The next matter to be addressed by councillors at the November session of the Bolesławiec City Council will be an “appeal to the Mayor of Bolesławiec concerning exemption from grave fees.” The draft resolution states:
The Bolesławiec City Council supports all initiatives aimed at respectfully commemorating people who, with commitment, determination and dedication, organized Polish education in Bolesławiec after 1945. This remembrance will be expressed in particular through specific measures aimed at exempting the burial plot from fees, as well as preserving and maintaining the grave itself. The Bolesławiec City Council believes that such special remembrance is owed to the late Stefania Tajcher, whose mortal remains rest in grave [...] at the Municipal Cemetery on Śluzowa Street in Bolesławiec, thereby helping preserve her memory for future generations. The grave of this outstanding patriot must not be removed merely because Stefania Tajcher has no family in Bolesławiec, and her memory must remain forever together with her grave.
And:
[…] The Bolesławiec City Council appeals to the Mayor of Bolesławiec, also in his capacity as the official superior of the Director of the Municipal Housing Management Establishment in Bolesławiec, to undertake an appropriate initiative whose ultimate aim will be to exempt the burial plot from fees, as well as to preserve and maintain the grave itself, in which the mortal remains of the late Stefania Tajcher rest.
The document’s justification states:
In a supervisory ruling of 30 October 2020, ref. no. NK-N.4131.7.11.2020.AS, the Lower Silesian Voivode declared invalid Resolution No. XXI/246/2020 of the Bolesławiec City Council of 30 September 2020 concerning exemption from grave fees. In the justification, the Voivode indicated that the Bolesławiec City Council had, in effect, imposed specific obligations on the Mayor of Bolesławiec related to maintaining an individual grave at the Municipal Cemetery in Bolesławiec. By adopting the aforementioned resolution, the Bolesławiec City Council issued an instruction to the Mayor related to the performance of tasks by the budgetary unit that is the Municipal Housing Management Establishment in Bolesławiec, in the area of managing and administering the Municipal Cemetery in Bolesławiec. The duties of this budgetary unit include managing burial plots (§ 8, point 1 of the MZGM Statute). The supervisory authority also indicated that the resolution had been adopted in excess of the powers vested in the municipal council.
At the same time, the supervisory authority noted that the intention of the Bolesławiec City Council was to prevent the removal of the grave of a person who had rendered distinguished service to the City of Bolesławiec and to place it under care. The Bolesławiec City Council could have addressed an appeal in the form of a resolution to the Mayor of Bolesławiec, as the official superior of the Director of the Municipal Housing Management Establishment in Bolesławiec, expressing its position in this regard.
This appeal complies with the above position of the supervisory authority. The appeal of the Bolesławiec City Council expresses concern for the physical preservation of the burial plot and the grave itself, the need to commemorate the remarkable figure of Stefania Tajcher, and thus to preserve her memory for future generations, also manifested through care and concern for the grave, the place of her final rest.
The Act on Municipal Self-Government states that the residents of a municipality form a local self-government community by operation of law. The people of Bolesławiec, as this local community and small homeland, owe it to Stefania Tajcher to preserve her memory. The people of Bolesławiec are also a community of generations: those living today, those who have passed away, and those yet to come. As the present generation, we are responsible both to past and future generations. The history of Bolesławiec is a beautiful history, full of tragic and uplifting events. It is the history of people who devoted their lives to this city and its residents. There are also other places that remind us of the efforts of past generations in ordinary work, in creating great achievements, and in social, political and religious life.
Stefania Tajcher organized Polish education in Bolesławiec after 1945, was the first teacher, and a prisoner rescued from German concentration camps.
In the “Bolesławiec Yearbook 2009,” on page 76, in a study by Maria Sobolska, we can read, among other things, that she was born on 15 July 1893 in Borysław. She graduated from a women’s teacher-training seminary and worked in Lublin County until the outbreak of the war. After the German occupier took over Polish schools, she lost her job and was left without means of subsistence. She immediately began secretly teaching children in their homes. On 9 May 1941, she was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in Lublin, where she was beaten and tortured until unconscious. On 21 September 1941, she was included in a transport of prisoners bound for Ravensbrück. After being taken to the camp, her hair was cut, she was dressed in a striped uniform and tattooed with the number 7906. There, she was subjected to inhumane medical experiments, miraculously survived the horror of the camp and lived to see its liberation. When she regained her freedom, she weighed only 39 kg. Straight from the camp, still wearing her striped uniform, Stefania arrived in Bolesławiec on 7 September 1945, where she immediately set about organizing the education system. In September she had 17 students, and by 4 October there were 58. The first lessons were held in the partly damaged building of a former German vocational school (now the Vocational School Complex on Komuny Paryskiej Street). Everything was lacking—textbooks, notebooks and chalk. After lessons, as one of her students recalled, Mrs. Tajcher would take a cart and, together with several students, search for chalk, blackboards and benches. In time, other teachers began arriving, and Mrs. Tajcher found work for them. She worked as an active teacher until 1959, teaching German. She died on 20 November 1975 and was buried at the Municipal Cemetery in Bolesławiec.
Therefore, her memory must not be forgotten, and the physical removal of her grave would be an act of incomprehensible disrespect for the Polish history of the city of Bolesławiec after 1945.
The council appeals for the exemption from fees to take effect from 10 June 2006. The grave records contain no information about the person responsible for the grave. There is no family in Bolesławiec that could care for it.
In view of the above, this appeal is entirely justified and necessary.
What do you think?