02.1945/After Liberation

Not a month has passed since Nazi Germany was expelled from Krakow when the Committee had its first meeting under the president Karol Rolle, a former senator of the Second Republic and a former President of Krakow. 1946 came, when the 200th anniversary of the birth of Kościuszko was celebrated. The year was even named as the Year of Kościuszko.

The new authorities in the People’s Republic of Poland were readily associating themselves with the memory of  Kościuszko. They used his democratic tendencies and the plan to grant land to the serfs in their demagogic propaganda, yet did not care at all about the Mound. Karol Rolle tried his best to take care of the Mound and later (since 1951) another president of the Committee, Karol Estreicher, a renowned art historian, continued his work.

The Mound defended itself with its ideological message and uncommon beauty. The Mound has been in the past and is still visited by the inhabitants of the city and by the many visitors to Krakow. Professor Estreicher considered himself to be a caretaker of a symbol of independence in a reality where that independence was seriously constrained. Unfortunately due to unresolved and unclear legal matters the Committee came under the wing of a long established (1897) Society of the Enthusiasts of the History and Monuments in Krakow.

In 1971 the Management of the Society has decided that the Committee became part of the well established society, though it retained most of its privileges. The Mound was however very damaged in the decades following the war.

In 1979 K. Estreicher managed to persuade the authorities to take a closer look at the state of the Mound. The following renovations and security measures made in the years 1980-1985 and continued later in the 90s by the Mine Construction company in Lublin and overseen by the geology technicians from the Krakow University of Science, unfortunately proved to be not  enough.