DEAR FRIEND FROM THE PLAYGROUND – DEAR RYSIU THE DREAMER: - You dreamed of a Poland free, democratic, strong. As the son of a soldier in the Underground Resistance, the Home Army, you brought from your family a will to fight, to learn, to help the persecuted. You brought help to your Jewish friends, playmates from your childhood, you took part in the activities of the Home Army to the extent your age and capabilities allowed.

Because you dreamed of a Poland free, democratic and strong, you put on a soldier’s uniform, and despite the illegal government of the Communists, and a rule enforced by Soviet bayonets, you deepened your military skills.

DEAR COLONEL RICHARD, THE REALIST – In your position of Strategic Planning for the Warsaw Pact, you discovered the perfidious game of the Communists, the plans for conquest of Europe, of the world, by use of nuclear weapons - plans which threatened the total destruction of Poland. You undertook cooperation with the military and intelligence of the United States, the country which has stood and continues to stand in defense of freedom and democracy of all nations, including Poland.

God has sent many sufferings on you. But He gave you the fortune to achieve in your lifetime results which benefit all of us living in the second half of the twentieth century.

You were fortunate that the loving hands of your wife Hanka took care of you until the end of your days. You ended your life in the United States among always faithful friends. But we will take you to Poland, to your beloved Warsaw. You will rest in the garden of heroes, among your predecessors in fights for Polish freedom, the heroes of nineteenth-century insurrections, of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920, of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 – among the heroes of the bombed and burned city, its soldiers and citizens murdered by the enemies of our nation with the complicity of the Kremlin.

 And now and here I must say a few words in Richard’s and my native language:

Niech Hetmanka Zolnierza Polskiego, Matka Boska Krolowa Korony Polskiej wstawi sie za Toba przed Panem narodow – przed Panem bogatym w milosierdzie. Spij spokojnie – Do zobaczenia.

(May the Patron of Polish Soldiers, Our Lady Queen of Poland, intercede on your behalf to the Lord of all nations, to the Lord of infinite mercy. May you rest in peace – Until we meet again.)

 Translation: Thaddeus Mirecki