Let us give the floor to the Institute of National Remembrance, which summarizes the actions of the Cursed Soldiers from the unit of Romuald Rajs “Bury,” from the PAS unit of the National Military Union, as follows:
Without questioning the idea of the struggle for Poland’s independence conducted by organizations opposing the imposed authorities, among which the National Military Union must be included, it must be firmly stated that the murders of carters and the pacifications of villages in January and February 1946 cannot be identified with the struggle for the state’s independent existence, as they bear the hallmarks of genocide. Under no circumstances can what happened be justified by the struggle for the independent existence of the Polish State. On the contrary, “Bury’s” actions against the inhabitants of Podlasie villages supported the communist apparatus of power, above all by diminishing the prestige of underground organizations and providing propaganda arguments about the banditry of partisan units.
source: Institute of National Remembrance: final findings of investigation S 28/02/Zi
The “Cursed Soldiers” spread terror because they considered terror the only effective tool for “persuading” civilians to resist the new communist authorities. This terror involved killing children, women and the elderly, and setting people on fire in their homes. That is what happened in the village of Zaleszany. And when we know the whole history, do we want our children to pay tribute to all the Cursed Soldiers? By violating Polish history and cutting out of it whatever does not suit us politically, are we not violating the younger generation by raising it in falsehood? Knowing about the genocide in Zaleszany, documented by the Institute of National Remembrance, will we just as eagerly send our child with a white-and-red flag to the monument on March 1 or to a school assembly “honoring the memory” of these people?
To those who consider what I write “leftist nonsense,” I suggest arguing with the Institute of National Remembrance. I do not celebrate this day, because I look at the victims of the Cursed Soldiers: the boy who kissed their hands so they would not kill him, who begged for his life, but they did not take pity on him, in the name of a higher goal: a Poland free from communism. In the name of this idea, they shot the child, burned his loved ones and relatives. This is not heroism to me, as I understand it.
At approximately 2:00–3:00 p.m., the village inhabitants were informed by designated members of the unit that they had to come “to a meeting” at the home of Dymitr Sacharczuk. After the inhabitants had gathered in the house, Piotr Demianiuk—the 16-year-old son of village head Łukasz Demianiuk—and Aleksander Zielinko, a resident of the neighboring village of Suchowolce, were called outside. Both were shot in the yard. An “officer—commander,” most likely R. Rajs “Bury,” entered the house where the inhabitants had gathered. After firing a pistol into the air, which silenced those assembled, he announced that they would cease to exist and that the village would be burned. After the commander left the room, the door was closed. The thatched roof was then set on fire. Some of the unit’s armed members surrounded the burning building. The inhabitants attempted to escape through the door and windows on the other side of the house, “toward the yard.” […] While escaping from his burning home, Grzegorz Leończuk was shot together with his two small children: three-year-old Konstanty and six-month-old Sergiusz. Before the village was set on fire, Fidor Sacharczuk was shot for refusing to hand over oats for the horses. Forty-one-year-old Stefan Weremczuk also died.
source: Institute of National Remembrance: final findings of investigation S 28/02/Zi
I do not honor the Cursed Soldiers or pay tribute to them. This is my choice, because I know what the IPN documented.
Choose as your values tell you.