THEY OBLIGE US
ALINA CZERNIAKOWSKA
In Poland we have many important dates, anniversaries, in every month, but also these August-September ones do not allow us to forget about them, even if they are the most impregnated on Polishness. Considering what historical knowledge of this year's secondary graduates is, it is worth recalling the most important events of the two mentioned months – the Warsaw Uprising – on 1 August 1944, the Miracle at the Vistula – on 15 August 1683 or the heroic defence of our independence in September 1939 – a fight with two aggressors, Germany and the Soviet Union. Westerplatte, Gdansk Post Office, defence of the Coast, general Dabek, a commander Przybyszewski, Wizna, Kock, Mokra, generals, soldiers, cavalrymen – Kutrzebam Kleeberg, Raginis, Walicki, Wolka Weglowa and Warsaw with its beloved president Starzynski – these are only a few people and places which make Poland unique. But it somehow happens so strangely, that we, contemporary people, cannot tell the world about it. About heroic Poles who had been maintaining their dignity, honour, brevity and national pride till the end. We cannot tell the Germans and the Russians clearly about who was a barbarian, who shot at surprised children coming back from schools on a sunny day on 1 September 1939, who burned heroes alive, who had been defending till the very end, and later profaned even bodies, and, finally, what behaviour was like of somebody who, on 17 September stabbed Poland with a ….. knife. It is enough to read about what was done to gentry on Kresy – cruelty did not have any limits. Big cities of the West, connected together with treaties, conventions with Poland, did not care about it, and were looking at the murder of the nation, which had just risen to independent life only 20 years before, after 123 years of captivity. Hundred of thousand Poles, taken to death camps, murdered, thrown away from their homes, ripped off any kind of human dignity, whereas allies were keeping silent. Sometimes they expressed voice of surprise or maybe astonishment ('Oh, my God, they are doing it!'), when they were looking at Poles fighting for London, Falaise, Breda, Normandy, Tobruk, Monte Cassino...'To surprise of the world, to Poland's resurrection'. Today we, Poles, should remember about it, tell the truth to the world and be steadfast in a fight for the place we deserve. We must not be submissive to the dictatorship of those who do not know or do not want to know the truth. We owe it to previous generations of heroic Poles. I owe it to my father, the soldier of the Polish September. Every Pole carries this great commitment in his heart, from which he must not run away.
AA
„Niedziela” 39/2015