"Europe, you owe your freedom to a Polish soldier, you must never forget about it"

Europe, you owe your freedom to a Polish soldier, you must never forget about it 

— said Jan Józef Kasprzyk, the head of the Office for War Veterans and Repressed Persons, at the Polish Honorary Military Cemetery in Oosterhout in the Netherlands.

In Oosterhout near Breda, two-day ceremonies commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Breda from German occupation by the 1st Polish Armoured Division of General Stanislaw Maczek took place. General Maczek and his soldiers were commemorated with a Roll Call of the Fallen Soldiers and three honorary salutes. Flowers and candles were laid on the graves of Polish veterans. The national anthems of Poland and Holland were also played during the ceremony.

The ceremony was attended by, among others, the last living „maczkowcy” from Poland and abroad, the head of the Office for War Veterans and Repressed Persons Jan Józef Kasprzyk, the ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the Netherlands Marcin Czepelak, professor Andrzej Maczek, son of General Maczek, representatives of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and Polish women liberated on 12 April 1945 from the camp in Oberlangen (in north-western Germany, Lower Saxony) by the members of the armoured division of General Maczek. The fallen soldiers were also paid homage by the students of the schools of General Maczek, scouts and residents of the Netherlands.

Tłum. K.J.