A gala concert celebrating Ryszard Kaczorowski’s 90th birthday, Poland’s last president-in-exile, will be held tonight at Warsaw’s Grand Theater.

Organised by the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression, the event will be attended by state officials. The main highlight of the evening is a concert dedicated to the former president performed by the Representative Artistic Ensemble of the Polish Army.

A special service marking the occasion, conducted by Field Bishop Major-General Tadeusz Płoski, has taken place at the Field Cathedral of the Polish Army earlier today.

Ryszard Kaczorowski was born on 26 November 1919 in Białystok, eastern Poland. Member of the so-called Grey Ranks, the underground Polish Scouting Association, during World War II, he later became one of the main activists of the Polish émigré community in Great Britain. Kaczorowski served as president in exile between 1989 and 1990, as a member of the London-based government in exile, which was established at the onset of World War II and remained in operation until the end of communism in Poland. Kaczorowski stepped down with the election of Lech Wałęsa for president in 1990.

Currently a member of the Council for the Protection of Remembrance of Struggle and Martyrdom, Ryszard Kaczorowski has recently declined to sign a vetting statement, denying any collaboration with communist secret services, a procedure required from all state officials. (ab)

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