On this day, forty-four years ago, precisely at midnight on December 13, 1981, Poland crossed a dark and painful threshold of its postwar history. Under the command of General Wojciech Jaruzelski — then the chief political officer of the Polish People’s Army and former Minister of National Defense — a military junta imposed martial law on the country and its citizens.

In the silence of the night, without public debate or consent, tanks rolled into the streets, telephones were cut off, borders were sealed, and thousands of people were arrested or interned. Civil liberties were suspended overnight. Fear replaced dialogue, and force took the place of trust. What was presented as an act of “national salvation” became, for millions of Poles, a moment of deep trauma, broken lives, and interrupted hopes.

Martial law was not only a political decision; it was a profound rupture in the everyday lives of ordinary people — workers, students, artists, priests, families. It left scars that endure to this day, reminding us how fragile freedom can be, and how costly its loss truly is.