The tombstone had previously been on General Sikorski’s grave at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Newark-on-Trent, where he was buried following his tragic death in a crash of the British Royal Airforce plane off Gibraltar on July 4, 1943.
Since 1993, when the general’s remains were transferred to Poland and laid to rest at the historic Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, the tombstone has been deposited in the Polish Consulate General in Manchester.
Gen. Władysław Sikorski's final resting place is among monarchs and national luminaries at Wawel Cathedral in the southern Polish city of Kraków. Photo: Institute of National Remembrance/krakow.ipn.gov.pl
Krzysztof Niewiadomski, deputy director of the Polish History Museum, is quoted on the museum’s website as saying: ”This new artifact fits perfectly into our mission of protecting the nation’s heritage and shaping historical memory.”
Born in 1881, Władysław Sikorski fought in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920. In the 1920s he served as Prime Minister and Minister of Military Affairs.
After the outbreak of World War II, he became prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile and commander-in-chief of the Polish Armed Forces.
Following Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union, he concluded a treaty on the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Poland and the Soviet Union and the formation of a Polish army in the Soviet Union, but the Soviets broke ties with Sikorski in 1943 when he refused to remain silent about Stalin’s responsibility for the Katyn massacre of Polish officers and demanded an inquiry into the crime.
(mk)