In northern Romania, in the village of Berbeşti (Hungarian : Bardfalva) and the town of Syhot Marmaroski (Romanian: Sighetu Marmației, Hungarian: Máramarossziget) , there are commemorations of the battles of the Polish Legions of 1914 and 1918 .

Commemorations of the battles of Polish legionaries in the Marmaraş region

Six legionaries were killed in a skirmish with Tsarist Cossacks near Berbeşti. A stately 'troiță ' in the form of a Carpathian wooden chapel was erected on their grave in 2013 . It was founded by Dr Laurenţiu Batin, a Romanian historian from the village .

In Syhot Marmara , on the wall of the inner courtyard of the Memorial Museum for Victims of Communism and Resistance "Memorialul" ( a heavy prison during the communist period), a plaque was hung in 2014 in memory of the legionaries from the Second Brigade of the Polish Legions imprisoned there , interned following their unsuccessful attempt to break through the front line at Rarańcza on 15/16 February 1918. The plaque was hung through the efforts of the Association "Res Carpathica", with funding from this organisation and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.

Both commemorations recall the turbulent course of affairs in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century and, in a way, tie together the epic of the Polish Legions of 1914-1918 on the road to Polish independence after the years of partition.

Berbeşti 1914

The Russian army entered Galicia in August 1914 and , after occupying Lviv, headed towards the Carpathian passes to enter the territory of what was then Hungary . As a result of the inadequate manning of the Carpathian line, three divisions of Cuban Cossacks managed to cross it and capture a significant area on the southern side of the mountains, including the Marmara Syhot. The Austro-Hungarian command decided to assemble a force as soon as possible to contain the Cossack army in the Hungarian lowlands. To this end, the Second and Third Legion regiments, freshly formed in Kraków and Mszana Dolna, were directed.

Through Košice and Chust, the legionaries reached the endangered region of Marmarosh - the towns of Baia Mare (Hungarian: Nagybánya) and Baia Sprie (Hungarian: Felsőbánya) - in the first days of October. They continued their journey towards Berbeşti on a strenuous march. On the spot, on 6 October, near the bridge over the Mara River, a clash ensued between the resting legionnaires and a surprise advance of 25-30 mounted Cossacks. A disorderly firefight of only ten minutes in the darkness ended with the retreat of the enemy spearhead. Six legionaries were killed in the battle - possibly also from their own friendly fire. The fallen - Private Jan Bajorek, Private Józef Bajorek, Sergeant Zygmunt Karol Łagiewski and three unknown by name - were buried in a common grave at the edge of the village, near the Orthodox church. There was no time to dig individual graves, nor were there coffins, so the great-grandmother of the monument's founder, Maria Ardelean, brought sheets to line the grave and cover the bodies of the fallen. The funeral, with a religious setting, took place on 7 October 1914.

More than 100 years of the grave in Berbeşti

The grave of the Polish legionaries remained forgotten for years, marked only by an old, broken wooden cross. It was only just before the centenary of the death of the Polish soldiers that a magnificent gravestone monument was erected. It is an example not only of the magnificent Marmarovian woodcarving, but also of the grateful memory of the locals towards those who defended their land.

The base of the cross serves at the same time as an inscription board, on which a text in Romanian and Polish has been carved: "TO THE MEMORY OF THE POLISH SOLDIERS IN OUR VILLAGE DURING WORLD WAR I, AS WELL AS ALL THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THE UNITY OF THE ROMANIAN PEOPLE". A cast-iron border post rescued from the pre-war Polish-Romanian border was placed next to the monument so that, as the founder of the monument reasoned, "the buried Polish soldiers would feel closer to their homeland".

On the centenary of these historic events, on 10 October 2014, Dr Laurenţiu Batin organised a solemn anniversary ceremony at the Legionnaires' monument in Berbeşti with the participation of the Polish ambassador in Bucharest, local authorities, local historians and museologists and guests from Poland.

Rarańcza 1918

The peace treaty between the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and their allies and the Ukrainian People's Republic was signed on 9 February 1918 in Brest . One of its provisions was the detachment of Chelmszczyzna and part of Podlasie from the Kingdom of Poland and the inclusion of these territories within the borders of the newly established (in 1917) Ukrainian state. In an act of protest, units of the Polish Positional Corps (the Second Brigade of the Polish Legions, commanded by Colonel Jozef Haller) attempted to break through the front line from Bukovina (Austro-Hungary) to Bessarabia (Russia) on 15/16 February 1918. This was because the Legion units had declared obedience to the Austro-Hungarian command and intended to merge with the Polish units in Russia, thus manifesting the unity of the Polish formations.

For some units, the attempt proved unsuccessful. Some 1,500 legionaries crossed the front line, while approx. 3,000 soldiers found themselves encircled by Austro-Hungarian troops. They were arrested and transported to a number of internment camps in what was then the Marmara County - in the Marmaros Syhot (Marmaros-Sziget , the name of this town became established in Polish historical writing) and other towns (now in the Ukrainian Transcarpathia).

Conditions in the camps were harsh and the internees were presented to the local population as rebels murdering Hungarians. Accused of collective conspiracy, mutiny, murder and desertion, the internees awaited judicial investigation and trial, which began on 8 June 1918 in the prison building in Syhota Marmaroski. The death penalty was demanded for more than a hundred legionaries, life imprisonment or long-term imprisonment for the others. The lengthy court proceedings, accompanied by impassioned defence speeches (the legionaries were defended by prominent representatives of the Galician Polish bar) and the Austrian government's advocacy of abolition, came to an end on 2 October 1918. The indictment was withdrawn and the court resolved to end the trial. After a few weeks, the final disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy took place, and on 11 November 1918. The Great War came to an end.

Commemorating the legionaries on the centenary of their trial

Exactly on the centenary of the start of the trial of the Legionaries, a ceremony organised by the institution and the Academia Civică Foundation of Bucharest, which looks after it, took place at the Memorialul Museum on 8 June 2018. The commemoration was held under the patronage of the Polish ambassador to Romania. It was attended by representatives of the local authorities and the historical community, and, on the Polish side, by the Bucharest Military Atashat and the 'Res Carpathica' Association. The culmination of the celebrations was the unveiling of a commemorative plaque on the wall of the Memorialul Museum courtyard, assisted by soldiers of the Polish Army, founded on the initiative of the Res Carpathica Association with the financial support of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.