Hans van Baalen’s personal message for the community of General Sosabowski Polish School in Brunssum

On 16 September General Sosabowski Polish school located in Brunssum, the Netherlands commemorated General Sosabowski, 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade, the liberation of Driel by General Sosabowski and the Market Garden operation.

Director of school Ms Bożena Cichy prepared special history lessons for all the groups of the Polish school in which she talked about the role of general Sosabowski and his brigade in the history of Poland and the Netherlands. General Sosabowski is the patron of the school. During the lessons Ms Cichy showed also the film prepared by the National Institute of Remembrance entitled ”Unconquered” whose official preview was the day before in Poland. (link to the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q88AkN1hNYM)

Major General Sosabowski was the founder and commander of the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade who fought bravely in September 1944 in Arnhem and liberated Driel. Unfortunately Sosabowski despite his bravery became a scapegoat and was blamed for the failure of the Battle of Arnhem by among others the British general and Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery. After World War II General Sosabowski could not return to Poland, which was occupied by the Soviet Union. He had no retirement fund, so he was forced to work in a factory till his 75^th birthday.

General Sosabowski received posthumously the highest Dutch award, the Bronze Lion thanks to three prominent Dutch politicians Hans van Baalen (VVD), Frans Timmermans (PvdA) and Mat Herben (The Pim Fortuyn List ) who initiated the process in 2004 in the Dutch parliament. ( Read more here: https://www.communications-unlimited.nl/poland-will-always-be-poland-because-of-its-determination-to-be-free/ )

Hans van Baalen and Frans Timmermans on December 13 2006 were awarded by the Polish President Lech Kaczynski the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for their involvement in honouring General Sosabowski and his brigade and supporting the EU membership of Poland.

Hans van Baalen, former Member of Dutch Parliament, leader of the VVD party (The People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy) in the European Parliament and President of the European ALDE party, personally reacted to our action initiated by a 10 year old Alexia who discovered ridicoulus mistakes in her school book: De Wijzer door de Wereld. ( Guide through the World) ( read more here: https://www.communications-unlimited.nl/hans-van-baalen-honours-again-polish-liberators-of-the-netherlands-thank-you/ and here: https://www.communications-unlimited.nl/i-am-shocked-i-am-shocked-because-you-teach-kids-in-the-netherlands-lies/ ) and this time again honours Polish liberators.

This is his personal message to the community of General Sosabowski Polish School in Brunssum:

‘’With pleasure, I salute kids, teachers and parents! Our Polish liberators should always be remembered and may never be forgotten. If we want to learn from the Second World War, we must keep the names and personal stories of our liberators in mind! Yours, Hans van Baalen MEP, Chairman of VVD in the European Parliament’’

The reportage about this subject will be broadcast on Friday, September 22 by Polish Public TV, channel TVP Polonia, at 22.20.

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