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In service of the Polish Underground State
107 years ago, on 6 August, 1914, from the the Oleandry district of Cracow, the First Cadre Company, under command of Józef Piłsudski, marched out. It was the core of the Polish Legions, which, after regaining independence in 1918, became the basis for the formation of the Polish Army. On this occasion, two objects related to remembrance of this event are presented by us. This firs one is a postcard from 1939, which refers to the 25th anniversary of the departure the First Cadre Company. It features a commemorative motif and a reproduction of photographs from 1915 depicting officers of the First Infantry Regiment of the Polish Legions, including, among others, the future Marshal Józef Piłsudski, and the Chief Commander of the Polish Armed Forces, Edward Rydz-Śmigły. A commemorative graphic with the signatures of prisoners of Oflag II D Gross Born also refers to the anniversary. It features the motif of the commemorative badge of the Association of Polish Legionnaires - the Cross of the Legion. The graphic was created in the prisoner-of-war camp on the 30th anniversary of the set out. It bears the signature of the Lieutenant Stefan Korycki, who joined the Polish Legions on August 31, 1914, and was interned in camps in Austria-Hungary in 1918.
On this occasion, you are heartily invited to see the temporary exhibition Żołnierze Legionów i Polskiej Organizacji Wojskowej w służbie Polskiego Państwa Podziemnego i Armii Krajowej [Soldiers of the Polish Legions and the Polish Military Organization in the service of the Polish Underground State and the Home Army], which has been borrowed by us from the Home Army Museum in Kraków. The exhibition presents biographies of people, know more or less, who were connected with the Polish Legions and the Polish Military Organization, and who, in the years of the Second World War, were engaged in the structures of the Polish Underground State. We would like to remind you that the exhibition is presented in Opole in two parts – in Jan Paweł II’s Square (the first part), and in the courtyard of the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War in Opole (the second part).
The exhibition Żołnierze Legionów i Polskiej Organizacji Wojskowej w służbie Polskiego Państwa Podziemnego i Armii Krajowej will be presented until 28 September.
