On July 15, 1910, Ignacy Jan Paderewski began his speech under “The Grunwald Pomnik” in Krakow, which he was the founder of, with the words “The work we look at did not arise from hatred. They were born by a deep love for their homeland." How appropriate these words are for this monument.
It was “a deep love for the Homeland” by Andrzej Pityński that gave birth to the monument “Wołyńska Szarz”, due to the fact that the love for the homeland was the foundation of his art. He is the artist who devoted all his work to the national theme. His art grew out of deep patriotism based on the values his parents gave him, soldiers cursed. Their sculptural realizations are symbols of Polishness in both the United States (New York, Boston, Doylestown, Baltimore, Jersey City, Trenton, Hamilton, St. Petersburg, Florida, Bayonne, Cleveland) in Italy (Cassino), large Britain, South Africa (Capsztad), as well as Poland (Warsaw, Kraków, Ulanów, Stalowa Wola, Tarnobrzeg, Drohicz, Izbica, Lesko, Jasło) show us what noble love for Homeland and patriotism is. He was a sculptor who spoke courageously and uncompromisingly with his monuments about tragic fates Fathers passing on the memory of her past to successive generations of compatriots.
Such a monument is besides his “Wołyńska Rzeź” in Domastawa, which is simply a meaningful symbol of the memory of the Polish nation about the genocide of our compatriots in the Kresach. The composition of the monument is the Polish Eagle symbol of the existence of our Homeland, which emerges from the flames of the burning Polish household which is simply a symbol of our centuries-old presence in the Kresach. On the chest of the eagle is cut a cross symbol of our religion in which the body of the dying innocent Polish boy is placed on the Ukrainian three-toothed peasant sight. The extraordinaryness of this composition is that in its entirety it is simply a large monstrancy, in which the body of the Polish boy becomes a host symbolizing Christ.
“The work we look at did not come from hatred. They were born by a deep love for their homeland." I remind again these words of Paderewski besides due to the fact that he was a large authority and inspiration for Andrzej Pityński. Pityński, like Paderewski, gave his full heart to Polonia. His image hung in the artist's studio in an honorable place. He besides held his heart in his hands erstwhile he put it in a urn that was part of the sculpture he made for the church in American Czestochowa.
I am convinced that the unveiling of the monument “Rozez Wołyńska” in Domastawa present will become the same crucial and crucial event in Poland's past as the unveiling of the Grunwald monument in 1910. At the time, a immense number of Poles gathered at the monument in Krakow. besides present there are so many of us under this monument. You have come from different parts of Poland and the planet to pay tribute to almost 200 1000 of our countrymen who were brutally murdered on the Polish Borderlands by Ukrainians from the OUN-UPA sign. As then and now from this monument flows a crucial voice in the message to the Polish people to preserve the memory of our ancestors. This monument will definitely unite us and give us strength and courage in our quest to show the fact about what happened in Volyn.
Look around you how many of us are, how together we are a large force. Despite the difficulty of the journey, you have come from various parts of Poland from Szczecin to Ustrzyki Dolne, from Jelenia Góra to Białystok, your presence here shows large strength of spirit and your patriotism, you show what the love of homeland and respect for your ancestors is. The full nation is grateful to you for being here today, due to the fact that bravely with your foreheads raised you manifest your blood ties with the Kresovians, who were not allowed to live for Poland, due to the fact that the Ukrainians took their lives distant from them. If Andrzej Pityński had been with us, he would have been very grateful for your presence and would surely have said that it was worth making this monument for the Polish people.
He erstwhile said that "Poland needs a national monument to the Volhynia Reich". There is 1 monument of Andrzej Pityński, as monumental as this one, standing on the shore of the Pacific Ocean in the cradle of American settlement and Catholicism, in Baltimore which took the name of the National Katyń Monument. It was unveiled on November 11, 2000. I remember this day well, and especially the chaplain of the Katyn families of Fr Zdzisław Peszkowski. present there is no Andrzej Pityński and chaplain of Volyn families unrepentant Fr Iskowicz-Zalski, But his worthy successor is the humble priest Fr. Antoni Moskal. I am talking about this ceremony in Baltimore a year ago, and I mention to the words of Andrzej Pityński, that Poland needs a national monument to the Volynian Reich, due to the fact that present we dear compatriots have truly unveiled the “National Monument to the Volynian Sculpture” and around it there will besides be a “National Memorial of the Victims of Genocide in the East Borders”. That's what we're going to call this monument and this place from present on.
There's another reason to call him that. The monument was erected only from the funds of SWAP, Polonia and a number of Polish patriots in the country who spared no penny for this purpose. Despite the efforts of the mayor Zbigniew Walczak, no government backing was obtained. It is not the Polish state, but we owe the Polish nation that it was here in Domastawa that the National Monument to the Volhynia Rzeszow.
An example of the fates of this monument clearly shows what elites ruling our country have in relation to the case of the “Rozez Wołyńska” which they callback on the occasion of 11 July at the next anniversary of “Krówa Sunday”. Andrzej Pityński said: “I am sorry to say this, but I think that in Poland, among politicians, there is simply a blood transfusion from Polish to Ukrainian. There is any unusual anesthesia, dementia and cowardice about Volyn massacre and paralyzing fear of Ukrainians, as well as lies, hypocrisy, lying, wanting to cover up and hide the most disgusting crimes of Ukrainian bandits from UPA on defenceless Polish children, women and old people, on 200 1000 Poles murdered in 1940-1947. This is any mean, political, false Ukrainian solidarity, at the expense of the historical fact of Volyn massacre. This crime Poles will never forget and will never forgive the Ukrainians.”
