On occasion of the Cursed Soldiers National Remembrance Day (March 1), President Andrzej Duda visited the Warsaw villa in which victims of communist terror were tortured.
Duda said that despite the end of the Second World War and the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Cursed Soldiers opposed the idea of a Poland that was a truly independent country.
“The Cursed Soldiers did not accept the fact that there was Soviet occupation in Poland. Therefore, they did not lay down their arms and decided to fight for a free, sovereign and independent Poland until they succeeded or died,” Duda stated.
The president noted that according to historians the second Polish underground was comprised of over 300,000 people.
Duda explained that many suffered torture and death at the hands of Soviet oppressors and paid the ultimate price for their desire for an independent Poland.
As part of commemorating the Cursed Soldiers, the president visited the “Willa Jasny Dom” (bright house villa) in Warsaw which was the former headquarters of the communist’s military secret service — Main Directorate of Military Information. Unbeknownst to the people living around the building, communist special services imprisoned and tortured Polish underground members in the villa. Afterwards, the prisoners would be transported elsewhere.
Signs and messages written on the walls inside the villa by the prisoners still linger to this day.
“These inscriptions will be a testimony to those days, that suffering and that tragedy; a desperate “Jesus save me”, names, crosses, dates and calendars,” the president said.
The President’s Chancellery Twitter account shared photos of the president’s visit to the prison:
“President Duda: Thank you for the sensitivity which is shown to places such as this one and symbols of memory, so that they may survive until future generations and so that the memory of heroes, of the Cursed Soldiers and their devotion to the fatherland will never die. Just as Poland has not yet perished, so long as we live.”
Prezydent @AndrzejDuda: Dziękuję za czułość, jaka dziś jest okazywana takim miejscom i symbolom pamięci, by przetrwały do następnych pokoleń, by pamięć o bohaterach, o #ŻołnierzeWyklęci, o ich oddaniu ojczyźnie nie zginęła. Tak jak jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, kiedy my żyjemy. pic.twitter.com/DmRdWdaZLJ
— Kancelaria Prezydenta (@prezydentpl) March 1, 2021
The Cursed Soldiers is the name given to the members of Polish underground anti-Soviet and anti-communist movements which fought the Soviet occupation of Poland following the defeat of Nazi Germany. The Cursed Soldiers continued their underground struggle well into the 1950s and were viciously persecuted by communist authorities.
Title image: Soldiers of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) 5th Wilno Brigade (also known as the Brigade of Death) in 1945. The third from the left is the brigade commander major Zygmunt Szendzielarz “Łupaszka”, source: Wikipedia.
