A commemorative plaque was unveiled for the young man shot on the “Black Thursday” of Poznan

Romek Strzalkowski’s commemorative plaque was placed next to Péter Mansfeld’s, the youngest victim of the 1956 Revolution and War of Independence, on the wall of Mansfeld’s school in Medve Street. The 13-year-old Polish student was shot to death by the armed forces at the protest of “Black Thursday” in Poznan on 28th June 1956. The plaque was put up by the Office of the Parliament of Hungary and the Committee of National Remembrance.

“Remembering Romek Strzalkowski and Péter Mansfeld gives us strength never to give up the fight for our freedom and us, Hungarians and the Polish never to let each other down” – said László Kövér, Speaker of the Parliament. He emphasized that the freedom fights link the two nations together, as the workers’ protest of June was the opening of the 1956 Revolution in Hungary. He also mentioned that “our history is an abundance of examples when the two nations stood up for each other and helped each other” since the Middle Ages till today, when thousands of Polish people expressed their solidarity with the Hungarian nation on 15th March. The thousand-year-long Polish-Hungarian friendship is such a power that we have to resort to when solving our everyday problems – said the Speaker, adding that the fights of 1956 demonstrate: freedom has its price.

The speaker of the Polish Sejm, Marek Tadeusz Kuchcinski emphasized that the events that happened six decades ago also illustrate universal values, that freedom and everything linked to it is valuable. He added that Soviet occupants forced a system on our countries that performed such deeds and he referred to the two schoolboys as symbols of brotherhood.

From the initiation of the memorial exhibition János Tischler, director of the Hungarian Institute for Culture in Warsaw was a partner to NEB, as well as the Museum of the Poznan June 1956 Events that also helped the Committee of National Remembrance in preparing the memorial plaque.

The unveiling of the plaque was proceeded by an unconventional history lesson, given by Bence Csatári, academic research fellow of NEB to students of Csík Ferenc Primary School and Secondary Grammar School.