‘Cursed soldier’ to be buried in Warsaw
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
21.04.2016 15:00
Zygmunt Szendzielarz, a Polish WWII resistance commander known as "Łupaszka", will be formally buried with state honours at the Powązki military cemetery in Warsaw on Sunday.
Полковник Зиґмунт Шендзєляж “Лупашко” Wikimedia Commons
A funeral mass will be held at the Archcathedral Basilica of St. Stanislaus Kostka, in Łódź, central Poland on Thursday.
Major Szendzielarz was one of the so-called "Cursed Soldiers" who fought against the imposition of communism in Poland.
Poland's official underground army (AK) was disbanded in January 1945, but thousands of Poles continued to fight in other formations, as the Red Army extended its grip across the country.
Szendzielarz was arrested in 1948, transported to Warsaw and imprisoned by the communist authorities. He was interrogated about 50 times. In a show trial, he was sentenced to death, and executed in February 1951.
His remains were identified in a 2013 exhumation of a mass grave in Warsaw.
The subject of the so-called Cursed Soldiers was taboo during the communist era, and it was not until 2011 that an official day of remembrance was introduced. (rg/pk)