To the article from the March issue of "Głos", which I wrote (my first name was changed to Kazimierz...), I am adding a postscript. It turned out that among the 28 Polish soldiers whose ashes lie in a collective grave at the cemetery on Śluzowa Street, the identities of 16 have been established. We will probably never know the names of the remaining 12...
The Association of Combatants and Former Political Prisoners in Bolesławiec asked the Municipal Board to reconstruct the grave of the 28 Polish soldiers previously considered unknown. We suggest giving it an appropriate form by placing a stone, rather than concrete, plaque bearing their surnames, first names, dates of birth and military unit numbers. It must be a dignified burial place for soldiers who fell for their homeland. It is painful to say that eight of the 28 coffins of unknown Polish soldiers were placed in a grave next to the plaque reading "28 POLISH SOLDIERS". Today there is no trace of this grave; it has been levelled, overgrown with grass, and people visiting the cemetery walk across this sacred place to shorten the route from one path to another. This is a scandal.
A sad reflection arises concerning the condition of military graves from the time of the last world war. During the years of the Polish People’s Republic, large sums were allocated from state (and municipal?) funds to Soviet war graves. Both Soviet cemeteries were constantly renovated, and there is no reason to object to that. What is regrettable is that the city authorities of that time treated Polish war graves so neglectfully. Let us hope that the new councillors will change their attitude to this issue and that soon—on the 50th anniversary of the end of the war or on 15 August, Polish Armed Forces Day—a solemn unveiling of the monument and grave of the 28 Polish soldiers will take place.
The Association of Combatants proposed that the Municipal Board transfer the ashes of our soldiers currently located in the Soviet military cemetery on Willowa Street. There will be an opportunity to do so in connection with the planned reconstruction of the grave. Let their ashes rest beside their comrades from the 2nd Polish Army; let them not lie among strangers.
Here are some details about the 16 compatriots whose ashes rest in an unmarked common grave: three tank soldiers fell on 10 April 1945 in Kliczków; one tank soldier was killed on 14 April in Bożejowice; one infantryman fell on 16 April 1945 in Tomisław; one artilleryman, a warrant officer, fell on 12 April near Bolesławiec; seven fell in April and May 1945 while the 2nd Army was marching to the front along the Lusatian Neisse or while returning from the front, also through the Bolesławiec region. Thus, the wartime route of the 2nd Army’s marches was strewn with graves... Three sappers, including Lieutenant Tomasz Nowak, died on 13 June 1946 near Bolesławiec while clearing mines from farmland. They fell the day after the war.
The remains of those 16 Polish soldiers, whose identities are now known, were buried in graves at the places of their deaths; after the war, they were transferred to the cemetery on Lubańska Street in Bolesławiec. In 1983–1984, following the municipal authorities’ decision to close the cemetery, they were exhumed and reburied at the cemetery on Śluzowa Street. We do not know what lay behind this decision. What fate was intended for the site of the old cemetery, where approximately two-thirds of the ashes had not been and were not to be exhumed... Residential building plots were supposedly to be created there. A macabre idea.
Today, the condition of this cemetery cries out to heaven for vengeance. Many people are outraged that numerous unexhumed graves of Bolesławiec residents who died years ago—compatriots, often distinguished pioneers—have been left here. The graves are in a terrible state; the crosses and monuments have been vandalised and broken. German citizens who come here to visit the graves of their loved ones also have every right to feel aggrieved... This old cemetery is evidence of a lack of remembrance for the dead, and we are all responsible, including the city authorities.
This place must not be removed from the cemetery register. In a conversation with a representative of the authorities responsible for this state of affairs, I heard:
—Please, sir, there is no cemetery there anymore!
And one more scandalous incident. In the first days of March this year, a stone monument approximately three metres high, richly decorated with copper sheets, was desecrated. The vandals were not interested in removing them for sale and material gain. The stone slab, measuring 2 by 3 metres and approximately 20 centimetres thick, was smashed to pieces!!! It was a monument over the grave of Colonel HENRYK WAWRZYNOWICZ, widely known and respected in our city... His decorations were engraved on the copper sheets, including the Lwów Eaglets Badge, the 1929 Medal of Independence for participation in the Greater Poland Uprising and the Silesian Uprising, two Crosses of Valour (including one from 1920), the Warsaw Uprising Cross, the Honorary Badge of a Border Defence Corps Soldier and many, many others... The perpetrators—as usual here—were not caught. As one of the colonel’s sons led me along the cemetery path to the site of the vandalism, he asked, completely devastated:
—Why was this done? What had my father done to this city?
I could not answer. This no longer young man continued his tragic monologue:
—What will I tell my mother, when she—an over-80-year-old woman—survives this infamous, thuggish act...