(the handing over of the tradition)
The magnificent ceremony of handing over the traditions of the Polish Commandos to the soldiers of the 62nd Special Company on 24–25 September 1993 became history.
With its colors, the film strip will convey the uninterrupted blue of the sky and the equally uninterrupted sun casting warm rays on the silent autumn leaves of the trees in Bolesławiec. As it presents subsequent scenes, the film will show priests, the tall soldiers of the 62nd Special Company in the church, soldier altar servers, Polish scouts and distinguished guests at the solemn ceremony in the garrison church in Bolesławiec.
Moving to the square beside the imposing municipal cinema building, the film strip will show a grandstand filled with dignitaries, the aligned ranks of elite Polish Army units, further scenes from the ceremony of handing over the traditions, displays of the soldiers’ skills by the 62nd Special Company, and the singing and dancing of young people and recitations by schoolchildren.
After the parade of the standards, elite Polish Army units and scouts, the film operator will move to the huge banquet hall in the barracks of the Heirs to the Commandos’ traditions. I fear that the film, in the program as a whole, will not convey—just as they were experienced—the feelings of cordiality, hospitality, respect and esteem, nor the profound emotions that accompanied the participants of this magnificent, fully buttoned-up historic ceremony in Bolesławiec.
I am not sure whether anyone could have looked at and read the emotions of the soldier who, beginning his wartime march with a duty toward the Polish September of 1939, concluded it with a ceremonial triumphant march and inspection of the perfectly aligned ranks of the soldiers of the 62nd Special Company and the neighboring artillery unit in Bolesławiec. For the September soldier—later a commando on the Western Front of the Second World War—the march before the front of elite Polish Army units, with the Major-Commander of the 62nd Special Company on his right saluting and rendering honors to the standards on free Polish soil, would remain the highest distinction of the war-and-peace years.
The distinction was all the more honorable because it took place after half a century of separation from the Homeland and after the experiences and wounds suffered on the slopes of Monte Cassino 50 years earlier.
Everything experienced by the participants of the memorable ceremony of September 1993 in Bolesławiec could not have taken place without the ensigns, sergeants and the rest of the soldiers of the 62nd Special Company. Nor could it have taken place without the former soldiers of both Polish Commando units, scattered around the world.
The latter, just like the former, deserve words of thanks and recognition for the work they contributed and for their proper assessment of the history of our times. We thank the soldiers of Maj. Ryszard Marciniec not only for the work they contributed and their expressions of cordiality; we thank you for your Polish identity and for your patriotism—not for show. The process of handing over the traditions took place in accordance with democratic principles and accepted forms, and with the provisions of the Statutory words.
I was pleasantly surprised—just before flying to the ceremony—when I received a letter and a positive statement in favor of handing over the traditions from a colleague in England who, having learned by chance what was happening, hastened to send his positive vote and exceptionally kind words. I had had no contact with him since taking off my uniform. I should reassure Puklicz in Canada, who, showing concern, wrote: “remember our Fallen, Stefan.” I will tell him that we entrusted the memory of the Fallen to the hands of the Gentlemen of the 62nd Special Company. I will repeat the same to Ensign Czerechowicz in Canada. I will tell them about the beautiful memorial plaque in the barracks of our Heirs, where beneath a magnificent stone slab our finest colleagues from the Independent and 2nd Commando Battalions symbolically rest. I will tell them how dignified the unveiling and laying of flowers in their memory were. After what we saw, heard, observed and overheard in Bolesławiec, we can assure our colleagues that they made no mistake in handing over their traditions to the soldiers of the 62nd Special Company. Our satisfaction lies in the fact that the soldiers of the Commando Battalion were included in the text of the ACT of handing over the traditions at the same level—as the soldiers of the Independent Battalion. Through its historic ceremony, 25 September 1993 refuted the division and all the lies of the propaganda aimed at setting the Polish Army against itself. Two brothers of the same Mother, one from the West, covered in half a century of gray hair, and the other tall, athletic and bursting with youth, demonstrated, in a fraternal handshake, UNITY and belonging to the same land and tradition of the Polish Army. May we, united, triumph in every sphere of Polish life. A commando of the Second World War.
Chicago, October 1993