Another time, he said: “I despise politicians, bishops, pseudo-intellectualists, useful idiots, renegades who trade the blood of innocent Polish children dying in inhuman torture caused to them by psychopathic Ukrainian criminals. Even God won't forgive them! And to all those who want to hide Ukrainian crimes in the Polish Nation, I remind you that whoever hides crimes is besides a criminal.”
I think each of us remembers the conversation of the late Fr Isakowicz-Zaleski with the president of Poland Andrzej Duda at the Volyn monument in Warsaw, erstwhile the priest said, “I ask that the priest measurement in words”, and erstwhile our chaplain reminded us that we had been waiting for 30 years for burial, and the president did nothing about this during his word of office despite the promises made by Andrzej Duda on the way out said, “I propose that the priest effort another way.”
Dear fellow countrymen, the President's words: "I propose that you effort another way" addressed to the Volyn chaplain were besides addressed to us Poles who called on the fact about Volyn. They can be regarded as disrespectful and arrogant, but besides as words showing the weakness and helplessness of state authorities towards the origin of genocide in the Kresach.
One might besides ask ourselves, what another way do we have erstwhile the highest typical of our State is helpless and tells us to look for another way? How many years have we been fighting for the fact about Volyn for burials worthy of our fellow countrymen, organizing marches, conferences, meetings, all this reflects on the wall of the impotence of our country? This has late taken on a demeaning character, due to the fact that now we are to be "servants of the Ukrainian people" in which we worship the honors of our ancestors' murderers.
Andrzej Pityński left us a message: “Bander and his bandits from UPA were, are, and always will be, criminals of the Polish Nation, equal to Hitler and Stalin. What Ukraine is presently doing, glorifying UPA criminals, is unacceptable to the Nation of Poland and the World. The planet must know about their crimes." I will repeat the key words of Andrzej Pityński: “The planet must know about their crimes.”
A 100 years ago, Ignacy Jan Paderewski realized that only the United States can pull Poland out of the clutches of Germany and Russia and thus give Poland the chance to return to the map of Europe. That is why, utilizing his large popularity and excellent individual contacts with president Wilson, he led to the fact that Poland's independency played a key function in Wilson's triumph in the presidential election. It was united under Paderewski's leadership that nearly 4 million Polonia assured him re-election. president Wilson kept his word to Paderewski and Polonia. On 22 January 1917, in a message to the senate, he said: "The men of the state everywhere agree that there should be a united, independent and independent Poland" which opened the way for regaining Poland's independence.
Paderewski, erstwhile he left the United States in May 1939, said crucial words to the Polish people: “We worked together, we fought shoulder to shoulder and we prevailed, thanks to unanimous, concerted effort.” We besides present in the fight for the fact about Volyn, about genocide in Poles must unite the forces of Polonia and Matrix. We must stand shoulder to shoulder with a 10 million Polonia in the United States and start a joint fight for exhumations and worthy of burying all Polish victims of UN-UPA criminals who must be condemned and judged in accordance with global law for crimes of genocide with peculiar cruelty in the Polish people.
This is the another way that we should walk together with millions of Poles scattered around the world. Polonia in America has a peculiar function to play, due to the fact that it is there in the United States since the First planet War that major political decisions have been made towards Poland. I know how Polonia loves Poland. I am convinced that, if millions of Polish hearts outside the Ocean are now in the process of campaigning for the office of president of the United States to claim the victims of Volyn, the planet will surely learn about the genocide on the Polish nation by the OUN-UPA degenerates, and whose contemporary Ukraine worships as heroes.
Here from the monument of Andrzej Pityński I appeal to the American Polonia – stand with us in the fight for the memory of the victims of the genocide of Poles in the Kresach, in the fight for their exhumations and worthy burials, in the fight for the cessation of glorification of our ancestors' oppressors. I appeal to nearly 3,000 Polish organizations in America – compose lists to senators and members of the home of Representatives. I appeal to the legislature of the American Polish Federation of Polish Organizations – compose a petition to the legislature of the United States, in which unambiguously take a stand on the side of remembrance of Poles who were bestially murdered in the Borderlands.
I believe that, as you have always been on the side of the good of Poland, you will not neglect the Matrix, which is even threatened by the rebirth of flagism in Ukraine. Do not let us proceed to be humiliated, make us “ministers of the Ukrainian people”. Save Poland until it's besides late. The fact about the Volyn genocide is now our state. The failure of flagism and the glorification of our ancestors' murderers in Ukraine is simply a deadly threat to our nation.
Just as Andrzej Pityński courageously shouts with his monument, you loving country Poles in the United States shout out the fact about Volyn in Washington close the White House. Under this monument, we call to you fellow Americans with full assurance that you will not neglect the religion that your Homeland has in you, due to the fact that the blood of innocent mothers, fathers and children shed in the Borderlands cannot be forgotten. Without you, this fight for the fact about Volyn, we can't win. This Polish past card written in the blood of our countrymen cannot be forgotten.
“If I forget them, you, God in heaven, forget me” (Adam Mickiewicz)
Dr. Witold Zych
Speech on 14 July 2024 in Domastawa on the occasion of the dedication and unveiling of the monument of Andrzej Pityński's "Roża Wołyńska".
Poland, No. 31-32 (28.07-4.08.2024)
