”So that good will be stronger than evil on Polish soil and result in victory. That is what I pray for”, said John Paul II in Krakow during his second pilgrimage to Poland in 1983. These words became an inspiration for the Pontificate’s Center for Documentation and Research in Rome to create an exhibition commemorating the 20th anniversary of the August demonstrations.
The photos presented in the exhibition document the pacifist demonstrations “Fighting Solidarity” which took place in Wroclaw and Lublin in 1982.
They come from the Center’s own collection and were given as a gift to the Pope during a visit to his oppressed homeland in 1983. The historical context of this exhibition is the demonstrations which were a response to the tensions between the then political authorities and the opposition. Most of the demonstrations took place in August 1982 but were actually preceded by numerous protests in various Polish cities. The idea was to have peaceful manifestations with the slogan “the restoration of the Solidarity Trade Union and the national agreement, and the release of internees, both arrested and convicted”.
The state authorities, in response to the mass demonstrations, deployed the full force of the Interior Ministry and also the army. The largest demonstrations took place in Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Nowa Huta in Cracow, and in Upper Silesia and the Copper Basin: tens of thousands of people took part in these demonstrations. Many people also demonstrated in Szczecin, Krakow, Czestochowa, Lubin, Koszalin, Bielsko-Biala, Konin, Bydgoszcz, Przemysl, Elblag, Gorzów and Lodz. As a result of the police’s heavy handed approach, six people were killed and hundreds more suffered various injuries. A further five thousand demonstrators were detained.
The exhibition documents the events in two cities. The first is Lubin, Lower Silesia, where the manifestation ended in the most tragic circumstances. As a result of the use of firearms by riot police units, three people were killed. The second city documented is Wroclaw. The photographs in the exhibition show the riots in action, and the acts of aggression by riot troops in dispersing the demonstrations and breaking up of the barricades using tear gas. They show the strength of military mobilization and the variety of equipment and vehicles used against the pacifist demonstrations.
Among the forty plus boards and their accompanying photographs, there are also texts from the publication “Fighting Solidarity”. There is, for example, a sermon by Father Miroslaw Drzewiecki delivered in January 1981 at the Cathedral of Wroclaw, and also selected writings by the then “Solidarity” Interim Coordinating Committee.
The exhibition will be held in June, July and August at the Polish Home on Via Cassia 1200 in Rome.
S. Julia Knurek and Fr. Andrzej Dobrzyński