On Saturday 24th September, during a ceremony at the parish cemetery in Oświęcim, a gravestone plaque was unveiled on the grave of Silent Unseen Major Piotr Szewczyk, with information that he was also an aspirant (warrant officer) in the National Police before the war.
After a mass at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a column with an orchestra, flagbearers, the police honour guard company and guests marched down Dąbrowskiego Street to the cemetery.
Lech Zużałek, nephew of Major Piotr Szewczyk, briefly presented the extraordinary pre-war, wartime and post-war fate of the Babice-born hero.
“The figure of Major Piotr Szewczyk is connected with the land of Oświęcim, although his merits for independence and social freedom reach far beyond our homeland,” he stressed.
The decorations, which were displayed by police officers at the grave of the Silent Unseen from Babice, were loaned by the Remembrance Museum of Land of Oświęcim Residents. The museum’s collection from 2020 also includes documents and personal effects belonging to Major Piotr Szewczyk.
https://www.muzeumpamieci.pl/pamiatki-po-majorze-piotrze-szewczyku-w-muzeum-pamieci/
A year later, a banner from the former Major Piotr Szewczyk Municipal Gymnasium No. 1 in Rajsko was donated to the museum.
Memorabilia of the major and the school’s banner can be seen in a permanent exhibition at the Remembrance Museum at 2A Kolbego Street in Oświęcim. The museum was represented at Saturday’s ceremonies by director Dorota Mleczko.
“The ceremonies were organized by the Provincial Police Headquarters in Krakow, the Oświęcim Police District Headquarters in cooperation with the Police Headquarters, as well as representatives of the historical reconstruction group of the State Police Post in Oświęcim, who initiated the placement of the gravestone plaque”, said Oświęcim police spokeswoman asp. cpl. Malgorzata Jurecka.
