President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki commemorated the victims of the Augustów Roundup. The celebrations of the 77th anniversary of the largest crime committed against Poles after World War II were organised at the Hill of Crosses in Giby, a place symbolising the grave of the victims of the Augustów Roundup.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who attended the ceremony, said that at least 7,000 people were arrested in July 1945 while combing the forests of the Augustów Forest and surrounding areas.
“We originally thought that at least 600 of victims had been murdered. Today we know, based on new studies, new work, new research, that there were more of these people, that up to 2,000 people did not return home”, the Prime Minister said.
The head of government pointed out that this crime was committed by Red Army units returning from the front and the worst Soviet units such as the NKVD and Smiersz, supported by Poland’s communist collaborators from the Security Office and the Civic Militia. “This Augustów murder is an unhealed Polish wound that cries out for an explanation”, stated Mateusz Morawiecki. The necessity to clarify the circumstances of the tragedy was also emphasised – in a letter read out during the ceremony – by President Andrzej Duda.
“We will not stop searching for the truth about that crime and commemorating its victims. We will not forget the warning from the painful past, we will not allow evil to spread, enslave and harm again. 77 years ago, in July 1945, troops of the Red Army, the NKVD, aided by Security Office officers and Communist confidants, carried out mass arrests of Polish patriots. The victims of this brutal action were the soldiers of the Home Army and the inhabitants of the Augustów Primeval Forest who supported them”, wrote the President.
Andrzej Duda thanked all people who insisted on uncovering the truth about the Augustów Roundup and strived to find the burial place of the murdered Poles. He declared that these efforts would be consistently continued.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński