Monument to the Remembrance of the Victims of 1939
This new memorial site is located in the landscape of the Ursynów district. The monument was unveiled on July 6, 2022, in the Natolin Forest area to commemorate 15 Poles executed by the Germans during World War II on November 13, 1939. The following individuals lost their lives in the execution: Rafał Marceli Blüth, Wiktor Gawda, Leon Głowiński, Majer Knecht, Franciszek Kruszewski, Wacław Łoskot, Stanisław Maliszewski, Jan Maziarz, Jan Mich, Stanisław Nowotczyński, Walenty Post, Janusz Stadnicki, Aleksander Walasek, Zdzisław Zabiełło, and Władysław Zaufal.
Roundups and public executions were a daily occurrence in occupied Warsaw. They aimed, on the one hand, at revenge on the disobedient and, on the other hand, as a warning to others not to dare.
Although Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński survived the war, he experienced the cruelty of World War II. On the first day of the war, Bishop Michał Kozal ordered him to flee from Włocławek, because the clergyman was on the Gestapo's wanted list. At any moment, he could have been arrested and murdered. During his stay in Lubelszczyzna (northeastern part of the Małopolskie Voivodeship), he ministered in the Zamoyski estate, heard confessions of fighting soldiers, and provided shelter to Jews at risk of death. During the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, he served as a chaplain at the institute for the blind in Laski (village near Warsaw) and the chaplain of the Home Army "Kampinos" Regiment. Every day, he witnessed the suffering and death at the local insurgent hospital, assisting in the surgeries of wounded soldiers. He also heard the sounds of bombs and machine gun fire. Shortly after the war, upon his return to Włocławek, he learned that many of his fellow priests had perished in concentration camps.