the left bank of the Stryi (river), Stryi River, approximately south of Lviv in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. It serves as the administrative center of Stryi R ...

on 7 October 1900. He finished a gymnasium in

Sanok Sanok (in full the Royal Free City of Sanok — , , ''Sanok'', , ''Sianok'' or ''Sianik'', , , ''Sūnik'' or ''Sonik'') is a town in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship of southeastern Poland with 38,397 inhabitants, as of June 2016. Located on the San ...

in 1918, and then enrolled in the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. Around that time he also served in the military, where he served as a trainee at the Internal Illnesses Clinic. He obtained his PhD in 1925 at the Jagiellonian University, where he also worked as a

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

.Mieczysław Barcik, Adam Cieślak
"Z Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego do mogił katyńskich" - wystawa w Archiwum UJ.
Alma Mater. Nr 31/2001 From 1925-1927 he worked at the Mental Illness Institute in

Rybnik Rybnik (Polish pronunciation: ; ) is a city in southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, around 38 km (24 mi) southwest of Katowice, the region's capital, and around 19 km (11 mi) from the Czech Republic, Czech border. It i ...

. From 1927 he worked in the Neurology Clinic at the Jagiellonian University. In 1930 he spent half a year practicing in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. From September 1938 he was a member of the faculty if the

(Vilnius). He was the director of the University's Neurology Clinic and Brain Institute.Józef Piotr Knap
Służba zdrowia Korpusu Ochrony Pogranicza (od 1924 r. do mobilizacji)
BIULETYN CENTRALNEGO OŚRODKA SZKOLENIA STRAŻY GRANICZNEJ im. Marszałka Polski Józefa Piłsudskiego, nr 4/2007. His research concerned issues such as

brainstem The brainstem (or brain stem) is the posterior stalk-like part of the brain that connects the cerebrum with the spinal cord. In the human brain the brainstem is composed of the midbrain, the pons, and the medulla oblongata. The midbrain is conti ...

and

cerebral cortex The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebral mantle, is the outer layer of neural tissue of the cerebrum of the brain in humans and other mammals. It is the largest site of Neuron, neural integration in the central nervous system, and plays ...

. His best known work was the ''Podkorowe ośrodki spojrzenia i skojarzonych ruchów oczu (1936)''(''Subcortical centers of gaze and associated eye movements''). It was that work that gained him his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

. As a junior lieutenant of the

military reserves A military reserve force is a military organization whose members (reservists) have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional ma ...

of the

, he was mobilized on 27 August 1939. He served on Poland's eastern frontier, in the "Łużki" Battalion of the "Głębokie" Regiment of the

Border Protection Corps The Border Protection Corps () was a military formation of the Second Polish Republic that was created in 1924 to defend the country's eastern borders against armed Soviet incursions and local bandits. Other borders were under the jurisdiction of ...

. After the

and

in 1939 he became a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

in the custody of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. He was imprisoned in Kozielsk, and was a victim of the

in 1940 (around April–May), aged 39. He was the father of

Kazimierz Godłowski Kazimierz Godłowski (December 9, 1934 in Kraków – July 9, 1995 in Kraków) was a Polish archeologist and historian specializing in the prehistoric period. He was the son of Włodzimierz Godłowski, a professor at the Wilno University, who was ...

, an archeologist and historian.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Godlowski, Wlodzimierz 1900 births 1940 deaths Katyn massacre victims Polish Army officers Polish neurologists Academic staff of Vilnius University 20th-century Polish physicians 20th-century Polish psychologists Polish military personnel killed in World War II Recipients of the commemorative badge Orlęta