Verjuzhskoye Oziero was one of the many specposiolniki where Poles, deported by the NKVD during World War II from the territories occupied after 17.09.1939 by the USSR, were forcibly settled. At the beginning of 1941, more than 750 Poles were housed here. The deportees worked in inhuman conditions and died of exhaustion and disease.
The deceased were buried in the cemetery located near the specposiol, with a total of about 100 people buried here. After the necropolis had been forgotten and neglected for many years, the inhabitants of the Verjuzskoye Oziero settlement, with the support of an Orthodox clergyman, established a cross at the cemetery. A second cross was established on the initiative of the 'Kotlaska Polonia' and the vice-president of the city of Tarnów, Henryk Słomka-Naróżański. Its consecration took place on 1.03.2010 in the presence of the Polish Consul General Jarosław Drozd.

Compiled by T. Zachara / MKiDN, VI 2025

Teresa Zachara (MKiDN)