The tombstone once marked Sikorski’s grave at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Newark-on-Trent, where he was buried in east-central England after his tragic death in a British Royal Air Force plane crash off Gibraltar on July 4, 1943.
After his remains were transferred to Poland in 1993 and reinterred at Wawel Cathedral in the southern city of Kraków, the tombstone was kept at 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
"This artifact fits perfectly into our mission of preserving the nation’s heritage and shaping historical memory," said Krzysztof Niewiadomski, deputy director of the Polish History Museum, as quoted on the museum’s website.
Born in 1881, Sikorski fought in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 and later served as prime minister and minister for 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 in the West.
Following Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, he signed a treaty re-establishing diplomatic relations with Moscow and oversaw the formation of a Polish army in the Soviet Union.
But the Soviets broke ties with Sikorski in 1943 after he demanded an inquiry into the Katyn Massacre, in which thousands of Polish officers were killed on Josef Stalin’s orders.
(mk/gs)