THEY ARE COMING OUT OF PITS OF OBLIVION

Recently in this place I have let out an idea of a lawyer Stefan Hambura who is aiming at organizing a museum in Berlin which would commemorate Poles saving the Jews. He is thinking of placing here a replica of the museum of the Ulmów family from Markowa and a copy of the chapel from Toruń with some evidence of Poles’ heroism during the Second World War. The alarm of the lawyer to hurry with saving historical remembrance, turned out to be fully justified. For, at present, for example, in Berlin, one can see an exhibition entitiled: ‘Silent heroes’, commemorating good Germans who were helping the Jews in the years 1933 – 45. Unfortunately, there is no mention about thousands of Poles saving the Jews under the threat of death penalty. It is necessary to perceive it in the sense of a scandal, because the Berlin exhibition concerns not only Germany but also the area of Poland. – Germany creates its own history. It does not have any relations with facts and real history of the Second World War – notes the lawyer Hambura. Now we see that the historic lie was being elaborated for tens of years. An important signal proving unmasking anti-Polish policy was seen 50 years ago in the letter of Episcopate addressed to believers, dated on 3 May 1968, which was prepared by cardinal Karol Wojtyła. It reads: ‘There are attempts to blame Poles for the extermination of the Jews, done in Nazis death camps. This is a terrible moral harm, if we consider the fact that in the death camps millions of Poles were killed.

Through remembrance about our compatriots and also basing on all kinds of evidence of love to our neighbours, which Poles showed to persecuted Jews during the war occupation, we demand to stop this false and hurting propaganda and provoking it’. Those words were written by Polish bishops half a century ago.

Poles can afford real heroism, which they also showed after the Second World War. Our national heroes include the Doomed Soldiers who are being extracted from anonymous pits of death and oblivion now. In this issue of ‘Sunday’ we write a lot about heroes of the anticommunist underground state who opposed to sovietization of our nation, for which they were terribly tortured in communist prisons, and sentenced to death. Beside the body debris of the Doomed Soldiers of the National Remembrance Museum there are also holy signs of their religiousness, which is proves that they were people of faith and it was just their faith which gave them strength to put up with tortures in prison. A symbolic example of trusting God completely was given by a sub-colonel Łukasz Ciepliński, killed on 1 March 1951 in a Warsaw prison on Mokotów. On the way of his execution he managed to kneel on the prison courtyard to take out a small medallion hidden in his shoe and put it into his mouth…And it was how he decided to die.

During this year’s ceremonies of the National Day of Remembrance about Doomed Soldiers, what was shocking was a meeting with participants of anticommunist underground state in the former Warsaw execution hall on Rakowicka street. During the ceremony of opening the exhibition entitled: ‘Evidence of crime’, the President of Poland Andrzej Duda thanked for free Poland. The prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki called Doomed Soldiers our greatest heroes and said: ‘If it happened that I would forget about them, God, please, forget me. So, we have lived till the times when Poland is behaving as it should, trying to save martyrs of former Polish Republic of People from being forgotten, most of whom do not have their own graves.

Translated by Aneta Amrozik

Niedziela 10/2018 (11 III 2018)

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
Editor-in-chief: Fr Jaroslaw Grabowski • E-mail: redakcja@niedziela.pl