On 1 March we observe the National Day of Remembrance of the Cursed Soldiers. On this day we remember in particular those who, with the end of the Second World War, did not end their service and did not lay down their arms, knowing that the power imposed by force by the Soviets required active resistance. The holiday was established by the Polish Parliament on 3 February 2011. The date is not coincidental, as on 1 March 1951, seven members of the 4th Main Board of the “Freedom and Independence” Association were murdered in the Mokotów prison in Warsaw.
The Cursed Soldiers were participants of the Polish post-war independence and anti-communist underground who, after the end of the Second World War, continued armed resistance, refusing to accept Poland’s subjugation to the Soviet Union. Among them were also aviators, and one of them, whom we particularly remember this year, is Lieutenant Władysław Śliwiński — a pilot of the Polish Air Forces in the West and a veteran of battles over Europe.
In 1947 Władysław Śliwiński decided to leave the military and return to Poland, which became an opportunity for Colonel Leon Bortnowski to contact him and propose the creation of an intelligence network for the government-in-exile in London. He arrived in the country in July 1947, together with his wife Myra Chadwick-Śliwińska, whom he had married a few months earlier. Less than a year later, on 4 June 1948, he was arrested in Warsaw and subjected to a brutal investigation, during which he confessed to cooperation with British intelligence. A total of 44 people were arrested in connection with this case, including Maj. Stanisław Skalski. His wife Myra was also imprisoned, sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment. She served her sentence at the prison in Bydgoszcz-Fordon.
The investigation was concluded on 20 July 1950 — Śliwiński was charged with organising an intelligence network and gathering information concerning the Polish Armed Forces, the Polish Workers’ Party, Security Office functionaries, industry and transport infrastructure. On 29 July 1950 the Military District Court in Warsaw sentenced him to death. The appeal was dismissed, and President Bolesław Bierut did not exercise his right of pardon.
The sentence was carried out on 15 February 1951 at the Mokotów prison in Warsaw. The burial place of Lt Śliwiński remains unknown. His remains have not been found to this day. He has been commemorated with a memorial plaque on the wall of the remand prison at ul. Rakowiecka 37 in Warsaw.
Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Władysław Śliwiński underwent aviation training, flying aircraft including the RWD-8. In September 1939, however, he fought as an infantry soldier. After escaping from captivity, via Lithuania and Sweden, he made his way to France and subsequently — after its capitulation — to Great Britain. From September 1942 he flew combat missions as a pilot of Fighter Squadrons 306, 302, 303 and 316, completing a total of over 170 combat sorties. He took part in covering Allied operations during the fighting in Normandy and in offensive operations over occupied Europe, involving the escort of bombing raids and engaging enemy targets.
On 6 September 1943 he shot down a Focke-Wulf Fw 190; this victory was counted as the 200th kill of No. 303 Squadron. On this occasion he was honoured with a gold watch, presented by the squadron commander, Jan Falkowski, during a ceremony attended by representatives of Polish, British and American aviation. After the end of combat operations he served as a transport pilot. For his valour he was decorated with, among others, the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari and twice with the Cross of Valour.
The Cursed Soldiers are the heroes of the Polish post-war independence and anti-communist resistance, most of them originating from the Home Army, WiN, NSZ and other underground organisations.
Among them were also people connected with aviation. At the Polish Aviation Museum we have for years cultivated their memory and presented the profiles of these individuals, including Wanda Modlibowska, Jerzy Iszkowski and Szczepan Ścibiór, about whom we wrote HERE on the occasion of last year’s National Day of Remembrance of the Cursed Soldiers.
We pay tribute to all the Cursed Soldiers, preserving their memory, guarding and passing on to future generations the values to which they remained faithful — courage, love of the homeland and the unwavering fight for an independent Republic of Poland.
