This year, the observance of the National Remembrance Day of the Cursed Soldiers in Bolesławiec took an unusual form. There was no single official ceremony. Most delegations (local government officials, associations, institutions, scouts and soldiers of the 23rd Silesian Artillery Regiment) paid tribute to the soldiers of the anti-communist underground at different times.
Bolesławiec City Hall on the Cursed Soldiers:
1 March is a symbolic date. On that day in 1951, members of the 4th Main Board of the Freedom and Independence Association, the leadership of the last nationwide organization continuing the Home Army tradition from 1945, were murdered in Mokotów Prison in Warsaw by shots to the back of the head.
After a show trial, the following were executed: WiN president Lieutenant Colonel Łukasz Ciepliński and his closest associates—Adam Lazarowicz, Mieczysław Kawalec, Józef Rzepka, Franciszek Błażej, Józef Batory and Karol Chmiel.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the subject of the Cursed Soldiers became more widely known. Then, in February 2011, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland adopted a law under which 1 March became the National Remembrance Day of the Cursed Soldiers. The annual observance of the National Remembrance Day of the “Cursed Soldiers” is an opportunity to honor the memory of these people and their post-war struggle, and also constitutes an extraordinary history lesson.