Virtuti Militari: A Polish Perspective on Russia and Germany

As a 36 years old man, I have not experienced the horrors of WWII myself, however, since my family comes from an area which was quite active in resisting the German occupation, I have a couple of stories to tell.

My father's family comes from a tiny village in Saint Cross Mountains; when I visited them during my summer holidays there were some 150 people living there. Once my grandmother, a widow, told us a story of a Virtuti Militari Cross (the highest military medal in Poland) which my grandfather used to have and how it was lost. At that time I was not able to understand why in 1945 she would want to hide the medal in a hole dug out somewhere in the field on hearing that the Soviet Army was nearing. Back in 1970's Soviet soldiers were announced to be our best friends and my grandfather must have got the medal for his bravery fighting agains Germans - so I thought. A bit later when I started putting everything together I would ask: Who gave him the medal if the war against the Germans was still on? No one told me he took part in the 1939 campaign!

As it turned out the medal was not for the 1939 events. My grandfather took part in a war which I was not aware of. Back in 1920, at the age of 20, he fought against the Red Army for which he was so highly honoured. Some historians rank the battle of Warsaw in August 1920 as one of the most important battles in mankind history. Unfortunatelly, I have no details as to what my granfather did to deserve it, but it must have been an act of ultimate bravery.

It was this story which made me think with more criticism about what you are told, what you see on TV or hear from your teachers. I had learned about the medal, but at the same became aware of the fact that the Russians were not friends of ours, I was made to understand why my grandmother was more afraid of the "liberators" and not of the occupants (who also made her life a misery).

The medal is lost, as my grandmother forgot where she hid it, but the story lives and reminds me that knowledge of universal history is necessary for an understanding of your family's history.

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