The Cursed Soldiers – The steadfast soldiers of the polish anticommunist, underground independence movement who held out against the Sovietization of Poland and its submission to the USSR following the end of World War II in 1945. For many of the soldiers, the war did not end that year, aware of their motherland being submitted to Soviet occupation, they decided to continue fighting for their own freedom and the freedom of future generations.
It is estimated that 20,000 soldiers were covertly murdered or died in prisons NKWD and UB, some were taken away and dropped off in the East, and many were sentenced to life in prison. During the second half of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s, more than 250,000 people were imprisoned and held against their will in work camps. The communists not only tortured them, murdered, and threw the bodies into unmarked pits of death, but also did everything in their power to dishonor and obliviate the dead, erasing them from national memory. Those who survived, however, and lived in the PRL period, were considered second-class citizens. There was room for them at universities, they could not accept scholarships abroad, they could not take up more lucrative job positions. The authorities nagged their close ones: their parents, siblings, relatives, and even children.
It was not until the end of the 1990s when the soldiers received more recognition and were talked about more publically. The presidency and the activity of late professor Lech Kaczyński brought back the soldiers their deserving place in history. Unfortunately, it was only after the tragic death of the president that the polish parliament established the first of March as the Cursed Soldiers National Remembrance Day. We strongly believe that remembering the soldiers of “the second conspiracy” is our obligation not only in Poland but also here, on emigration, as many of them have also been forced to emigrate.
In 2016 an idea was born to build a monument in honor of The Cursed Soldiers, and with the goodwill of the authorities of the Monastery of the Paoline Fathers, the choice for the location fell on the spiritual capital of Polonia, the American Czestochowa.
The initiator of the project to commemorate the heroes was Grzegorz Tymiński, the creator of the portal Pamięć.us, a member of the Committee for Celebrating the Anniversary of the Smoleńsk Catastrophe and the Katyń Genocide. The entire committee immediately made a unanimous decision, and with the help and support of many people associated with the committee, the monument of The Cursed Soldiers was built. The monument was solemnly revealed by the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda on September 18, 2016.
The authors of the monument are Bożena and Andrzej Praszczyk. The project depicts soldiers of the second conspiracy emerging from behind a rock of lies and oblivion. They are returning to the present to take their well-deserved spot in our history. The primary and most significant element of the monument is the soil from “Łączka” – a silent witness of the mass murders committed by polish patriots. It is the first monument in the world with a built-in solid from the “Ł” quarter of the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw.
The main sponsors of the monument were Adam and Ava Bak – Bak Foundation. The Polish – Slavic Federal Credit Union, II District SWAP and the SWAP Foundation, Polonia Institute, Piast Meats & Provisions, Okna-Windows, and many other organizations and private persons whom we are not able to mention, but for whom the remembrance of the Cursed Soldiers is a crucial matter.
TOGETHER WE WILL RESTORE THE MEMORY
OF OUR HEROES!!!
To see THE MONUMENT OF THE CURSED SOLDIERS, please visit the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, PA
Address:
654 Ferry Road,
Doylestown, PA 18901