On September 17, Poland commemorates the 85th anniversary of the Soviet aggression. This day is also the World Siberian Day. On this occasion, the Museum of the Memory of Siberia in Bialystok organized official celebrations in memory of the dramatic events of 1939.
The Mayor of Bialystok, Tadeusz Truskolaski, shared his own family and local oral history about September 17th, 1939. “My father remembered these events thoroughly, since he was 17 years old. I had to hide from the Soviets. Quite a few people were arrested. And different things happened. They escaped from the transport. Those people who came back told about everything. I have had such lectures on the history of profit. Then it was impossible to tell such a story. But people shared their memories anyway,” Truskolaski said.
The importance of the memory of September 17, 1939 and further Soviet repressions with the removal of the inhabitants of Podlasie was emphasized by Podlasie voivode Jacek Brzozowski. “I can’t imagine not thinking about it. After all, this is the history of our region. We also build modern consciousness taking into account the past. And past events should teach us which actions should be valued in life, and which ones should be treated critically and negatively,” Brzozowski said.
To honor the victims of the Soviet aggression against Poland, an alarm siren sounded today at various times throughout the Podlaskie voivodeship. In Bialystok itself, a special excursion trail dedicated to Seweryn Nowakowski, the last pre-war mayor of Bialystok, killed by Soviets, has also opened.
