In his speech, Mateusz Szpytma talked about Polish blood spilled by German Nazi and Soviet communist regimes in the Vilnius region, recalled thousands of victims of the notorious execution sites in Ponary and Lukiškės Prison, and thanked the local Polish diaspora for tending to Polish graves and safeguarding the memory of the heroes.
Earlier yesterday, the IPN deputy head met with the Search and Identification team working to locate the burial places of Polish soldiers who perished in the region in the years 1914-1945, and honored all victims of the communist regime in Lithuania, laying flowers at a commemorative plaque installed on the walls of the former seat of Soviet KGB.
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Operation Gate of Dawn was a part of a much larger military plan called Operation Tempest - a series of planned uprisings against the retreating Germans. They would follow a simple pattern: the Home Army would help the Red Army defeat the Wehrmacht, and, as the official armed representative of the Polish Government-in-Exile, it would manifest its sovereignty and allegiance to their leaders, treating the entering Soviets as guests and allies in the war against Germany.
The fight against the Germans to capture Vilnius before the arrival of the Soviets troops was a tactical success for the Home Army, and yet a political failure for Poles loyal to the government in exile. 4,000 Home Army soldiers attacked the strong German garrison, and though heavily outnumbered, still managed to capture a significant part of the city and hold it until the Red Army arrived. After that, the Poles and the Soviets proceeded to liberate the remaining quarters together.
The city was captured on 13 July 1944, but the aftermath of the operation was tragic for the Polish troops: the Soviets forced them out of Vilnius, while their NKVd arrested many officers and rank and file. Col Aleksander Krzyżanowski, CO of the Vilnius District of the Home Army, was invited to a conference and abducted just like the leaders of Polish Underground State would be eight months later. Others were impressed into the Red Army or Berling’s Soviet-controlled Polish forces, and the lucky ones managed to hide in the nearby woods.