Polish war cemetery, photo BUDMEX Barcice, 2021
License: all rights reserved
Photo showing Polish war cemetery
Polish war cemetery, photo BUDMEX Barcice, 2023
License: all rights reserved
Photo showing Polish war cemetery
Polish war cemetery, photo BUDMEX Barcice, 2023
License: all rights reserved
Photo showing Polish war cemetery
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ID: WOJ-000594-W/135513 (KG-0003)

Polish war cemetery

ID: WOJ-000594-W/135513 (KG-0003)

Polish war cemetery

At the beginning of 1942, the redeployment of the Polish Armed Forces in the USSR (General Anders' Army) from the Soviet Russian Republic to the Central Asian Republics took place. At that time the 5th Infantry Division was placed in the Kyrgyz Republic, which was being formed there from January to September 1942.
In the town of Jalalabad the division's headquarters, a communications battalion, a guard company, a gendarmerie platoon, a rolling stock platoon, a women's company, a vehicle column, a conscription board, a 200-bed military hospital, a sanitary battalion, a field kitchen and a reconnaissance company, as well as a field court were located. Outside the city, regiments were deployed - the 13th and 14th in the village of Blagoveshchensk, the 15th - in the village of Suzak, an artillery regiment and an anti-aircraft squadron - in the village of Pachta-Kucha.
A war cemetery was established in Jalalabad, where nearly 100 soldiers who died mainly in the hospital created for the Polish army were buried. This cemetery was located on the edge of the city, opposite the Orthodox cemetery.
According to information from the Embassy of the Polish People's Republic in Moscow in 1971, it was by then completely devastated. No inscriptions survived on the approximately 60 graves with broken concrete crosses, but an obelisk with an emblem imprint and the inscription remained at the entrance: "V INFANTRY DIVISION - MILITARY CEMETERY". The Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites carried out a survey of the site in 2000. Information gathered at the time indicated that the Polish cemetery survived until the mid-1980s, when a power line was laid through it, largely destroying the burials, after which the area was cleared with bulldozers. Its exact location was determined by archival photography, and it was found that a residential house and outbuildings now stand there. In 2010, on the edge of the former necropolis, the OPWiM Council built a commemoration in the form of a small cemetery of 117 m2.
A central monument - a milepost topped by an eagle bas-relief - characteristic of all rebuilt cemeteries for General Anders soldiers, was placed there. The monument bears an inscription in Polish and Kyrgyz: "HERE REST THE POLES / 96 SOLDIERS / OF THE POLISH ARMY / GEN. WŁ. ANDERS / AND CIVILIANS / FORMER PRISONERS OF WAR / PRISONERS / OF SOVIET CAMPS / WHO DIED IN 1942 / ON THEIR WAY TO THEIR HOMELAND / HONOUR THEIR MEMORY". Along the approach to the memorial, rows of graves with a cross relief were planted on both sides - 4 graves in each row. The whole is surrounded by a fence with a gate, accessed by steps on the slope of the hill on which the cemetery is situated. There are 4 plaques on the fence with the names of the soldiers identified by the OPWiM Council staff. At the entrance to the cemetery, information plates with texts in Polish and Kazakh were fixed, which read: "POLISH / WAR CEMETERY / BUILT THROUGH THE EFFORTS OF THE COUNCIL / OF THE PROTECTION OF THE MEMORY OF FIGHTS / AND MARTYRDOM / IN WARSAW WITH FUNDS / OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND / 2010".
After the liquidation of the OPWiM Council, the care of the cemetery is financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The Ministry of Culture is also conducting research work to establish a census of civilians buried in cemeteries in Central Asia.

Publikacja:

13.09.2023
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Polish war cemetery Photo showing Polish war cemetery Gallery of the object +2
Polish war cemetery, photo BUDMEX Barcice, 2021
Polish war cemetery Photo showing Polish war cemetery Gallery of the object +2
Polish war cemetery, photo BUDMEX Barcice, 2023
Polish war cemetery Photo showing Polish war cemetery Gallery of the object +2
Polish war cemetery, photo BUDMEX Barcice, 2023

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