A delegation from Poland commemorated Polish citizens deported to the Soviet interior during World War Two at the Polish War Cemetery in Olmazor, laying wreaths and leading prayers as part of nationwide observances running Oct. 7–10.
Lech Parell, head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression (UdSKiOR), called cemeteries “the compelling backdrop of most Polish anniversaries,” and urged a symbolic tribute to those who died “of hunger and disease on the boundless expanses of the former Soviet Union.”
He said the scars of the war years remain visible and asked how to explain to foreigners why so many Polish cemeteries lie thousands of kilometers from Warsaw.
Parell recalled that, 83 years ago, Uzbekistan became the last stop for tens of thousands of Poles escaping the “inhuman” Soviet land—people taken against their will, deemed irredeemable by Soviet authorities, and often “condemned to annihilation.”
He linked the commemorations to the great deportations that later fed recruits to Gen. Władysław Anders’ Polish Army.
Bogdan Borusewicz, who chairs the Senate committee for the diaspora, said the visit proved Poles “remember those terrible times,” adding that memory lives in families as much as in books.
Adam Mitelsztet, vice president of the Siberian Exiles Association, said “a spark of hope” lit on this soil when news spread that Anders’ army was forming. Emaciated but determined Poles made their way to assembly points, he said, though for many the Uzbek steppe became their final resting place. “They did not live to see Poland, but died with its name on their lips,” he added.
UdSKiOR awarded “Pro Patria” medals to individuals who preserve the memory of the independence struggle. Ecumenical prayers were led by representatives of the Catholic military bishop, the Orthodox military ordinary and the Lutheran chief chaplain.
The delegation also visited the Polish Quarter at Olmazor II for wreath-laying and prayers. Olmazor I, established in 1942 and restored in 2001, holds at least 25 Poles—soldiers of Anders’ Polish Army in the East, cadets and civilians who perished after years in camps and exile.
Olmazor II, also founded in 1942 and renovated in 2001 with further work in 2016, is the resting place of at least 46 Polish soldiers, officers, cadets and civilians, many of them former prisoners of Soviet camps.
During World War Two the Soviet Union carried out four large deportation waves of Polish citizens: Feb. 9–10, 1940 (about 140,000 people), April 12–13, 1940, June 28–29, 1940, and May 1941, sending families of servicemen, officials, foresters, railway workers and others to the north, Siberia and beyond.
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Source: PAP