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Funeral with honours for Polish resistance members killed by communists

PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk 28.08.2016 08:00
A funeral with special honours for two members of the Polish underground Home Army executed by the communist regime after World War II took place in the northern city of Gdańsk.
Portrait of Danuta Siedzikówna. Photo: PAP/Adam WarżawaPortrait of Danuta Siedzikówna. Photo: PAP/Adam Warżawa

The funeral of Danuta Siedzikówna and Feliks Selmanowicz happened on the 70th anniversary of their execution.

The ceremonies were attended by senior Polish officials, including President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Beata Szydło.

The funeral was preceded by a Mass, during which the decision to posthumously promote the two heroes was announced.

"We are not restoring their dignity, because they never lost it. We are restoring the dignity of Poland as a country," President Andrzej Duda said in his speech during the Mass.

"A country needs heroes to be strong and to be able to bring up the next generations. And Poland has heroes!"

Siedzikówna (also known as Inka, her nom de guerre) was a medical orderly and was executed when she was just 17 years old.

She was killed together with Selmanowicz (codename Zagończyk) in Gdańsk in 1946, by the Soviet-backed communist regime that came to power in Poland after World War II.

Many who had served in the Home Army (AK), the underground force loyal to the Polish government-in-exile in the UK, were victims of a wave of terror after the war, were vilified as enemies of the state, killed and buried secretly in unnamed graves.

Inka’s and Zagończyk’s remains were found in late 2014 by a team from Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance led by Professor Krzysztof Szwagrzyk. (mol/pk)

Source: PAP

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