Today, many wise and moving words were spoken beneath the monument to the Soldiers of the 2nd Army of the Polish Army.
Tomasz Gabrysiak, Bolesławiec County executive:
We are commemorating the 74th anniversary of the end of the bloodiest and most barbaric war in world history—a war that claimed the greatest number of civilian lives.
Poles took part in this drama from the very first day. And it was the Poles who suffered some of the greatest losses caused by the war. We lost more than one-fifth of our citizens. We lost more than forty percent of our national wealth and nearly half of our cultural property.
Most painfully of all, we lost the elite of our country. Doctors, teachers and scientists were killed—those who had shaped the young democracy of the Second Polish Republic.
Poles fought on every front of the war. They fought and died for our freedom and for that of all suffering nations. Did they succeed? At that time, on May 8, 1945, everyone was convinced that we were independent, free and safe. It soon became clear that decisions concerning our state had already been made earlier: in Yalta, Tehran and Potsdam. We were no longer under German occupation, but our freedom was incomplete. The communists began to control our lives and our statehood.
Years later, we are in NATO and the European Union. It seems that this gives us guarantees of security and sovereignty. However, we must not forget that we ourselves must care for and safeguard our freedom and sovereignty. For the generation now entering adulthood, the generation that will build Poland, war seems unreal. It is our role to remind young people that it really happened; that there is no Polish family that did not lose someone during the war.
Freedom and independence are not something granted once and for all. We paid for our freedom and independence with the wounds and deaths of millions of Poles. Let us remember those who are passing away, the veterans, former soldiers and their families. They are witnesses to those terrible times. We can learn much from them.
Stanisław Chwojnicki, member of the Bolesławiec County Board:
We, the residents of Bolesławiec County, owe veterans and former soldiers special respect and grateful remembrance.
They were, in large numbers, the first settlers in this land. They were the first to shape Polish reality here.
Scoutmaster Zdzisław Abramowicz:
All veterans and every individual who built today’s proud, free Poland should remain forever in our memory, in the pantheon of our nation’s sacred figures.
But monuments alone and ceremonies alone will change little if we do not raise the younger generation in the spirit of patriotism. Fortunately, blood sacrifice is no longer required; through work and an honest life, we build Poland’s future. Above all, through love of our homeland and by teaching that your homeland is not where you are paid better, but where you must build it with your own hands. At the ashes and graves of those who gave their lives, we should swear that our younger generations will stand guard over Poland’s sovereignty and freedom, and over the faith of our fathers.
We must think of ourselves as a proud and exceptional nation. This message should reach the whole world.