Władysław Komar was born in Kaunas, Lithuania on 11 April 1940 to Władysław Komar-Zabożyński and Wanda Jasińska. As a Polish noble family they owned a mansion in Rogówek (Lithuanian: Raguvėlė). Both of his parents were athletes – father competed for Lithuania as Vladas Komaras at the 1934 European Athletics Championships in the high jump and 110 metres hurdles, mother was a shot putter, who set a national record in the early 1930s. During World War Two the family moved to Gulbiny (Lithuanian: Didieji Gulbinai). His father, who during war helped the Polish anti-German resistance movement, the Home Army, was murdered in 1944 in Glitiškės by a group of Ypatingasis būrys militia.