This 10 September Poland will celebrate the first annual National Day of Polish Children of War after a bill establishing the new public holiday was passed by parliament last week and signed into law by President Andrzej Duda.
According to the new law, the holiday will be observed “in tribute to the Polish children of war, who, despite the trauma they experienced as a result of the hecatomb of World War II, the criminal actions of the German and Soviet occupiers, were able to lift our common homeland from the ashes and as a proof of respect and gratitude for their effort.”
Despite 10 September becoming a public holiday, it will not signify a day off from work or school in Poland.
Senat przyjął bez poprawek ustawę o ustanowieniu Narodowego Dnia Polskich Dzieci Wojny.
🟢Za: 89
🔴Przeciw: 5
⚪️Wstrzymało się: 3Nowe święto będzie obchodzone 10 września. Ustanowiono je, aby oddać hołd dzieciom zamordowanym i skrzywdzonym przez okupantów podczas II wojny…
— Senat RP 🇵🇱 (@PolskiSenat) July 28, 2023
“Children became the most defenseless victims of the dehumanised goals of war criminals,” reads a statement from the president’s office, justifying the establishment of a holiday honouring child victims of the war.
“The intention of the occupiers was the biological destruction of the Polish nation, its enslavement and deprivation of autonomy and freedom. For this purpose, various methods of cruelty were used, in particular against children.”
The holiday is an initiative of MPs from the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. After being adopted by the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, on 11 July, the bill was passed by the Senate last Friday.
Local officials, clergy and school pupils in Kielce have commemorated the 80th anniversary of a massacre in which the German Nazi occupiers murdered 45 Jewish children who had survived the liquidation of the city's ghetto https://t.co/4uLBfGimFM
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 24, 2023
Duda’s office also highlighted the large personal losses suffered by Poland during the war, describing how “under the German occupation, about 6 million Polish people died, including about 3 million citizens of Jewish ethnicity and about 3 million of Polish ethnicity.”
“2.2 million children died then, including one million Jewish children. Several hundred thousand were physically and psychologically harmed by the German occupiers, and almost 1.6 million children were orphaned,” the statement continued.
Earlier this week, commemorations took place around Poland as Tuesday marked the 79th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising against German occupation, the largest military operation by any European resistance movement in World War II.
Today marks the 79th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising against German occupation, the largest military operation by any European resistance movement in WWII.
Sylwester Braun, a member of the resistance, documented the dramatic and tragic events on film https://t.co/OprNr0Y0vX
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 1, 2023
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Anna Hackett is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a recent graduate of European Studies from Trinity College Dublin and has had previous journalistic experience with the Irish Independent News & Media group.
