By Wigry National Park
Text: Maciej Ambrosiewicz, Paulina Pajer-Giełażys; Photos: Paulina Pajer-Giełażys, Jarosław Borejszo
View of the Krzyzanska bay of Lake Wigry (2018)Wigry National Park
Czerwony Krzyz
The village of Czerwony Krzyz is located by the picturesque shore of lake Wigry, in Wigry National Park.
The village gives its name to the Krzyzanska Bay of Lake Wigry.
Witness to history
Trees growing in the area were silent witnesses of tragic events. In the village, that used to be here, there is a 150-year old pine tree with a shrine. According to local people, a Russian parachutist was buried under this pine.
Pine tree with a shrine (2021)Wigry National Park
She was most likely part of a group of ‘Jasmin’ scouts dropped by parachute in the summer of 1944. The soldier was killed by her comrades as she tried to get through the front line, running through the destroyed village of Czerwony Folwark.
According to an account from the locals, who buried this paratrooper, she was fatally shot by a Soviet soldier when she said something to him in German.
Monument in the village of Czerwony Krzyz (2018)Wigry National Park
Although we can see some modern buildings here, the historic village that was located here was completely destroyed during the Second World War.
The buildings were burnt down and the inhabitants' possessions looted. The village ceased to exist. There is a sculptural installation commemorating the destroyed village and its inhabitants.
Identification card of national heritage place (2016)Wigry National Park
Despite the passing years, the memory of the Soviet parachutist has survived. Someone took care to mark the site with a shrine above the tree in autumn 1944, after the front had passed. In 1944 this pine tree was not as grand as it is today.
The shrine originally had a sheet metal roof from a German gas mask container. In 2009, the damaged roof was replaced with new sheet metal. The tree with the shrine is an official national memorial.
Near the pine there is an old, overgrown Soviet trench, and, several metres further along, a German trench. In the turbulent times of World Wars I and II, the forest around lake Wigry was often used by local people as a place of refuge.
During both World Wars, forests were used as a hiding place for partisans, as well as for the civilian population. There are even stories about the trees saving people’s lives, when tree branches stopped falling bombs during air-raids.
Dugout in the forest (2021)Wigry National Park
Trees growing in one place for many years very often become symbols of memory, connecting contemporary people with the past.
Maciej Ambrosiewicz, Jarosław Borejszo, Paulina Pajer-Giełażys
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