The modest and small-scale monument, the work of Bolesław Bałzukiewicz, commemorates the heroic attitude and death of a 16-year-old boy, a student at a crafts school, Mieczysław Dordzik. The event took place in the late afternoon of 23 April 1931. At that time, a flood wave swept through Vilnius, flooding the neighbourhood along the rivers Neris and Vilnia. Particularly dangerous was the rise of water in the Neris, a capricious, rushing river flowing close to the poor buildings of Užupis and Poplav.

The heroic stand of Mieczysław Dordzik

A group of onlookers and people from already flooded houses watched with trepidation as masses of swollen water swept down the Vilenka. Suddenly, 4-year-old Chackiel Charmac, who lived on nearby Popławska Street, fell into the river. Mieczysław Dordzik, a pupil living in the boarding school on Zarzecz, jumped to the rescue. He managed to catch little Chacyl, but as he swam to shore, he hit his head on the wall and lost consciousness. The water took Dordzik's body, which was never found again. Soldiers, on the other hand, fished out Chacyl Charmac, but despite resuscitation efforts, he could not be saved.

The deaths of Mieczysław Dordzik and Chacyl Charmac reverberated throughout the city. An honour committee was quickly formed to commemorate the boy's heroism. Boleslaw Balzukiewicz, professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Stefan Batory University and author of several sculptural works important to Vilnius, such as the statue of Elektra on the building of the City Power Plant and the statue of Jozef Montwiłł, was asked to design the monument. To commemorate the heroic deed, Balzukiewicz has created a work that is modest and small in size, but very meaningful. The main element of the composition is a slab of black polished granite, inserted between two columns of light, rough granite. The upper part of the slab features a bas-relief of Our Lady of the Dawn Gate, with an inscription underneath informing about the circumstances of Mieczysław Dordzik's death. In the context of the tense atmosphere in Vilnius at the time and the repeated acts of aggression towards Jews, the second sentence was significant: "This deed of a child of Vilnius born out of Christian love of neighbour was commemorated by the people of Vilnius with this monument". At the bottom of the plaque, under the sign of the cross, a passage from St Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians was engraved: "I seek not what is profitable for me, but what is great for me". The monument was unveiled on the third anniversary of Mieczysław Dordzik's tragic death - 23rd April 1934. One of the organisers of the ceremony, Michał Obiezierski, made a beautiful speech at the time: 'We can be proud indeed that Vilnius gave birth to him, but this makes it all the more incumbent upon us to ensure that his heroic sacrifice is not lost for the future, but that it bears rich fruit, especially here among us. (...) In entrusting this monument to the care of the city that radiates the idea of the Jagiellonian confraternity to the whole of Poland, (...) I wish that in the midst of the general unleashing of today's nationalism and great factionalism that leads to hatred in relations between people and nations, the deed of our young hero would be a bright torch lighting the only true path, and that he would also be a symbol of that Love that alone gives immortality to our deeds".