Polish museum to commemorate anti-communist partisans
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
29.02.2016 15:21
Poland is to create a major museum in tribute to the so-called 'Cursed Soldiers' who fought against the imposition of communist rule.
Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro (L) and chairman of the Law and Justice party Jarosław Kaczyński (R), 29 February. Photo: PAP/Jakub Kamiński
The announcement was made on Monday on the eve of the National Remembrance Day of the Cursed Soldiers.
Jarosław Kaczyński, head of the governing Law and Justice party, stated today that under the communist regime, “those who fought for freedom were portrayed as enemies, criminals, bandits, and those who fought against freedom, who destroyed and enslaved the Polish nation, were portrayed as defenders of good, sometimes even as heroes.”
The anti-communist guerrillas were largely stamped out by 1948, although one fighter, Józef Franczak, was gunned down as late as 1963.
Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro signed documents on Monday paving the way for the foundation of a museum in Warsaw dedicated to the 'Cursed Soldiers.'
It is understood that initially the museum will be modest in size, but it will be expanded to take in Mokotów Prison, which was where many leading anti-communist conspirators were tortured and executed.
The National Remembrance Day of Cursed Soldiers has been marked since 2011.
Although the partisans – who served across several organisations - have been largely rehabilitated in recent years, controversies remain about some individual leaders. One such example is Romuald Rajs (codename 'Bury'), who according to a probe by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), was responsible for the pacification of several ethnically Belarusian villages on Polish territory in 1946. (nh)