President Andrzej Duda signed in Katowice an act establishing the National Day of the Silesian Uprisings. The public holiday, which is to commemorate the three uprisings of 1919–1921 and to commemorate their heroic participants, will be celebrated on June 20. It won’t be a day off from work.

“It can be boldly said that if there were not those great military deeds, neither the heroism of people from Wielkopolska as well as Silesia, who wanted to be part of the reborn Republic of Poland, live there and work for the Republic, perhaps Poland would not have survived even those 20 years in the interwar period”, said the president

In his speech following the signing of the act, Andrzej Duda referred to the division of the plebiscite area after the Third Silesian Uprising.

“Despite the fact that a smaller part of the plebiscite area was won by the Republic of Poland as a result of the Silesian Uprisings but with the larger part of the industry and natural resources being so extraordinary for the Republic of Poland that they actually allowed to build it. Without it, there would not be such a development, such progress in the Second Polish Republic, there would be no construction, probably there would not be the Central Industrial District, and perhaps there would be no Gdynia without the opportunities that were given by Upper Silesia and its resources. They included natural, industrial, but most of all human resources”, stressed the president.

The National Day of the Silesian Uprisings is a public holiday to commemorate the three uprisings of 1919–1921 and their heroic participants. On May 12, the Sejm adopted the act; on May 18, the Senate supported the establishment of the holiday.

“Thank you very much. It will be a holiday that will be remembered by all of Poland because it will be a holiday that will be recorded in our national political calendar; it will be preserved as a public holiday”, emphasized the president.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński