The past of Polish soldiers hidden in 1944 by the French population in Fréland is an example of courage and solidarity during planet War II. The residents first helped escape from the close camp 13 Polish prisoners, and then, risking their lives, hid them until liberation.
The heroic attitude of the French, who in 1944 allowed Polish prisoners of war to escape from the camp and granted them shelter, was commemorated during a ceremony late held in the Alsackian Fréland. "The events that took place here remind us of the value of courage, solidarity and specified human kindness," he said during the celebrations General Defends Peter BlazeusCommander Eurocorpus. In spite of the brutal strength of the German occupier, he emphasized that the inhabitants had proved to be a remarkable fortitude and tenacity, helping and risking their lives. – Thanks to them, Fréland became a symbol of the conflict for values that unite people beyond divisions: freedom, peace and humanity," added the general.
Czesław Bartela, Honorary Consul of Poland in Nancy, representatives of Polish institutions, including the Office for Combatants and Represented Persons, the Central Military Library, the Institute of National Memory, as well as the French local authorities and institutions participated in the celebrations held on 7 December. The military frame was provided by an honorary division of the Eurocorpus Command composed of Polish soldiers presently serving in Strasbourg.
In 1941, in the French Alsace annexed by the Germans in the village of Ursprung under Fréland, Germany founded a steel subcamp in Kolmar, named Arbeitskommando Lager No. 491. They placed 13 Polish prisoners of war in it and assigned them to work on logging. The local community helped the prisoners as she could, including smuggling their food.
After landing the Allied in Normandy in June 1944, Germany planned to liquidate the subcamp. “With the decision of the Allied offensive in the camp, it was decided to remove prisoners of war from it, whose name was to be taken to 1 of the concentration camps or simply to kill in close forests,” said Henry Opiola of large Britain, boy of Andrzej Ivanka, 1 of the Polish prisoners.
On the night of 26 to 27 August 1944, residents of the village of Fréland led by Father Raymond Voegela, a local parish priest and leader of the local opposition movement, organized an escape for all Poles. Then they prepared shelter in the Kique cave in close mountains. “However, after a period of stay in cold, humid stone pits, the wellness of most prisoners deteriorated so importantly that residents of Fréland decided to decision them to their basements, attics and barns,” Opiola said. There they hid until the liberation of these areas by American troops on December 6, 1944.
The past of helping Polish soldiers is inactive alive in the French village. The oldest individual who remembers Polish soldiers released from the German camp is Jeanine Humbert, who arrived from large Britain at the ceremony. At Fréland, she met with Elizabeth Pionist whose parent Hélène Pionist from Waldmann's home helped Poles and became active with 1 of them, John the Fist. After the war, a Pole became her husband. “Mom’s aid allowed Dad to see liberation,” Elizabeth said.
A unique origin of cognition about the subcamp and its prisoners is the diary and collection of photos of Andrzej Ivanka, which his boy surviving in England brought with him to Fréland. The photographs come from the apparatus confiscated from the prisoner during his stay in captivity. However, Germany, alternatively of destroying the camera with photos, sold it or exchanged it in the town. Thanks to this, after the liberation, the equipment returned to its rightful owner.
– The photographs I brought are only part of a larger collection," Opiola emphasized. As he said, he had no thought that the people of Fréland inactive remember and worship their heroes. He learned this from the descendant of another prisoner, Bishop Francis Urbanik. “His boy Stanislaw found me and then told me about his father’s relationship with my father, for me present the visit here is simply a sentimental trip”, Opiola said.
Stanisław Urbanik was besides the originator of the 2019 unveiling of a commemorative plaque dedicated to heroic residents in Fréland. 3 years later, with the assistance of Polish soldiers, the president of Poland awarded the Virtus et Fraternitas medals posthumously, given for outstanding courage in the defence of human dignity and humanity, 7 residents of the village: Raymond Voegel, Hélène Pionstka, Marie and Eugène Gorius, Rosalie, Jeanine and Léon Humbert. This year, a second plaque was unveiled in the township, founded by 1 of the inhabitants of Fréland, where you can see photos from the Henry Opiola collection.
