On the 1st of March, Poles celebrated the National Day of Remembrance of the Cursed Soldiers. Olsztynek hosted the unveiling of a mural commemorating Witold Pilecki – a Home Army officer, prisoner and organiser of the resistance movement in the German Nazi extermination camp KL Auschwitz, a cursed soldier. The large-format depiction is located on the front wall of the building of Primary School No. 2, whose patron since 2017 is Cavalry Captain Pilecki.
Realised on the initiative of the school community and the “Together for Olsztynek” Association, the mural was created with the support of the National Cultural Centre (NCK) from the funds of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Its patron is the Cavalry Captain’s daughter, Zofia Pilecka-Optułowicz, who was the guest of honour at the mural’s unveiling ceremony.
Modelled on a pre-war photo taken in the garden next to the Pileckis’ family home in Sukurcze, near Lida (in today’s Belarus), the picture presents the mayor with his wife Maria and their children: Andrzej and Zofia. By depicting Witold Pilecki surrounded by his closest relatives, the initiators of the mural wanted to draw attention to the fundamental values that shaped the personality of the school’s patron, such as patriotism, love of the homeland, upbringing, and family ties.
“The world of man is a world of values, the world of culture is a world of values. It all starts in the family, and then a school is the institution that supports it”, said Professor Rafał Wiśniewski, director of the NCK.
The ceremony of unveiling the mural was attended by Błażej Poboży, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration. He stressed that “the National Centre of Culture is an institution that has done a lot in recent years to foster our culture, history and traditions in a modern way, as the mural is a modern way of appealing to young people”.
The ceremonies concluded with a soirée on the occasion of the National Day of Remembrance of the Cursed Soldiers.
The author of the mural project is Magda Miszczak.
Adrian Andrzejewski