Witez II was a bay Arabian stallion foaled at the Janów Podlaski stud in Poland. Foaled April 1, 1938, he spent his early years at Janów at a time when Poland was under occupation by Nazi Germany before ultimately arriving in the United States in 1945, where he lived for the remainder of his life until his death on June 9, 1965. His name came from an archaic Polish word meaning "chieftain, knight, prince and hero."