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85. rocznica zbrodni katyńskiej, uroczystości w Bydgoszczy, fot. Tomasz Czachorowski/eventphoto.com.pl dla UMWKP

Katyn Massacre – we remember! (Photos)

On Friday (11 April), Toruń’s 85th anniversary of the Katyń massacre was attended by Marshal Piotr Całbecki. The president of the regional parliament, Elżbieta Piniewska, paid tribute to the victims of Katyń in Inowrocław on Sunday (13 April). The regional government was represented by Vice-Marshal Zbigniew Ostrowski at the Katyń Victims’ Remembrance Day celebrations in Bydgoszcz (13 April).

 

– Thanks to the Katyń families nurturing the memory of the murdered, today we can remember those who gave their lives for their homeland 85 years ago. May we never have to experience a similar trauma as a nation,’ said Marshal Piotr Całbecki, speaking during the ceremony at the square on 4 June 1989.

 

Under the memorial oaks growing there, earth brought by foresters from cemeteries in Katyn, Mednoye, Kharkiv, Bykivnia and Kuropaty was scattered.

 

– The truth about this crime, which was covered up during the communist era, was only commemorated with dignity in free Poland. Its guardians were the families of the murdered. That is why every year I bow my head before you, dear members of the Katyn families. We owe you respect for the fact that for many years in solitude and oblivion you had to live through the pain of the loss of your husbands, fathers and grandfathers – said Vice-Marshal Zbigniew Ostrowski at the Katyń Cross in Bydgoszcz.

 

In the spring of 1940, on Stalin’s orders, executions of Polish officers imprisoned in the POW camp at Kozielsk began in the Katyn Forest. NKVD soldiers deprived a total of 22,000 Polish Army officers, soldiers of the Border Protection Corps, police officers, clerks, teachers, scientists, lawyers, social activists and clergy imprisoned in various places in the USSR of their lives. The mass graves in the Katyń Forest were discovered by the Germans in the spring of 1943. The USSR authorities did not admit to this crime until 1990.

 

13 April is the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Katyń Massacre established by the Sejm.

 

Beata Krzemińska

Spokesperson of the Marshal’s Office

 

10 April 2025

Last updated: 14 April 2025