“Even though this is a funeral, today we feel a certain sense of joy. Because they are returning as heroes, returning to their fellow patriots who have been waiting for them here on this land. They are returning to their roots, and that is the meaning of today’s funeral. Of course, it is also a moment of spiritual reflection and prayer, as always during a farewell and a funeral,” said the President of the Republic of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, during the funeral ceremony of the remains of soldiers of the National Armed Forces from the unit of Capt. Henryk Flame “Bartek” in Kamesznica.
President Karol Nawrocki is taking part today in the funeral ceremony of the remains of soldiers of the National Armed Forces from the unit of Capt. Henryk Flame “Bartek” in Kamesznica.
“They were in love with their homeland…”
During the ceremony, the President addressed those gathered: “They lie silently in the earth, rooted, in love, killed and betrayed. In love… Although the artist had in mind the love between a woman and a man, when we look closely at each individual biography, the soldiers of the National Armed Forces from the unit of Capt. Henryk Flame ‘Bartek’ were above all in love with a free, sovereign, independent Republic of Poland. That is the only Poland they knew. That is the Poland in which they grew up, which shaped them after 1918. That is the Poland they loved, the one they were ready to fight for and to die for.”
This is best illustrated by the life and biography of Henryk Flame himself. He was born in 1918, together with Polish independence. At just 18 years old, he joined the Polish Army, and in 1939 he defended Poland against the Germans and the Soviets. In the Polish skies, he fought to keep Poland free and independent. When that proved impossible, he joined the underground resistance. He continued fighting the occupiers – both the Germans and the Soviets. In love, like his soldiers, with a sovereign and independent Poland. Even if, for a moment in 1945, exhausted by war, “Bartek” may have held a glimmer of hope that Poland could be free. Even if for a moment he thought that had happened in 1945, within a few months he knew that what the Soviets had brought was another occupation, another enslavement. Not liberation, but the subjugation of Poland under a communist system. And so – still in love with an independent Poland – he was ready to fight on. This time, from 1944, in the ranks of the National Armed Forces, gathering the most faithful and devoted soldiers of the Republic of Poland, said President Nawrocki.
He continued: “In love with Poland. And killed, betrayed – by whom? To a small extent, by ordinary conformists who submitted to communist authority. To a small extent, by those who lost to their fear. They were not ready to keep fighting. That is human. But primarily – killed and betrayed by those who never loved Poland, who were ready to hand it over to foreign powers. Ordinary traitors, communists, who for decades or years served a foreign system and a foreign state, not the Republic of Poland.”
“They lie rooted in the earth – in this very land they loved. Most of them came from here, from this Polish, beautiful, patriotic land, which bled already in 1939, fighting the Germans in the Battle of Węgierska Górka. Today, they return to this land,” the head of state noted.
The President emphasized: “Even though this is a funeral, today we feel a certain sense of joy. Because they are returning as heroes, returning to their fellow patriots who have been waiting for them here on this land. They are returning to their roots, and that is the meaning of today’s funeral. Of course, it is a moment of spiritual reflection and prayer, as always during a farewell and a funeral. But on the other hand – it is also the return of truth. The return of heroes whom the communists sought to erase from national memory. They did so for nearly 50 years. And, unfortunately, also after 1989.”