Mass grave from 1920

cemetery 1920 Rzeczki-Wólki

Address
Rzeczki-Wólki

Location
woj. mazowieckie, pow. ciechanowski, gm. Ciechanów

The mass grave of soldiers fighting in the 1920 war is a material proof of the Polish armed struggle for independence and at the same time a significant element of the cultural landscape.

History

On 19 August 1920 the Rzeczki-Wólki village, situated by the road between Gołotczyzna and Ciechanów (approx. 10 km from Ciechanów), was a place where a battle between the Polish unit from the 201 Voluntary Infantry Regiment of the Polish Army and a unit of Cossacks of the Red Army under the command of “Kawkor” Gaj took place. 10 Polish soldiers died in the battle. The mass grave of the soldiers (their commander, Second Lieutenant Tadeusz Wrześniewski, was buried in a separate grave, located several hundred metres to the north), with a sandstone monument crowned with a sculpture of the Sorrowful Christ was arranged in the place of their burial. The bodies of soldiers (most likely all of them) were exhumed and transferred to other graves.

Description

A mass grave on an elongated rectangle floor plan, adjacent with its shorter side to the road (on its south-west side), is fenced with a decorative metal fence mounted on a concrete foundation. In its central part, flanked by two birches, there is a sandstone pillar shrine crowned with a sculpture of the Sorrowful Christ, located in a lantern pierced by four openings (one per each side), covered with a tented roof topped with a metal crucifix. The following inscriptions are placed on the post - base of the lantern of the shrine on three sides: from the south-east - “the late Lieutenant Tadeusz Wrześniewski/Wincenty Goldlewski/from Łódź/Józef Mańkowski/Czesław Prażmowski/Jerzy Szper/Stefan Łoziński/Wiktor Kwiecień/Henryk Gutowski/and two soldiers whose names remain unknown”; from the north-east “To defenders of the Motherland,/Volunteers of the 20th Infantry Regime,/who after toil and hardships,/bloody fights/and pushing the enemy away/on 19 August 1920/here, in this land/found temporary peace./Let us offer our Memory/Love/and Blessing” (on the post) and “...and if there is an open path/to heavens - it is for those/who serve their motherland./Jan Kochanowski/ (on the plinth); from the north-west - “No one shows stronger love/than the one/who gave his life/for his compatriots./St John XV.”

Photo gallery 1/

Rzeczki - Wólki, mass grave – view from the north-west, condition as of 2013, fot. Alicja Suchecka

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Rzeczki - Wólki, mass grave – view from the north, condition as of 2013, fot. Alicja Suchecka

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Rzeczki - Wólki, mass grave – view from the south-east, condition as of 2013, fot. Alicja Suchecka

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Rzeczki - Wólki, mass grave – view from the north-east, condition as of 2013, fot. Alicja Suchecka

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Rzeczki - Wólki, mass grave – sculpture of the Sorrowful Christ on the north side, condition as of 2013, fot. Alicja Suchecka

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