Who are you? I don’t know. Where is your home? I don’t know. Who are your parents? I don’t know, and I don’t want to know, and I am not going to know until the Judgement Day. Your greatness lies in the fact that you are unknown.
Rev. Prelate Antoni Szlagowski, 2 November 1925
In that shared, brotherly grave, he lost his name, he lost his family; all that was personal fell away from him; from the grave he was reborn, from the grave – as if from Mother Earth – he emerged unknown, forgotten, nameless […]
What on earth are you, grey soldier, forgotten and nameless?
You are the nation’s eternal military genius; you shall be called Valour; you are the inexhaustible, invincible power of national ideals; you shall be called Self-Sacrifice. You are the all-conquering independence of the national spirit; you shall be called Freedom.
Your name is Million, for within you millions have placed their love and their suffering. Your name is Million, and your name is Forty-Four; your life is the toil of all toils, glory, glory, glory.
An Idea
The first proposal to commemorate unknown soldiers who had fallen in battle came from France shortly after the end of the First World War. This is hardly surprising, given that France, second only to Russia, suffered the greatest losses during the Great War. On 28 January 1921, beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the coffin containing the remains of an unknown French soldier was laid to rest in a specially prepared tomb.
The idea was warmly received not only in France but also abroad. In January 1922, the Tomb in Paris was awarded the Estonian Order of the Cross of Liberty, First Category, First Class, while the unknown soldier buried there was posthumously decorated with Poland’s Virtuti Militari, Fifth Class. It is therefore no surprise that the idea born in Paris soon spread to other countries.
On Polish Soil
The first initiatives to create a monument honouring fallen soldiers whose identities were unknown emerged in Warsaw as early as 1921. However, despite the passing months and years, no proposal proved sufficiently satisfactory, and the project was further delayed by a lack of funding. A breakthrough came on 2 December 1924, when an anonymous donor placed a stone plaque in Saski Square, engraved with a white cross and the words: “To the Unknown Soldier, who fell for the Fatherland.” In 1929, it was revealed that the plaque had been funded by the Union of Polish Associations of the Republic. The appearance of the plaque spurred the Provisional Organising Committee for the Construction of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier, established in November 1923, into taking more decisive action. It was agreed that Saski Square, where the plaque had been placed, was the appropriate site for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In January 1925, the Council of Ministers decided that the monument would be located beneath the colonnade of the Saxon Palace, following a proposal by General Władysław Sikorski, then Minister of Military Affairs.
Months of Preparation
Design and construction work soon began and continued over the following months. The most important task, however, was to select the remains of a fallen soldier to be laid to rest in the tomb. A list of 15 battlefields was compiled. Fourteen were sites of battles fought between Polish and Soviet forces during the Polish–Soviet War, while the 15th, the Battlefield of Lviv, had witnessed fierce and bloody fighting between Polish and Ukrainian forces. In a public draw, the choice fell on Lviv. It was decided that the unknown soldier’s remains would be exhumed from the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lviv. The exhumation began on 25 October 1925. During the initial excavation, three coffins were uncovered, containing the remains of two civilians and one Austrian soldier. The search therefore had to continue. In the next three coffins lay the remains of a corporal, a sergeant, and a volunteer soldier, identified by the maciejówka cap he was wearing, but bearing no insignia of rank. Jadwiga Zarugiewicz, the mother of a Polish soldier who had fallen at Zadwórze, was asked to choose one of the three. Standing before the closed coffins, she pointed to the volunteer wearing the maciejówka. Examination of the remains revealed that he was a young man, approximately 14 years of age.
In Warsaw
On 30 October, the funeral procession bearing the coffin of the Unknown Soldier departed from Lviv. The procession was conducted with great solemnity, both in the city itself and throughout the 22-hour railway journey that carried the remains of the Polish hero to the capital. The ceremonial interment in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier took place on 2 November 1925.
Early that morning, the coffin was taken in procession from the railway station to St John’s Archcathedral. There, a funeral service was celebrated by Cardinal Aleksander Kakowski, while the homily was delivered by Rev. Prelate Antoni Szlagowski. Following the service, the coffin was transported to Saski Square and placed beside the tomb. At precisely 1:00 p.m., the remains of the Unknown Soldier were laid to rest in the Tomb. Placed in the grave alongside him were 14 urns containing soil collected from the remaining 14 battlefields, a silver presidential wreath, a funeral pall bearing the image of the White Eagle, and a foundation document bearing the following inscription:
The Nation and the Government of the Most Serene Republic of Poland, headed by its President, Stanisław Wojciechowski, in the presence of representatives of the legislative chambers, the clergy of all denominations, the armed forces, state and local authorities, social organisations, and vast crowds of citizens, have laid to rest in the tomb erected in Saski Square in the capital city of Warsaw the remains of a Polish soldier, exhumed from the battlefield of Lviv chosen by lot, who fell for his Fatherland. In doing so, they pay a common tribute to the thousands of heroes who, throughout 130 years of struggle for freedom, fell on the field of glory in the cause of the nation.
The ceremony was accompanied by the ringing of church bells. One minute later, however, silence fell across Warsaw. It was then broken by a salute of 24 artillery rounds.
Later Years
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier remains one of the most important sites of national remembrance in Poland. It is here that most state ceremonies, attended by the country’s highest-ranking officials, are held. The Second World War, however, brought grave danger to this place. In 1944, following the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, the German forces began the systematic destruction of Warsaw. One of their targets was the Saxon Palace, which was blown up on 28 December. The palace colonnade, however, survived the explosion. Demolition resumed the following day, but despite this, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier’s memorial slab remained intact. In the decades that followed, both the colonnade and the tomb were restored and modernised, while additional commemorative plaques listing the sites of battles fought by Polish soldiers were installed. More than a century after its establishment, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier remains one of Poland’s best-known places of national remembrance, recognised by almost every Pole.
Piotr Bosko
Translated by Małgorzata Giełzakowska