Minister Henryk Goryszewski of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, widely known for travelling around the country on behalf of the president to present military banners, and very rarely veterans’ banners, carried out such a mission in Jelenia Góra in mid-February. The local veterans’ organization associating soldiers of the NSZ (National Armed Forces) had the honor of receiving a banner from Minister H. Goryszewski, who performed this act on behalf of the President of the Republic of Poland.
There would be nothing particularly noteworthy about this if not for a certain passage in the minister’s speech... He said more or less the following, as I recall:
“Glory to you, soldiers of the NSZ, who fought (...) and were the first Polish soldiers to set foot on Lower Silesian soil and restore it to the Motherland (...)”...
So not the Polish soldiers of the Second Army, which passed from Wrocław through Bolesławiec on its march to the front then located along the Lusatian Neisse... marking its route with the graves of the fallen... for example, on Bolesławiec land alone, around 40 of them died during the march to the front or on their return from the war to the country.
The minister did not say what connection the NSZ formation had with Lower Silesia. Well, it was this: the famous “Świętokrzyska” Brigade of the NZS, commanded by Colonel “Bohun,” arrived by German rail transport, with weapons in hand. The German troops provided the railway transport and gave them an escort consisting of German gendarmes, so that, God forbid, during the journey through Lower Silesia some German unit would not mistake them for enemies and attack them...
It was under such circumstances that the NSZ’s connection with Lower Silesia came about, and this took place in the winter of 1944/45, since otherwise the brigade would have been defeated by Soviet troops, which began Operation Vistula–Oder on 12 January 1946.
In closing, I would like to recall that an article by Arkadiusz Urban, entitled “Who Was the First to Fight for the Border on the Oder and the Neisse and for Bolesławiec in Poland,” appeared on page 6 of our February 1994 issue. Mr. Urban argued that the lands along the Oder and Lusatian Neisse, including Bolesławiec, returned to Poland thanks to the National Armed Forces, which demanded the return of these lands in the pamphlet “Szaniec.” God alone knows why the editors placed beneath this article a war cemetery containing the remains of nearly 5,000 soldiers of the Second Army in Zgorzelec...
Apparently, someone submitted to the editors an article disputing Mr. A. Urban’s arguments, but the editors were not gracious enough to publish it. Could it be that they accepted the views of the author of the text, Mr. A. Urban?