Some 75,000 runners from 370 cities worldwide took part in the Wolf Trail Run. This annual event pays homage to the Cursed Soldiers who, in the 1940s and 1950s, resisted the communist regime after Poland was sold out to the Soviet Union by the Great Powers. Among the runners was Polish president, Andrzej Duda.
The race was inaugurated by President Andrzej Duda. He reminded everyone that the National Day of Remembrance for the Cursed Soldiers was established on the initiative of President Lech Kaczyński.
“Together with you, I can say that traditionally, on the 1st of March each year, we celebrate the National Remembrance Day of the Cursed Soldiers. Let me remind you that it was the legislative initiative of President Lech Kaczyński, who believed that the memory of the Cursed Soldiers should be raised to the rank of national memory”, stated the Polish head of state.
The participants in the race covered 1963 meters in reference to the year of the death of the last Cursed Soldier, Józef Franczak, codename “Lalek”. For many participants of the “Wolf Trail” run, Cursed Soldiers, such as Captain Witold Pilecki, are a role model.
“It is simply sensational that we have a Pole, a hero who sacrificed his own life first in the fight against the Nazis, and then the totalitarian system of the USSR, and gave his life for Poland”, commented one of the participants of the run, Marcin Hawryluk.
69 years ago, on March 1, 1951, in the prison at ul. Rakowiecka in Warsaw, after a show trial, seven officers who were members of the 4th Main Board of the “Freedom and Independence” Association were shot. The National Remembrance Day of Cursed Soldiers refers to this date. The “Wolf Trail” run took place today in 365 places in Poland and worldwide.