The IPN delegation with Deputy President Karol Polejowski, International Relations Office Director Agnieszka Jędrzak and Office for Commemorating the Struggle and Martyrdom Head Adam Siwek laid flowers at a memorial plaque at Porta di Strada Maggiore in Bologna, and at Gen. Władysław Anders’ bust in a city park named after him.
The key event of the day was a remembrance roll call in the Polish military cemetery in Bologna.
The largest Polish military burial ground on Italian soil is located in the district of San Lazzaro di Savena, once a separate town close to the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region.
Resting here are 1,432 Polish soldiers who fell in combat during operations in Emilian Apennines and the Lombardy Campaign. 14 other graves date from the post-war years. The vast majority of the soldiers buried there served in the Polish 2nd Corps under Gen. Anders, but the cemetery is also the place of rest of 12 Polish airmen serving in the 663 Polish Air Observation Post Squadron and No. 318 Polish Fighter-Reconnaissance Squadron. Both units provided air support for the 2nd Corps.
You are greeted by a sculpture of an eagle above the cemetery gate, and then you see rows of white crosses, each with a name, sometimes an alias, sometimes just a date. Of the 1,432 graves, eighteen remain unmarked. The necropolis also features bas-reliefs with Polish national symbols, but its centerpiece is a gloriette with a small room underneath, which serves as a prayer area.
The necropolis was designed by Lt. Zygmunt Majerski with the sculptural work made by Michał Paszyn. The soldiers of the 10th Engineer Battalion, helped by local people, carried out the construction work, and the consecration took place in October 1946.
Veterans of the Polish 2nd Corps, local authorities and representatives of Polish state institutions with the IPN Deputy President Karol Polejowski, having attended a Mass for the fallen and a remembrance roll call, laid wreaths on the graves Polish heroes killed liberating Bolonia eighty years ago.
More about the "Trails of Hope. The Odyssey of Freedom" project here:
https://szlakinadziei.ipn.gov.pl/sne
