STYCZEŃ 1945 – RADOŚĆ I TRAGEDIA NA TERENIE GMINY SZADEK

Szadek was liberated from German occupation on 20 January 1945 by the soldiers of 33 Army of the Belorussian Front and 9 Armoured Guard Corps. However, the advent of Red Army soldiers in Szadek commune had tragic consequences for some of the inhabitants. In the village of Kotlinki, 5 km west of Szadek, they killed seven people. After the end of the war, in the socialist period, according to the official propaganda it was the retreating Wermacht troops that were guilty of this tragedy. All the killed persons, except S. Kaczmarek and one of the Soviet soldiers, were buried in a collective grave at St Lawrence cemetery in Szadek.