On 1 March 1951, members of the Fourth Board of the "Freedom and Independence" Association were murdered, led by Lieutenant Colonel Łukasz Ciepliński "Pług", who in 2007 was posthumously awarded the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish decoration, by President Lech Kaczyński.

 

To commemorate this event, on March 1 we celebrate the National Day of Remembrance of the Aged Soldiers. We pay tribute to 200 thousand underground soldiers who fought in the anti-communist uprising in 1944-1955. About 20 thousand of them died in combat, 8 thousand were sentenced to death, of which 4.5 thousand were executed.

 

The last hiding soldier was killed in October 1963. On March 1, at his memorial in Piaski, near Lublin, Law and Justice politicians will lay flowers and light candles in tribute to all members of the Polish underground.

 

Pictured (IPN source): from the left: Stanislaw Kuchcewicz "Wiktor", N.N., Jozef Franczak "Lalek", Walenty Waskowicz "Strzala" - ed.

 

In the history of 20th century Poland, soldiers and participants of the anticommunist underground from the Vilnius Brigades, the Freedom and Independence Association, the National Military Union, the National Armed Forces, the Polish Underground Army, the Home Army Resistance Movement, and hundreds of smaller organizations and units, who fought against Soviet occupation and the communist regime, wrote one of the most heroic, but also most tragic pages. Many of them still do not have their graves.

 

Not only did the members of the Polish underground pay for their loyalty to independent Poland with their lives. Those who managed to leave communist prisons were persecuted and harassed for decades, some of them until 1989. Repression also affected their families.

 

The term "cursed soldiers" describes well the fate they suffered. The communists were not satisfied with their death or years of persecution; they had to take away their honor and dishonor their memory. Unfortunately, even today there is no shortage of those who repeat these accusations. Influential children and grandchildren of the "power fixers" do everything so that the truth about the role of their ancestors serving foreign powers, taking part in judicial crimes, killing with a false word would not be revealed.

 

At the same time, many communist criminals remain unpunished, many receive high pensions and retain wax ranks and decorations. In public life, in the state administration, in the media and at universities, the former activists of the communist dictatorship and former collaborators of the security apparatus are still active. In these environments, the memory of the Liberated Soldiers is still suppressed and slandered.  

 

The Law and Justice Law is calling for a dignified remembrance of the soldiers of the post-war anti-communist uprising, for flags to be displayed in offices, schools and our homes, for participation in the ceremonies, for prayer for the murdered, killed and dead in prison. We call on state and local authorities to organize ceremonies.

 

We expect that the de facto censorship in the public media and educational institutions, which limits the realization of educational and artistic programs devoted to the Polish Soldiers of the Classified Army, will be abolished. We expect that the law on places of national remembrance, so far blocked by the government coalition, will be passed.

 

The memory of those who fought for the independence of the Republic is our national duty. Poland will never forget its heroes.

 

 

Political Committee

Law and Justice