Bożena Ratter: It was erased from the authoritative historiography of the fight for Vilnius and Lviv, Grodno.
date:25 September 2025 Editor: Anna
Poland returned after you, found your remains, put you in a coffin, covered you with a white-red flag, and led you to your eternal resting place," said deputy president of the IPN Dr. Krzysztof Szwagrzyk at Rossa Cemetery in Vilnius. In 2020, the Office of Search and recognition of IPN found a grave in Raubiszki village containing the remains of six soldiers "Fakira" who died in a skirmish with NKVD patrols on February 4, 1945. The individual whose name we already know is Edward Borkowski. The another 5 soldiers are inactive unknown. We believe that there are days before us erstwhile we will be able to reconstruct the identity of all the remaining 5 soldiers of the Home Army and there will come a time erstwhile we can call them by name – in Polish.
(charity at Rossa Cemetery in Vilnius) https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17DJecssbj/
For more than 45 years of the existence of the People's Poland, efforts have been made to erase soldiers of the Home Army from the memory of the nation – if already mentioned, they have been called "sanctional stooges", "ministers of Anders", "bandits", "sudden dwarfs of reaction". At the same time, they were sentenced to many years of imprisonment or murdered in the majesty of law.
A communicative completely silenced, regardless of the change - more individual than political - was the fight of the AK on the east Borders of the IIRP and not only with the German occupier, but besides with russian and Lithuanian. It was erased from the authoritative past of the fight for Vilnius and Lviv, Grodno. However, the tragedy of the AK soldiers was not only that in the post-war period they were "forgotten" of their heroism, for he had another reasons. "The Yalta traitor" caused the failure of 1/3 of Poland's pre-war territory, including Vilnius. On the Earths taken thousands of Poles who did not escape to “new Poland” from 1944 to 1945 were under russian jurisdiction.
Most people have already left irretrievably and had no chance to pass on their relationships before the death. It can be expressed, however, that thanks to this publication we managed to save from forgetting even fragments of the destiny of these Poles, including soldiers of the Vilnius AK District, who were under russian occupation, fates which were so tragic and painful for most of them. Not only did they lose their beloved Vilnius, for which they fought with the top sacrifice, but they besides went through the gehenna of prisons and camps.
Upon arrival in Poland, the Vilnius community, as highly patriotic and dangerous for the "people's authorities", became the object of the safety apparatus, which tried to systematically destruct them, break them up and monitor them until the 1980s (a fragment of Darius Rogut's entry into the memories of the Vilnius soldiers of the AK, issued by the IPN, "We survived the Łagary").
"I was born in Riga, Latvia, and went to Polish school there. There were six Polish schools. First class Polish language. In the second Latvian, in the 3rd English, in the 4th German and Russian. We learned 5 languages. We always came to Poland for holidays. In 1939, my parent and I extended our stay in Poland, and here the war. We were in Gudele's household estate. Mom was a teacher, Dad was a state official. 1 uncle was a prof. at Vilnius University. The second was the manager at the bank in Vilnius. We joined the full household in the conspiracy.... I received orders from our command to take up work at Gudogaje railway station. It was my occupation to prepare alleged railways, information about trains carrying German troops and weapons. I drove to Vilnius on German trains. They slept, they were so tired. The holster belts were hanging on shelves. I utilized to put my stuff next to my stuff and see if it could be pulled out rapidly – a gun. ...
I was arrested on 18 December 1944. ...There was a advanced mortality in Kutaisi, doctors had no means to treat the sick. I worked in a camp infirmary where Dr. Niuoraga was the boss. And the conditions in the camp were terrible. People had pneumonia, malaria, abdominal typhoid, tuberculosis. They besides died from dystrophy. They took us to Borowicz. There were better conditions. Earthlings for men, barracks for women. In Borowicz there was Leopold Szymkowicz and a large group of lions: Jurek Kucharski, Antoni Szostakiewicz and others. They formed an artistic team. ..Ania Żukowska taught us French, Mr. Duannajewski of Lviv recited Trilogy, knew it by heart!” . (Reminiscences of Irena Moderska from Osit's home, “We survived the lagers, memories of the soldiers of the Vilnius territory of the AK (1945-1949)).
Oh, my God.
