|
To save from
being forgotten
 The
first anniversary of the end of World War II was celebrated in Drelów with
an event, which became part of the region’s history. Feliksa Patkowska (wife
of Antoni), Józef Huk of Pereszczówka and Anna and Bronisław Karwaccy of
Łózki formed a Committee for the construction of a monument–memorial at
the Drelów cemetery. The committee also wanted to bring the symbolic ashes
of those that fought for the independence of Poland and were killed in
German prisons and concentration camps between 1939 and 1944.
Feliksa Patkowska and Anna Karwacka went to the Museum in Oświęcim (Auschwitz);
they brought an urn with the ashes of the dead. Jan Daniluk brought them in
his cart from the railway station in Międzyrzec Podlaski to Drelów.
 On
the boundary of the village, by the cemetery, a ceremony of “welcoming the
ashes” was conducted. Father Aleksander Kot with a procession,
representatives of the local authorities all took part in the ceremony, as
well as schoolchildren with their principal, Józef Olszański. After a few
words of welcome, he read out the roll of the dead. The gathered people wept.
The sirens sounded and the church bells rang as a sign of mourning. The urn
was brought into the church and placed in a small coffin on a catafalque.
Father Al. Kot celebrated mass and the ashes were taken to the cemetery,
where a funeral was conducted. Temporarily, the urn was laid in the Karwacki
family grave. In early September 1946, when the monument was already
finished, the urn was moved to its final place of rest.
Thus, the symbolic ashes of father Karol Wajszczuk were laid at the Drelów
cemetery, close to the people with whom he had once lived, worked and
suffered.
 On
the 4th of May 1997, a plaque in honour of father Karol
Wajszczuk, a priest and a martyr, was placed in the Drelów church, which
had been a silent witness of the martyrdom of the Uniates. This event was
part of the celebration of 500 years of Drelów. This shows that, in spite
of the fact that over fifty years that have passed, the parish folk still
remember and care for their parish priest.
 On
the 10th of November 1999, a memorial to the members of the POW
killed in the war was unveiled in Łózki near Drelów. The inscription
included the name of a long time chaplain of the POW, a martyr of Dachau –
father Karol Wajszczuk. The memorial was unveiled by the son of Marek Stańczuk
– Stanisław, the vice-president of the Polish Sejm – Franciszek
Stefaniuk, the head of the Bialski District - Tadeusz Łazowski and the head
of the Drelów Community – Adam Szulik. The Drelów parish priest, father
Roman Wiszniewski, consecrated the memorial. Soldiers of the military unit
no. 1861 in Bezwola also took part in the ceremony.
 The
story of the POW memorial in Łózki was begun in the pre-war period. At
that time, father Karol Leonard Wajszczuk, a chaplain of the POW and the
parish priest of Drelów, initiated the construction of a monument in the
memory of three members of the POW, who had been killed in 1918: Wacław
Wawdysz, Marek Stańczuk and Józef Zahajkiewicz. On the 8th of
November 1936, the memorial was unveiled with the participation of guests
and many schoolchildren. The Polish Military Organisation (POW) begun its
activity once again after the outbreak of the Second World War, this time
under the name of “Nasze Orły” (“Our Eagles”). The fate of this
organisation’s members was tragic. In 1940, father Karol Wajszczuk was
arrested, taken to the prison at the Lublin castle, then to the
concentration camp in Sachsenhausen and, finally, to Dachau, where he died a
martyr’s death in a gas chamber. The fate of the other members was similar.
The memorial was deconstructed by the Germans. In 1999, a committee for the
reconstruction of the POW memorial was formed. It was headed by Czesław Małoszuk
of Łózki. The reconstruction was finished in November 1999. The names of
Drelów parish priests, father Karol Wajszczuk and father Leon Gliszczyński,
were added to the original inscription from 1936 memorial.
|
)
)
)
)
)
