- July 10, 2012
- 362
To commemorate with a deed, not a banquet or a speech
On the 6th of July, that is the day before operation “Gate of Dawn”, patriotic youths from Vilnius in cooperation with combatants, renewed six graves of the polish Home Army in Pavilnys.
The operation called Gate of Dawn was carried out from the 7th to the 13th of July 1944 by the Home Army. Its purpose was to relieve Vilnius from the fascists’ hands before the arrival of the Red Army. The polish army incurred great casualties and were not able to retake the town however soon, the Red Army arrived and defeating the defendants it relieved Vilnius, making it a part of the Socialist Lithuanian Republic once again.
Combatants joined the group and together with the youths carried out the job.
The initiator of this action was Władysław Klonowski, the leader of the Patriotic Youths association, which has been set up a few months ago and although it is still a new organisation, it has in its records a few similar actions. The young people involved in the action bought all the materials that were needed, for their own funds.
Although the gravestones were not badly cracked or beaten-up, they needed a lot of work on them. There was so much moss on them that the titles on them were not readable and the old paint looked like some toxic growth. After some time, the group of young people was joined by three combatants who together with the youths worked on the graves. The members of the group tired after the 5-hour job, returned to their Vilnius but most importantly Polish families. This is how they commemorated the memory of the people that defended our freedom – with a deed, not a political banquet or a speech full of big words.
Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2012/07/10/nie-bankietem-czy-slowem-lecz-czynem-uczcic-2/
Tłumaczenie Kamil Szwarc w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Kamil Szwarc within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.
