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On Wednesday, 19 June, the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda bestowed the Virtus et Fraternitas (Virtue and Brotherhood) medals for the first time. Among the laureates is a Hungarian general from the time of World War II, Lóránd Utassy de Újlak.

The Virtus et Fraternitas medal was established with an Act of 9 November 2017. It is awarded by the President of the Republic of Poland to persons who provided aid and assistance to Poles and Polish citizens of other ethnicities who were victims of totalitarian regimes. The first medal award ceremony took place on 19 June 2019.

Among those awarded (also posthumously) were members of the so-called Bern Group, Ukrainians who helped Poles during the Volhynia Massacre and a Kazakh citizen.

During the war, a Hungarian general Lóránd Utassy de Újlak was appointed head of the internment camps, where thousands of Polish prisoners of war found themselves after the September defeat. The general strongly denied the German Gestapo entry into the camps and actively helped the Poles who arrived in Hungary during World War II.

M.B 

Source: PAP, Niezależna.pl