For four years, the Society of Friends of Lviv and the Eastern Borderlands, comprising 70 members, has been active in Bolesławiec.
The Society’s board consists of: Stanisława Balawender (chair), Anastazja Sulik and Ferdynand Paluszek (vice-chairs), Tadeusz Stasiaczek (secretary), Anna Woźna (treasurer) and Antoni Byczkowicz (board member).
The Society organizes trips to its members’ ancestral lands in the borderlands, helps the Poles living there, and supports the fund for renovating Polish heritage sites and Polish churches. It also funded a commemorative plaque in the local parish church dedicated to the defenders of Lviv. Every year, the Society organizes commemorations of the defense of Lviv, which took place in 1918. In 1993, the 75th anniversary fell due, and on November 21 a ceremony more solemn than in previous years was organized for the occasion. The ceremony began in the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a concelebrated Holy Mass led by the dean, Prelate Władysław Rączka, also attended by chaplain Wojciech Mroszczak and canon Edward Franczak.
Father Franczak delivered a commemorative homily, recalling the patriotic duties of a Pole devoted to his homeland. The Mass was attended by representatives of the city authorities, including Mayor J. Król, representatives of the Polish Army garrison, and color guards of the Association of Combatants of the Republic of Poland and Former Political Prisoners, the Association of War Invalids, the World Association of the Home Army, and others. The ceremony was enhanced by a military band and singing by Andrzej Zborowski.
Candles burned at the TML commemorative plaque, which was draped with a white-and-red sash.
The second part of the commemorations took place at the Bolesławiec Cultural Centre, where, following an opening address by Society Chair Stanisława Balawender, splendid performances by ensembles and bands were held. Children from Primary School No. 8, under the direction of Grażyna Starzyńska, presented a “Lviv” spoken-and-vocal program recalling for older attendees the land of their youth.
Arkadiusz Urban delivered the commemorative speech. He was a former member of the authorities of the Lviv Circle and the Association of Eastern Lands of the Republic of Poland in Great Britain, as well as editor of the London-Warsaw magazine “Nasze porozumienie”. Among other things, he said that, as a Lviv chronicler recorded, Lviv was a city that “with its entire being, every stone in its walls, the blood of its burghers and its wealth, remained faithful to the Polish kings until its final breath and its last penny in the treasury.”
The final part of the evening was filled with performances by the “Bolusie” band, featuring a Lviv repertoire, and by the “Fart” ensemble. There was also an “open microphone,” where anyone could sing and say what they felt in their heart.
Throughout the ceremonies, Lviv calendars and the borderlands magazine “Semper Fidelis” were distributed.
More than two and a half million złoty was raised for the reconstruction of the “Eaglets” Cemetery in Lviv.