Pomniki Niepodległości w Toruniu – odzyskanej w 1920 i „rozstrzelanej” w 1939 roku. Refleksje historyczne z perspektywy stulecia: 1920-2020

Abstract

January 2020 marked the hundredth anniversary of Toruń’s return to Poland after more than 120 years of annexation. This extremely important event was commemorated in various forms around the city. In addition, care has been taken to commemorate events more widely related to the restoration of independence, the reconstruction of the state, or important military events. Apart from memorials in cemeteries, the most important role was played by monuments dedicated to important political figures who contributed to the reconstruction of the free state. The first monuments were created as early as the interwar period, but during the Second World War they were destroyed by the German occupants, and the post-war Communist authorities were for several decades not interested, in either rebuilding them or erecting new monuments that would refer to the memory of 1920. The article deals with the issue of permanent commemorations in Toruń dedicated mainly to four outstanding figures: the first Pomeranian Voivode Stefan Łaszewski (1864-1924), the Chief of State, Marshal Józef Piłsudski (1867-1935); General Józef Haller (1873-1960) and the last Pomeranian Voivode before the war, and later the President of the Republic of Poland in exile Władysław Raczkiewicz (1885-1947). In addition, attention was drawn to two monuments dedicated to the events and at the same time to groups of figures: a monument to the soldiers of so called balloon troops killed in the war with the Bolsheviks in 1920 and a monument to several hundred victims of German crimes in 1939 in the Barbarka Forest, where many meritorious Poles died in 1920.