Grodno is a city which during the September Campaign of 1939 was engaged in a heroic battle with the Red Army. One of the important elements of Polish resistance was the 3^rd Regional Hospital in Grodno led by Lt. Col. Dionizy Krechowicz (1896–1940), Polish military physician, officer, the last commandant of the 3^rd Regional Hospital in Grodno. He was born in Zbaraż, on April 8, 1896, his parents were Piotr i Maria nee Chimuk. In the years 1914–1920, he took part in the World War I and in the Polish‑Soviet War. In 1925, he graduated from the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv. In the years 1925–1931, Krechowicz served in the 5th Tatra Rifles Regiment in Przemyśl. In 1937, he became the commandant of the 3^rd Regional Hospital in Grodno. During the September Campaign of 1939 defensive war he was captured by the Red Army and imprisoned in the POW camp in Starobielsk. He was murdered by the NKVD in the spring of 1940. Lt. Col. Dionizy Krechowicz was buried at the War Cemetary in Kharkiv. In April 2010, a Polish delegation going to attend a ceremony in Katyn, to pay tribute to the Polish officers killed there, including the defenders of Grodno, died in a plane crash near Smolensk. It was undoubtedly a tragic coincidence.