The squat obelisk-totem is surmounted by a heavy horizontal form, which gives it a cross-like shape. On this cross-shaped, wavy mass is carved in relief the outline of a map of France, into which in turn is inscribed the outline of a Polish eagle. A bilingual inscription, "To the Poles in token of gratitude - the Nord-Pas de Calais region", is also carved into the body of the monument.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the beginnings of Polish emigration in the north of France, so strongly marked in the history of this industrial region, its authorities founded a thankful monument. It was intended to symbolise French-Polish friendship and the contribution of Poles to the development of the departments of the Pas-de-Calais region, as well as their shared wartime suffering. It also became an opportunity to manifest the political cooperation of the local authorities with the Polish People's Republic authorities, whose representatives took part in the inauguration ceremony (as did an orchestra of miners from Katowice). At the same time, several Polish concerts and exhibitions were held in Lille, and the headquarters of the Polish consulate was opened.

The sandstone from which the monument was made came from the Table Mountains. The form of the sculpture - a distinctive sign with ambiguous metaphors, but focused on associations readable mainly to Poles - together with the expressive treatment of the texture of the stone (incised in many places), and the dismemberment of the seemingly wounded matter, are reminiscent of the well-known martyrological monuments in Poland in the 1960s and early 1970s. Earlier, the Warsaw-based sculptor - but born in France as the son of an émigré - Antoni Ślęzak used similar poetics in a monument to Polish soldiers of the Second Division of Rifle Infantry at the cemetery in Winterthur. On the occasion of the unveiling of the monument in Lille, a monographic exhibition was organised by Slezak, today an almost completely forgotten sculptor and medallist.

In 1979, Stanisław Srocki of the Association des Combattants Polonais et de leur Familles added a crowned eagle to the monument. Today, the monument is in poor condition, the sandstone is heavily weathered, the outlines of the original relief forms and the inscriptions are difficult to find.