Pamięć Tobruku

Abstract

The celebrations of the last year’s anniversary of the Tobruk battle evoke numerous reflections. One of them is a departure from the familiar scheme: fight – soldiers – heroism, by presentation of commemoration in many spheres of social life. It is also showing how, for propaganda, human memory was used to commemorate this fortress situated on Lybian sands. Military banners and phaleristic monuments, such as badges and awards, belonged to objects of commemoration. Stamps also fulfilled an important role. They were issued during and after the war. In order to present heroism of the soldiers serving in the Polish Armed Forces in the West, medals and coins were minted both at home and abroad. However, the most conspicuous commemoration is in the field of literature, where numerous famous names appear, e.g.: Kazimierz Wierzyński, Władysław Broniewski, Antoni Słonimski, Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński, Marian Hemar. We also have soldier songs sung both in the Polish Armed Forces in the West and in the occupied country. Soldier war cemeteries constitute the last and the most tragic element of the “Tobruk’s memory”.