Allegedly sited where it is to obscure the view of the Cathedral from Stary Rynek, this controversial bronze statue was unveiled in front of a crowd of 100,000 people on September 5, 1969, almost 30 years to the day after the so-called Bloody Sunday of September 3, 1939, when the German army organised a mass action of terror against the Polish population of the city. At almost eight metres high, Franciszek Masiak's extraordinary work represents a group of people about to be executed, relating to themurder of 40 Poles on this very spot during September 9 and 10, 1939.
This group was but a tiny percentage of the thousands killed during the Nazi occupation of Bydgoszcz. In the following months, the Nazis would concentrate their executions in a more-concealed area known as The Valley Of Death.
Public execution of Polish hostages in German-occupied Bydgoszcz. 8th or 9th September 1939.
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