Monday, May 30, 2011

In honor of Memorial Day 2011: St. Adalbert Cemetery's World War I monument in Niles, IL

Polish-American World War I monument,
St. Adalbert Cemetery, Niles, IL
This is my final post of my Memorial Day 2011 series.

Polish-Americans are among the most patriotic people I know. Perhaps because they lost their nation in the late 18th century. They won back their independence in 1918, only to suffer terribly at the hands of the Nazis two decades later. During the Cold War Poland was a client state under the thumb of the Soviet Union.

When I was a kid, it was said that there were more Poles living in Chicago than in Warsaw. There is still a strong Polish presence in the city as well as in the suburbs. Niles is just north of Chicago and that's where St. Adalbert Cemetery lies. The Archdiocese of Chicago consecrated it in 1872 to serve the city's Poles and in terms of burials, it's the largest within the archdiocese.

Pictured above is St. Adalbert's monument to Polish-Americans who fought in World War I. Like the Battell Park bandshell I wrote about yesterday, it was dedicated in 1928. I imagine there were a flurry of memorials and monuments marking the 10 year anniversary of the end of the Great War built that year.

St. Adalbert's Katyn Memorial,
April 11, 2010
But the best known memorial in St. Adalbert's is the Katyn monument near the entrance to the cemetery. In 1940, over 20,000 Poles, many of them military officers and policemen, were massacred by Stalin's secret police in the Katyn Forest in western Russia. Last year the wounds of the atrocity were re-opened when Polish President Lech Kaczyński, along with many leading military and political figures were killed in a plane crash in Smolensk, Russia. They were on their way to attend a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre.

Poland is now a close ally of America. Which is at it should be.

Have an enjoyable Memorial Day--and remember, freedom is not free.

Related posts:

In honor of Memorial Day 2011: San Francisco's Union Square
In honor of Memorial Day 2011: Ronald Reagan Park in Tampico, Illinois
In honor of Memorial Day 2011: General John A. Logan
In honor of Memorial Day 2011: Mishawaka, Indiana's Civil War monument and bandshell
Photos: Chicago area shrine to Kaczynski and Seweryn
In Niles, Illinois: Gravestone of the last surviving veteran of the Indian Wars
Last World War I combatant dies in Australia
Two Russian army World War I pics
Belleau Wood monument on December 7
Belleau Wood: "Retreat, hell! We just got here!"


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