Unknown soldier
March 19th, 2023
The forest is firmly on the verge. There is still very little apparent green, no new leaves or buds but the feeling is unmistakable — the spring is here and will burst up in the open any minute. If you blink, you might miss it — so I walked around with my eyes wide open, ready to be surprised at any moment. I was also alert for another reason — for me, this is a completely unknown forest. It was the first time I was walking around it and I had to be careful to keep along my chosen path and to be on the lookout for any danger. There was none but there was a secret I discovered— usually hidden from view by greenery and expanding foliage in summer months, or by snow in winter — a tomb of an unknown soldier deep within the woods near Lipina, in north-east Poland.
The markings on the cross simply say — “RIP unknown soldier 1939 1945”. Sometime during the Second World War, a soldier died there. When exactly that happened — was it regular army action or just a random skirmish? That is unknown. Was he an attacker or a defender? That is unknown. Was he chasing other soldiers or was he being chased? That is unknown. Was he Polish, German, or Russian? That is unknown. Why was he left there by other soldiers, without any identification? That is unknown. Did anybody cry over his death? That is unknown. Did anybody even remember his name after he died brought to this spot by winds of war? That is unknown.
What is known though — local people found the body and buried him there. There had to be a wooden cross there for a while, marking the spot, or a succession of crosses over the years. Then somebody went to the trouble to place a granite cross and make a clear outline of the tomb in stone to give it a proper look and gravitas. The flowers placed there are plastic but quite new — somebody placed them there no more than six months ago by my reckoning. So what is clearly known is that local people know this spot and generation after generation care for the final resting place of somebody from an unknown region and unknown name and unknown history that led him to die on that spot. What is known is that the dignity of a fallen soldier was kept and preserved over the last 80 years. And the flowers, with still bright colors after the winter tell me that the remembrance continues and will continue for a while still.
On a very personal level — that gives me hope in the underlining decency of us humans and makes me feel quite warm at heart. It was a good walk in the woods and an uplifting experience.
