Ceremonies commemorating the 84th anniversary of the Polish Underground State were held on Wednesday in front of the Monument to the Polish Underground State and Home Army in Warsaw. They were attended by veterans, representatives of state authorities, Warsaw officials and parliamentarians. Wreaths were laid and an ecumenical prayer was said for the intention of the fallen and the victims.

Also, wreaths were laid in front of the monument to General Stefan Rowecki “Grot” – Commander-in-Chief of the Union of Armed Struggle from June 1940 to February 1942, commander of the Home Army from 14 February 1942 to 30 June 1943.

The Polish Underground State acted within the territory of the Republic of Poland, which was under German and Soviet occupation. The anniversary of the creation of the Service for Poland’s Victory is celebrated as Polish Underground State Day, established by the Sejm of the Republic in 1998.

Vice-president of the World Association of Home Army Soldiers Wiesław Wysocki said at the ceremony that the Polish Underground State was an exceptional phenomenon in a Europe occupied by the Third Reich and its eastern part dominated by Soviet Russia. Wysocki emphasised that the soldiers of the Home Army testified to their honour with their blood and faithful service, and that the activists of the Polish Underground State answered to posterity, building the majesty of the Republic in the most difficult moment.

Earlier, at the Monument to the Polish Underground State and the Home Army, a wreath was laid by the Head of the National Security Bureau, Jacek Siewiera, on behalf of the President, Andrzej Duda.

84 years ago, on 27 September 1939, the Service for Poland’s Victory, the first underground independence organisation fighting the occupying forces, was established in Warsaw, besieged by the German army. It gave a start to an underground state operating during World War II. It spread over the lands of the Republic of Poland, which were under German and Soviet occupation.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński