This year marks 75 years since the 1945 Warsaw relief flights which took place towards the end of the Second World War.
To honour this occasion, the Warsaw Flights Commemoration Ceremony was held at the Katyn Memorial in James and Ethel Gray Park, Melrose.
Giving the background to the historic event, secretary of the Warsaw Flights Commemoration Organising Committee, Jean Urry said the flights were carried out by allied forces to bring relief to Warsaw (capital of Poland) which was under siege by the Nazis during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.
“After the German invasion of Tobruk, some 500 Polish soldiers ended up at Baragwanath, a military hospital near Johannesburg, and at the end of the war these soldiers were allowed to staym,” recounted Urry.
“Some aircrew and a group of Polish orphans were also invited to make South Africa their home. In 1945, 50 of the soldiers who had remained in SA met with members of the South African Air Force and they remembered the Warsaw flights.”
Speaking at the ceremony, Pastor Robin Petersen said such commemoration was a call towards reconciliation. Petersen said, “War is brutal and cruel. It involves brutality and death. Our remembrance should not be naive or romanticise the pain of the events. May our commemoration of the past today help us to bind our wounds and live in harmony.”
The defence attaché of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, Colonel Dariusz Siekiera extended his gratitude to all who supported the commemoration annually as well as to the families of those who were part of the Warsaw flights and supplied the fighting men and women with food and medical supplies so many years ago.
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