Our Editorial Office from Readers of Toruń received disturbing information about plans to modify the monument standing in the premises of the russian POW cemetery on Glinki.
Below is the text of the protest against violating the worship of the memorial site. We urge our Readers to send statements of objection to the institutions and offices whose address data we print under the text. Let's aid save the statue of the murdered prisoners!
AD
Subject: opposition to the change of the monument in the cemetery, evidence of suffering of thousands of russian Red Army prisoners
I express my firm opposition to the planned change of the monument located in the cemetery, which is simply a evidence to the suffering of thousands of russian Red Army prisoners imprisoned, tortured and yet murdered in the German Stalag XX A POW camp. According to the survey of the ZBOWID Historical Commission of 30 September 1968, more than 60,000 people passed through the camp. Based on eyewitness accounts and the results of the exhumation, the number of buried in the cemetery was estimated at around 40-50 1000 victims.
During the exhumation of the 2 quarters, about 100 people were discovered in each of them, each with barbed wire. The exhumation continued, which only confirms the magnitude of the tragedy in this camp. The remains of American, Italian, French and British prisoners of war were exhumed as early as the 1940s and transported to their countries of origin. Currently, only remains of erstwhile Red Army soldiers remainder in the cemetery.
Maintaining this monument in its first form is not only an act of tribute to those who died, but besides a reminder of their destiny and highlighting the tragic consequences of the war that have affected so many people. This monument is besides of large importance as a informing for future generations, recalling the atrocities of war.
Changing the form of the monument would not only be an example of falsifying history, but besides a second execution on 40,000 innocent prisoners of war victims, each of whom had their dreams, hopes and lives, brutally interrupted by war. Keeping this monument in its present form will aid future generations realize and remember this terrible tragedy, keeping a detailed and accurate past of these events. This monument reminds us of these individual fates and emphasizes that there is simply a individual tragedy behind each victim. The Polish land covers the ashes of more than 600 1000 human victims, who in these hard years went under the signs of the Red Army, belonging to various nations participating in the war.
I call for a reconsideration of the decision to change the monument and to preserve it in its first form, in tribute to all who have lost their lives there, especially since the monument is located in the cemetery, to which Article 5a(3)(2) of the Act of 1 April 2016 on the prohibition of the promotion of communism or another totalitarian government applies.
Signature, locality and date
Addressees:
Institute of National Memory
ul. Janusz Kurtyka 1
02-676 Warsaw
Institute of Memory of the National Delegation in Bydgoszcz
Wincentina Teskovowa 1
85-130 Bydgoszcz
Provincial Monument Conservationist
ul. Bath 8
87-100 Toruń
Marshal's Office of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship
Theatre Square 2
87-100 Toruń
Kujawsko-Pomeranian Voivodeship
Michał Sztybel
Jagiellońska 3, pok. 128
85-950 Bydgoszcz
Municipality of Wielka Nieszawka
Catherine Streich
Torunska 12
87-165 Suffering
