About programme

Liberation Route of the Polish 1st Armoured Division

FRANCE – BELGIUM – HOLLAND
THE PROGRAMME WILL CONSIST OF FOLLOWING PROJECTS:
  • publishing (Michelin type) historical-tourist guide in Polish and English showing towns and villages liberated by the Polish First Armoured Division Division (with monuments and other memory places. Also full touristic info on those town as of today – with places of interest, local attractions, hotels etc);
  • sophisticated edge of technology mobile application of that guide;
  • installing the exhibition  of some towns liberated by Maczek (in Royal Gardens Lazienki in Warsaw or in the Plac Europejski and other Polish cities); historical and nowadays pictures;
  • organizing massive influx of tourist from Poland to the towns laying on the route of the 1. Armoured Division, similar to the Battlefield Groups from Canada and UK with culmination in the form of large convention of youths, scouts etc. on the 2nd weekend of September 2018 on the vast grounds of Adegem Museum (www.canadamuseum.be) and to be repeated every year since then;
  • motor / bike rallies organized on large and local scale;
  • screening TV reportages about those towns and about Poles who have been rooted to them after the WWII to be shown on the Polish TV.  

„Liberation Route 1st Armoured Division of gen. Maczek” programme realized by the President Ryszard Kaczorowski Foundation encompasses several tightly connected projects, ideally and geographically situated on the route Aromanches – Chambois/Falaise – Adegem – Breda – Oberlangen – Wilhelmshaven.

I envision that each project will be realized in close collaboration with Polish, French, Belgian and Dutch business and dyplomatic representatives, and with those Polonia and local organizations in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, who link their activity to the heritage of the 1st Armoured Division.

My aim is to make this route, covered by 100 towns liberated by soldiers of gen. Maczek, a prime example of a tourist route of a historical-patriotic profile, to make it an obligatory pilgrimage route for the Poles living in Poland and abroad, which every Pole who respects oneself as well as his or her homeland– should at least once in a lifetime – complete.

The commander of 1st Armoured Division  – general Stanisław Maczek – has as a result of this program to take in the consciousness of Poles and other countries, a long-deserved place of a national hero, an example of a Polish patriot and noble knight, who is always ready to fight both for “our and your freedom”.

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The main centres which I want to work with are: Museum in Mont Ormel, Maczek Museum in Breda, Canadian-Polish Museum in Adegem, Polish dyplomatic representatives in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, and Polish, Polonic and local organizations and institutions, to which the subject of Maczek and his Division are close to heart.  

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„Liberation Route of gen. Maczek 1st Armoured Division” programme

The opening of the prepared since 2016 long-standing program took place on the 6th of September 2017 in the Polish-Canadian Museum in Adegem, in the presence of inter alia minister Anna Anders – the Honorary Program Patron, and vice ambassador in Brussels, Mrs Joanna Doberszyc-Toulsaly.

Their participation in the program has already been declared by: Ambassador of Belgium Colette Taquet, representative of Flandria Yves Wantens, Ambassador of Poland Artur Orzechowski, the owner of the Polish-Canadian Museum Gilbert Landschoot, the President of the Association of the 1st Armoured Division in Belgium Dirk Verbeke, Director of the Central Military Library Jan Tarczyński, president of the Capital Association of the 1st Armoured Division Janusz Gołuchowski, director of TVP Polonia Filip Frąckowiak, director of Royal Warsaw Łazienki Park Antoni Sobczak and many others.

The final aim of the program is to create the legend of general Maczek, as a soldier who in the consciousness of Poles and other nations deserves a place of a national hero, noble knight-patriot, undefeated leader, fighting for „our and your freedom”, but ready to die only for Poland.

The legend will be born through realizations of linked thematically and timely projects, such as:

  • creating a tourist route of a historic-patriotic profile – on the route of over 100 towns and villages liberated by gen. Maczek’s soldiers,
  • organizing between 7 and 9 September 2018 in Adegem the 1st International Jamboree of General Maczek, commemorating the liberation campaign of the 1st Armoured Division
  • organization of trips in Battlefield Groups style, to the towns on the Liberation Route, as well as commemorative rallies on anniversary days
  • issuing a printed Michelin type tourist-historical guide, presenting liberated towns, with information on monuments and other memorial sites and today’s attractions and interesting facts regarding these towns and villages.
  • creating a mobile application, a guide, which would simplify reaching the chosen towns on the Liberation Route
  • Web page, as a quick reference about the victorious campaign of the 1st Armoured Division in 1944-45 
  • Organizing photo exhibitions presenting the victorious campaign 1944-45, in open localizations of capitals/biggest cities of Poland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands (Royal Łazienki Park, The Royal Park in Brussels etc.)
  • Fan Club of gen. Maczek and the 1st Armoured Division
  • Creating a series of podcasts showing Stanisław Maczek in most important life moments, before landing of the division on the European continent: – during fights for independence; – during the Polish-Russian war; – during the September campaign; – on a campaign in France; – during the creation of a great armoured division in Great Britain
  • Publications documenting fortunes of Poles-soldiers, who after the war settled in the countries liberated by the 1st Armoured Division, as well as present activity of combatant, Polonia and mixed organizations
  • Reports and information packages in TV, radio and Internet
  • Documentaries
  • Comics
  • Feature film
  • TV series
  • Computer game

 

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The program is under Honorary Patronage of daughter of gen. Anders, Mrs Anna Maria Anders, senator and minister, Plenipotentiary of Government for International Dialogue.

Executive Committee:

Jerzy Samborski – author and program leader 

Gilbert van Landschoot – founder and owner of Polish-Canadian Museum in Adegem, Belgium

Barbara Keil-Skrobiszewska – UNICORN

Dr Jan Tarczyński – Central Military Library

Filip Frąckowiak – vice director of TVP Polonia

Przemysław Omieczyński – President of the Independence Foundation