Prohászka László: Polish Monuments - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2001)

Bust of Jozef Wysocki

bicske / Isaszeg / Vác / Nagysalló / Komárom / Buda / Szőreg / Temesvár. “We fought with you, not as mercenaries, not from personal selfish interest”— these were some of the words the Polish general spoke in farewell to his Hungarian comrades at Orsova.

Besides generals Bern, Dembiriski and Wysocki, thousands of other Polish officers and soldiers left the country in August of 1849, for fear of the foreseeable retaliation on the part of the Austrian authorities. But not everyone had the chance to flee. Mieczyslaw Woroniecki (1825-49) was taken captive in the battle of Szőreg on 5 August 5 1849. The young Polish nobleman had organised a regiment of volunteer rifles in Pest in August 1848 and had taken part in the battles in the south of the country as its commander. For a brief period he commanded the Szeged national horse- guards, then, from January 1849, organised a Polish regiment in Máramarossziget, then went to Transylvania in February. After the fall, an imperial court- martial sentenced him to death and he was executed on 20 October 1849. His remains were first buried in an unmarked grave, but they were later transferred to the Kerepes cemetery. The young people of Budapest paid him the final tribute in 1877, by erecting a black Mauthausen granite obelisk on his grave.

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