When the term "Polish Underground State" is mentioned, what immediately comes to mind are the Home Army, the Warsaw Uprising and all the incredible resistance of the Polish people, who did not resign from the German and Soviet occupation even for a moment. The Polish Underground State was a unique phenomenon in Europe, not only because of the heroism of Poles, but also because of perfect self-organization, which proves that our nation wants and is able to be a good host in its own country, even in the most difficult conditions.

When we honor the Polish Underground State we should remember above all that we are honoring the Polish State itself - the Republic of Poland. The Polish Underground State was nothing else than an unbroken free and sovereign Republic of Poland, which, although occupied, did not refuse to live and perform its basic state functions. The Polish Underground State functioned not as a partisan enterprise, but was based on the legal authorities in exile and the laws they enacted, published in Official Journals of Laws abroad. The authorities of the Republic of Poland during the war lasted not only as a symbol, but also as a real, living entity, acting and directing the fight against the occupant with the help of its administration and army fighting most persistently from the first to the last day of World War II, both outside Poland and in Poland - in the conditions of conspiracy.

The day of the Polish Underground State should be a day of national pride for all of us. We have proven, not so much to the world as to ourselves, that we are a creative nation, and our sense of freedom and ability to be active as a mature civil society gives us a unique ability to recover from historical disasters that history has not spared us.